The Internal-External Nexus in the Fight against Radicalisation: Comparing the European and French Approaches

The paper focus on the internal-external security nexus (IESN) narratives applied to the fight against radicalisation into terrorism. Its main import is to think critically the rationale and securitising effects of those narratives by comparing the European (EU) and national (France) levels. The traditional threat of a military attack against a Member-State territory having been set aside, the European leaders rebuilt the security narratives based on transboundary problems that blur the internal/external divide. The traditional border is replaced by two soft borders. Internally, a societal border associated to ‘the other’, justified by radicalism, violent extremism, terrorism, that are perceived as threats to the identity, norms, and values of European societies. Externally, the previous economic north-south divide is redefined in security terms: the stable centre that is threaten by the insecure periphery, a kind of ‘Pandora box’ of ‘interconnected nexus’ externalisation. Terrorism, just like cybercrime and hybrid threats, is perceived as a complex, multifaceted cross-border security problem to be tackled by a cross-sectorial and multilevel approach. The prevention of radicalisation, a key priority for the EU and for France, includes a broad spectrum of measures ranging from internal to external action. The French political discourse refers to radicalisation as a threat to the State security and its way of life and although the country was spared from direct attacks on its territory between the middle of the 1990’s and 2012, the official discourse has emphasized the borders porosity and the interdependence between French and European security. With more than 15000 cases of radicalisation reported, France has developed a comprehensive domestic counter-radicalisation policy and is willing to strengthen cooperation at the European and international levels.