The phrase "War on Terror" has become one of the most used by politicians in the last two decades and international terrorism nowadays classifies as one of the top security priorities in the...Show moreThe phrase "War on Terror" has become one of the most used by politicians in the last two decades and international terrorism nowadays classifies as one of the top security priorities in the political agendas. With the growth of the phenomenon of the “home-grown” terrorists, the pressure is on the rise for countries worldwide to find and adopt measures suitable for preventing rather than mitigating and treating post-terrorist attacks' conditions and situations. Next to repression early prevention could prove to be an extremely valuable tool maybe not for the immediate future but for the generations to come to live terror-free. For this reason, violent extremism and violent extreme radicalization need to be approached and tackled at their roots before reaching the point of searching for potential homegrown terrorists or even later post-attack attempting to find the culprits and their groups or networks or even later trying through programmes to de-radicalize and reinstate them in the society. According to many scientists and academics, education plays a key role in the shaping of young minds and this is a preventive sector that the EU should be investing in even more. It could be argued that legal constrictions to the matter are applicable, which has been a significant impediment. However, the Member States should be discussing for education reforms to be applied as such, since this not anymore purely a matter of education and of national interest of each Member State, but relates directly to EU-wide security situations. The EU until very recently has not had specific steps or points within its policies at union level as far as education is concerned to prevent violent extremist radicalisation of young individuals. The situation has changed in the last 5 years, but measures still lack specificity, guidance and instruction in application. Member states themselves have adopted different approaches - related to counterterrorism and not necessarily focusing on education since such EU reforms were non-binding - either pre or post-incidents of terrorism depending on the degree to which each has suffered from cases and attacks of violent radicalisation. Many discussions and decisions have been made to adopt a common EU level approach on education against terrorism, or at least to follow the same direction and to move towards a common goal. However, all of these until now - other more and other less - have been non-specific and/or non-binding, meaning they also have not been implemented evenly around the EU or - if not at all. This dissertation is an effort to more specific and targeted steps in education in an effort to prevent violent radicalisation and the creation of more homegrown terrorists.Show less
After years of integration in other sectors, the member states decided to include foreign and defence policy to EU cooperation. Therefore, it is now, after a few decades, a good moment to look...Show moreAfter years of integration in other sectors, the member states decided to include foreign and defence policy to EU cooperation. Therefore, it is now, after a few decades, a good moment to look critically at what has been achieved in this sector of EU defence cooperation. With this reason, this thesis will approach the question, why do the member states want defence integration to happen in smaller groups? This question can be split in multiple sub-questions. Firstly, could reaction of the member states be out of discontent of how cooperation is functioning on a EU-level? Secondly, does the EU allow the member states to continue in smaller groups, instead of moving forward as a Union? These question will be approached by using a variety of documents. For example, not only the EU perspective but also the national interests of member states and the vision of experts on defence integration should be taken into consideration as well as useful sources for this thesis. Furthermore by looking at theories of defence integration in the EU, such as, Institutionalism, constructivism and realist theory, this thesis will try to find the motives for defence integration. Using the patterns of the theory will make it easier to analyse and compare the cases that will be included in this thesis. The three selected cases are from a different scale. From cooperation on a Union-level to bilateral cooperation and integration. As a result, this thesis has to add additional information and perspectives on the integration of defence within the EU.Show less
