Threats and Phantoms of Organised Crime, Corruption and Terrorism

As the European Union is taking a giant leap towards incorporating all of the "Old Continent", Pan-European enthusiasm is dampened by lingering and newly fanned fears of such dark phenomena as organised crime, corruption and terrorism. In general, fear is a bad councillor, but it can be used as a very effective policy making tool, as is the case with organised crime and terrorism. In this fourth volume of the European Colloquium Group on Cross-border Crime, expert researchers from Central and Western Europe critically examine these anxieties, the underlying threats and the feasibility of adequate responses. They raise crucial questions, including: how does the "management of fear" operate politically, to what extent are we succesful in delineating and penetrating the underlying phenomena, and are we sufficiently aware of the political costs of current strategies to counter organised crime, corruption and terrorism?