Prequel to the present - multilateral clubs and the secret history of international counterterrorism cooperation in Western Europe, 1969-1989

Abstract

"Counterterrorism cooperation" is a trending concept in today's global security discourse. However, systematic international cooperation against transnational "terrorist threats" started almost half a century ago. This pioneering study provides an account of the historical origins and emergence of the current system of international counterterrorism cooperation in Western Europe during the 1970s and the 1980s. Based on some recently published case studies as well as a considerable number of newly declassified U.S. and UK government documents, which are analyzed here for the first time, the article gives an overview over the informal and secret institutions that formed an increasingly complex system of multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation. The author argues that the emerging multilateral counter-terrorism cooperation of the 1970s/1980s led to increased horizontal intelligence sharing – internationally between Western intelligence services and domestically between intelligence and police services – and constituted a first step to the European integration of "internal security".