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

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10575677221136175
• Author: Mathieu Deflem
• Date: 01 March 2024

The Declining Signif‌icance of

Interpol: Policing International

Terrorism After 9/11

Mathieu Def‌lem

Abstract

This paper discusses the current policies and strategies developed by Interpol to organize interna-

tional police cooperation in matters of terrorism. While the role of police in international counter-

terrorism 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 unilaterallyor 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.

Keywords

international police cooperation, Interpol, counterterrorism, September 11, terrorism

Introduction

In this paper, I examine the development of the policing of international terrorism by Interpol, the

International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), especially as its policies and strategies have

evolved over the period in the two decades following the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Relying on off‌icial documents and policies publicly presented by Interpol, I show that the general

trend has been for the international police organization to no longer focus on (international) terrorism

as one of its central missions, in stark contrast to the counterterrorism policies and instruments that

were implemented in the period leading up to, and especially in the immediate period following, the

events of 9/11. Guided by the theory of police bureaucratization and its application to the policing of

University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

Corresponding Author:

*

Mathieu Def‌lem, Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, 911 Pickens Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA.

Email: Def‌lem@mailbox.sc.edu

Original Research Note

International Criminal Justice Review

2024, Vol. 34(1) 5-19

© 2022 Georgia State University

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10575677221136175

journals.sagepub.com/home/icj