National governance structures to manage the response to terrorist threats and attacks: A cross-national comparative analysis with special reference to the UK ‘lead department’ response structure and UK counter-terrorism strategy

doi:10.4324/9780203087459-15

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National governance structures to manage the response to terrorist threats and attacks: A cross-national comparative analysis with special reference to the UK ‘lead department’ response structure and UK counter-terrorism strategy

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ABSTRACT

In the UK, the very proper public debates on the governance capacity1 to respond to terrorism post-9/11 has often been polarised around arguments for and against the UK variable ‘lead department’ model versus the US centralised Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established after 9/11. Any engagement with this debate has to refl ect that terrorism only forms part of a spectrum of ‘contingencies’ covering what Sir David Omand has called ‘… a predicted future threat or hazard and a materialised risk now’.2 Or as the 2004 EU Constitution Treaty put it: the threats to society from natural or manmade disasters or a terrorist attack.3