The NATO Secretary General, former Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, was right to say in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that ?in Europe, we still have complicated discussions?of how far governments can go in the relationship with their citizens in the fight against terrorism.? Right across Europe, there is a contentious and sometime acrimonious ongoing debate as to the best strategy for combating terrorism. This debate is often most pronounced in those countries whose citizens feel least threatened by terrorism and most vulnerable to what is seen as an attack on civil liberties. Whereas in countries like the UK (Country Profile) and Spain (Country Profile), most are broadly supportive of their respective governments? tough stand against terrorism and support the imposition of more draconian legislation to counter this threat. However, even in these countries, internal debates are complicated seriously by a perception amongst many, that the US approach to the Global War Against Terrorism is flawed and even counter-productive. There is also a strong belief amongst a significant number of Europeans, that US policies, for example the war in Iraq and toward Israel, are actually increasing the terrorist threat rather than reducing it. As a result, individual governments and the European Union are struggling to secure the necessary political and popular support required to facilitate difficult legal, intelligence, police, and military reforms that would enhance both national and collective efforts to combat terrorism.

The fact that there is no United States of Europe and that each country has a fundamentally different approach to intelligence, law enforcement, and military activities also makes reform and cooperation much more complex than it is in the United States, where, it should be noted, reform of the intelligence community is still a highly contentious and politicized process. In Europe, the number of nations involved and significant differences of opinion regarding the desirability of greater European integration magnifies the problem. At the political level, a number of European countries, most notably the UK, refuse to suborn national authority over defense, security, and foreign policy to the European Union. One of Europe?s most powerful nations, namely France, excludes itself from the military alliance that Jaap de Hoop Scheffer leads. And, each country jealously guards its traditions and internal structures and statutes, a move that seriously complicates both internal and cross border legal, intelligence, and law enforcement cooperation. As a result, progress toward a common European response to the threat of Islamic terrorism has been painfully, but nevertheless understandably, slow.