The Declining Significance of Interpol: Policing International Terrorism After 9/11

Abstract

This paper discusses the current policies and strategies developed by Interpol to organize international police cooperation in matters of terrorism. While the role of police in international counterterrorism cannot be denied and can only be assumed to be more important today than ever before, evidence shows that Interpol has in recent years no longer placed a premium on terrorism among its objectives. Relying on the bureaucratization perspective of policing, Interpol’s relative decline in attention to terrorism is argued to have been brought about by factors both external and internal to the organization. Externally, the police of many nations, especially those with well-developed law enforcement organizations, prefer to work unilaterally or on the basis of smaller, temporary forms of international collaboration. Internally, moreover, Interpol has grown considerably in terms of membership but in a manner that might threaten its central objective to fight international crime by efficient means of cooperation. Related problems involve abuse of Interpol’s notice system as well as political and legal problems concerning the organization's leadership. As a result, among the most striking aspects of Interpol's development in recent years has been a relative but distinct decline in its once central focus on terrorism.