Countering Terrorism in Britain and France Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past

Though Britain and France have faced a similar threat from Islamist terrorism in the years following September 11 2001, they have often responded in different ways to the challenges it posed. This groundbreaking work offers the first in-depth comparative analysis of counterterrorist policies and operations in these two leading liberal democracies. Challenging the widely held view that the nature of a state's counterterrorist policies depends on the threat it is facing, Foley suggests that such an argument fails to explain why France has mounted more invasive police and intelligence operations against Islamist terrorism than Britain and created a more draconian anti-terrorist legal regime. Drawing on institutional and constructivist theories, he develops a novel theoretical framework that puts counterterrorism in its organisational, institutional and broader societal context. With particular appeal to students and specialists of International Relations and Security Studies, this book will engage readers in the central debates surrounding anti-terrorist policy.

Introduction; 1. Terrorist campaigns and threat perceptions; 2. Legacies of history: norms, institutions and routines; 3. Co-ordinating counterterrorism: intelligence, police and prosecution; 4. Justice for suspected terrorists?; 5. Operations: tackling Islamist terrorism and its supporters; Conclusion; Appendix: list of interviews.

Frank Foley is a García Pelayo Research Fellow at the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies in Madrid and a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. He has also been a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of War Studies and at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Co-operation. Dr Foley has conducted field research on counterterrorist agencies and policies in Britain, France and the United States and in 2010 he received a 'Terrorism Research Award' from the US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. He has presented his research to security practitioners, including British and French counterterrorist officials and Department of Defense staff at the Pentagon in Washington DC.