Western Europe National Security
National Security is an issue of concern for many European governments. Whether it is protecting their nations from international terrorism or domestic terrorism. Many European governments have developed ways to combat these forms of terrorism. Some countries have sent troops to the Middle East to combat foreign terrorism. At the same time, others have adopted counter-terrorism measures to combat domestic terrorism. Understanding and exploring these various issues and tactics used to resolve them is important.
How can the US and Europe combat international conflict?
International conflict has been a major roadblock towards the goal of peace across nations. Western Europe has been a part of multiple wars through the course of history and two World Wars which changed the aspect of how we view war as of today. As of recent Western Europe has decreased conflicts over domination of other countries and rather goes to war over regions on the map and resources. Following the September Eleventh attacks many Western European countries joined the United States of America’s war on terror and allied in their efforts to nation-build in the Middle East. Many European countries cited a fear of similar attacks on European soil. British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s reasoning for getting the United Kingdom involved in the Iraq War was that he believed President George W. Bush’s claims about Iraq’s ties to 9/11 and that they had Weapons of Mass Destruction. Blair also stated that he considered Saddam Hussein a threat to the UK. Other Western European nations such as Spain and Italy supported the Iraq War for the same reasons Blair cited. France and Germany opposed the war because they thought there was no evidence to support the American Government’s claims. However, Iraq wasn’t the only country encompassed in the War on Terror countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Mali. In Syria, the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy intervened to combat what they considered threats to national security. With Afghanistan, the US had the help of the UK, Italy, and Germany with their war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In Mali, the French Government led the war efforts there and they were aided by Germany, Italy, and the UK.
Given all of these conflicts that the American government and its European allies have engaged in to stop terrorism, has it worked? In some areas, it has produced some results like in Mali. In Mali, the European coalition has neutralized extremist groups in northern Mali. In Iraq and Syria, the American/European coalition has been able to minimize some of the influence ISIS has in those countries. However, these are just small victories in a twenty-year war on terror. Extremist groups have been dispersed across the Sahelian desert, but terrorist attacks have increased in Mali because extremists remain capable of regrouping and launching attacks. In Iraq and Syria, ISIS still controls Mosul and Raqqa with the American/European coalition still failing to reclaim those locations. The Taliban has reclaimed Afghanistan. Needless to say, the war on terror has been a complete and utter failure that has claimed countless innocent lives during its duration. According to the Watson Institute’s Cost of War Project at Brown University, the war on terror has claimed the lives of 928,558 people and 387,072 of those people are civilians. Are those lives worth small victories in 20 years? No. Instead of military interventions that go nowhere and claim too many lives. The United States of America and its European allies should be supporting anti-terrorist forces already in that region and have them do the fighting. American and European military intervention has gotten nowhere.
With foreign policy approaches to counter-terrorism out of the way it is time to discuss domestic counter-terrorism measures. Like with foreign terrorism matters many European nations have taken different approaches to handling the situation.
How can the US and Europe combat rising domestic terrorism?
Over the past year, a pandemic has ravaged the world forcing people to quarantine and adapt to the environment changing around them. Countries in Western Europe and the United States of America have mandated masks and social distancing in hopes to combat this virus known as COVID-19. As the year has progressed domestic terrorists have been able to grow and cause more issues than ever due to the health standards that have been put in place to protect citizens from receiving and spreading the deadly virus. In the past year, violent events within Europe and the United States have grown dramatically with riots and remote bombings flourishing over the past year. In the second quarter of 2021 alone bombings took place over 1,400 times easily passing the past three quarters before then.
The primary reasons for terrorism are propaganda and a background that grows into the domestic terrorist mold. Propaganda, although hard to find in the public eye, is accessible through anonymous blogs and dark websites that approve nationalist points of view. A background in which a person has an abusive family or a mental health condition that is unchecked can lead to violent affairs in which one turns into a domestic terrorist. The psychology of terrorism has been recently brought into the eye of the public as increasingly more domestic terrorist events have taken place.
While events such as these extreme situations take place, governments have been working on ways to eliminate these cases of domestic terrorism. Under the presidency of Joe Biden, the United States has recently released a national strategy on how to combat domestic terrorism. The reason behind the recent involvement in the battle against domestic terrorism comes from the recent attack the United States endured on January 6th, 2021. On that date, protests turned violent and ended up charging into the United States Capitol where they vandalized property and threatened to harm multiple people endowed within the government. While this is new for the United States, The European Union has been combatting Domestic Terrorism since 2015.
There have been select events in which domestic terrorism has affected Western Europe. From 2015 to 2019 there have been over 500 events in which Europe has been affected by domestic terrorism. Primarily the terrorist attacks were from nationalists who believed that violence was the way to change the culture that had surrounded them. With terrorists such as these, the government has been working on ways to stop domestic terrorism. Some of these circumstances include using data to stop a domestic terrorist threat before it happens, laying down restrictions on firearms that disallow mentally unstable citizens from attaining firearms and punishing terrorists to the fullest extent of the law in hopes of refraining future criminals from implementing destruction among the lands.
