International Police Cooperation on Countering Transnational Terrorism

Abstract

Since the inception of modern police organizations, the police have been on the front lines of counter terrorism operations. The changing concept of terrorism into a more transnational nature has driven police organizations to devise new means to counter this challenge. International police cooperation on countering transnational terrorism is the product of this evolution. There have been several initiatives to build a competent and effective international police cooperation organization to fight against transnational terrorism, and new ones are steadily proposed by different stakeholders in the international arena. Without understanding what makes an international police cooperation organization effective in countering transnational terrorism, these initiatives will only yield to further duplication of efforts, waste of resources, and a steep decrease in the overall performance of those organizations. This project analyzes four international police cooperation organizations using the level of structural relations within the organization and geographic proximity as the independent variables. The cases are evaluated based on the performance of these organizations in achieving three organizational functions information exchange, ad hoc assistance and capacity building, and policy coordination and contracting.