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Although international police cooperation is not a new phenomenon and despite its relevance for the monopoly of force, studies applying a political science or international
relations (IR) perspective are scarce. Through a ‘competition of claims’, this article reviews and organizes current literature on cooperation in internal security to highlight crucial points of entry for IR- and political science approaches. While both claims argue along the lines of functionalist regime theory, the ‘informality claim’ stresses state’s interest to uphold autonomy and their accordant preference for informal cooperation. In contrast, the ‘institutionalization claim’ underscores the willingness of states to create formal and strong institutions as they promise effi ciency gains in light of transborder problems. By focusing on central issues in police cooperation (terrorism, drugs, money laundering, organized crime) this review highlights that internal security can become a prospering fi eld for IR- and political science theorizing.
The Handbook provides an authoritative overview of the MLG literature. . . it has the potential to be widely used as a source of reference. The book is systematically structured, and most chapters are of high quality. . .' Achim Hurrelmann, Environment and Planning C 'The editors have produced an authoritative and comprehensive guide to multi-level governance. The book ranges across the domestic context, supraregionalism and global governance all filtered through a sophisticated analytical framework and attention to policy detail. There is no better place to go than this book for a guide to the topic. An outstanding accomplishment.' David Held, London School of Economics, UK Scholarship of multi-level governance has developed into one of the most innovative themes of research in political science and public policy. This accessible Handbook presents a thorough review of the wide-ranging literature, encompassing various theoretical and conceptual approaches to multi-level governance and their application to policy-making in domestic, regional and global contexts. The importance of multi-level governance in specific policy areas is highlighted, and the contributors an international group of highly renowned scholars report on the ways in which their field of specialization is or may be affected by multi-level governance and how developments could affect its conceptualization. European integration is considered from its unique standpoint as the key catalyst in the development of multi-level approaches, and the use of multi-level governance in other parts of the world, at both domestic and regional levels, is also considered in detail before focus is shifted towards global governance. The Handbook concludes with a presentation of six policy fields and instruments affected by multi-level governance, including: social policy, environmental policy, economic policy, international taxation, standard-setting and policing. This comprehensive Handbook takes stock of the vast array of multi-level governance theory and research developed in subfields of political science and public policy, and as such will provide an invaluable reference tool for scholars, researchers and students with a special interest in public policy, regulation and governance.
International cooperation in the field of policing is linked to the definitional core of the state, the monopoly of the legitimate use of force (Max Weber). Whereas international cooperation in other fields has been widely analyzed, there is no systematic measure of the development and intensity of international police cooperation over time. The paper disaggregates the monopoly of force into three components (legitimation, methods and authorization) and analyzes how international police coop eration in Western Europe has developed since the 1960s and how strongly it impinges upon state sovereignty.
Whereas in the 1960s, most international institutions in the field were only weak, the state monopoly of the legitimate use of force has been embedded, pooled or even delegated since the 1990s. Even in its core activity, the Western European state has become part of a multi-level system of governance.
In recent years, a growing literature has argued that European Union (EU) member states have undergone a profound transformation caused by international institutions and by the EU, in particular. However, the state core – the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force, embodied by the police – seemed to remain intact. The literature has argued that in this area, international institutions are weak, and cooperation has remained informal and intergovernmental. We take issue with these claims and evaluate the strength of international institutions in two core areas of policing (terrorism and drugs) over time. We find that in terms of decision-making, precision, and adjudication, international institutions have become considerably stronger over time. Even when international institutions remain intergovernmental they strongly regulate how EU member states exercise their monopoly of force. Member states are even further constrained because adjudication is delegated to the European Court of Justice. Thus, even the state core is undergoing a significant transformation.