E.U. Anti-Terror Official Speaks

The European Union’s top counter-terrorism official said that collaboration, rather than force, would be the strongest defense against terrorism during an address yesterday at Harvard’s Center for European Studies.

Gijs M. De Vries, a Dutch national who is counter-terrorism coordinator for the Council of the European Union (E.U.), told his audience that the front of the struggle against terrorism lies with diplomatic, financial, and moral warfare—rather than with military force. Terrorism, he said, poses a unique threat because its dangers are constantly evolving.

“If you see nails, you can use a hammer,” he said. “But what happens if you have a hammer in your hands and the nail is changing shape as you approach it?”

Because the threat is so complex, he said, organizations like the E.U. have a responsibility to counteract it through a multifaceted approach—most of which he said he has arranged, or is currently trying to coordinate, throughout the organization.

In his address, De Vries insisted on the importance of sharing information among collaboration nations like the E.U. Such collaboration, he says can help strengthen local border controls to keep terrorist cells from taking root. Since accepting his present position in March 2004, De Vries said, he has also tried to get the E.U. nations to collaborate on statistical analysis and to work toward greater judicial consistency through common arrest warrants. He cited the capture of a London bombing suspect in Italy as evidence of success in the latter program.

The E.U. has also recently focused on quelling criminal activity more obliquely related to terrorism—such as money laundering—in an effort to strike down the threat at its roots, he said.

The long-term solution to terrorism, De Vries said, lies in spreading the ideals of freedom. Still, he said this should not mean forcing any system onto a country.

“Democracy is as much about values and culture as it is about process,” he said.

De Vries set up a distinction between between long-term and short-term solutions. While infusing democracy into a cultural fabric—a long-range project—will produce lasting result, he said, the introduction of basic freedoms into traditionally terrorist regions will suppress the threat in the shorter term.

Even so, De Vries said, the influence of most E.U. nations is finite in the face of terrorism. “There is a limit to what non-Muslims can do in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

The onus of change, according to De Vries, lies largely with the global Muslim community itself, which needs to be more active in fighting the stereotype of Islam being related to terrorism.

Still, according to De Vries, Europe itself has contributed to the terrorism problem.

“Europe is not only a target but also a source for terrorists,” he said.

De Vries—who is head of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party—has held a place on the European political stage since being elected a European deputy in 1984. He took his current position only five days after the European Parliament published a list of goals for the battle against terrorism. That battle, he emphasized throughout his speech, is far from over.

“The risk will remain high for years to go,” he said.