The EU counter-radicalisation strategy as "business as usual"? How European political routine resists radical religion. Issue 4 (18th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Foret, François; Markoviti, Margarita
• Is Part Of: Journal of European integration. Volume 42:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 547
• Page End: 563
• Publication Date: 2020-05-18
• Subjects: Counter-radicalisation -- religion -- European Union -- secularism -- counter-terrorism; European federation -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; Europe -- Economic integration -- Periodicals; 341.24205
• DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2019.1687462
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0703-6337

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The emergence of an EU counter-radicalisation (CR) strategy has challenged the usual reluctance of European institutions to tackle value-loaded issues. This article examines whether this new policy alters EU policy-making and especially its approach to religion. It illuminates, first, the triggers of such a CR strategy (traumatic events, popular expectations and international influences). It then shows how the shift of CR from foreign to domestic EU affairs leads to the acknowledgement of religion as a multi-dimensional phenomenon and to the involvement of a greater number of political, bureaucratic and civil society actors. Still, usual patterns of EU public action apply to reduce the controversial potential of CR: circumscription to a legal and bureaucratic logic, institutional burden-sharing, delegation to member states and civil society, hollowing of the normative content of religion. In conclusion, CR has sparked a new EU policy field but has not radically shaken the routine of European politics.