Key bodies and legislation shaping our coercive world.
Homeland Security
Government fora
G6 is an informal internal security initiative that includes Interior Ministers from six EU Member States, i.e. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland as well as United Kingdom (now no longer in the EU). A representative of the United States also takes part in G6 meetings. It has been operating since 2003 and is focused on policies around immigration, terrorism and policing. It has been condemned for its lack of transparency and accountability, including by a report by the UK’s House of Lords.
Formed in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined in 2017. The SCO is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population.
Interior Ministers of the Five Eyes: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance between five English-speaking democracies: the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. American whistleblower and former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the Five Eyes (FVEY) has been spying on each others’ citizens and sharing the collected information with each other in order to circumvent restrictive domestic regulations on surveillance of citizens.
Intelligence alliances
Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance between five English-speaking democracies: the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. American whistleblower and former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the Five Eyes (FVEY) has been spying on each others’ citizens and sharing the collected information with each other in order to circumvent domestic regulations on surveillance of citizens.
The Counter Terrorism Group (CTG) was founded in 2001 after the September 11 attacks and includes intelligence agencies from all 27 European Union members, Norway, United Kingdom and Switzerland. It is an off-shoot of the Club of Berne. CTG specifically focuses on Islamic extremist terrorism, and regularly meets to facilitate operational cooperation among police and intelligence agencies.
The Club de Berne is an intelligence sharing initiative between the intelligence services of the 27 states of the European Union (EU), Norway and Switzerland, named after the city of Bern. The Club of Berne focuses on a wide variety of intelligence functions, including counterintelligence and counterespionage. Operating transnationally, the Club evades the few legal and regulatory frameworks that exist on international intelligence cooperation
Biometrics actors
The International Civil Aviation Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. ICSO has been instrumental in development of standards and implementation of machine-eadable passports and more recently biometric RFID passports.
The Biometrics Institute is an international membership organisation for the biometrics industry, and was founded in Australia in 2001.
The European Association for Biometrics (EAB) is an industry group promoting development of biometrics and its use in Europe.
Industry / business groups
The European Organisation for Security (EOS) is a European industry association and lobbying group, seeking to advance its industry across many security domains, including border, cyber, transport and crisis management.
ASD is a European industry groups advocating for Aeronautics, Space, Defence and Security Industries. Its members generated a turnover of €246 billion in 2018.
Tech / internet alliances
Tech Against Terrorism is an initiative of the United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) to support the global tech industry to tackle terrorist exploitation of their technologies.
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism was formally established in July 2017 by four founding companies – Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube in response to ongoing regulatory and media pressure from Europe and the United States to stop the online spread of “terrorist content.”
Key Legislation
UK’s Terrorism Act
2000
US Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF)
2001
UNSC Resolution 1373
2001
US Executive Order 13224
2001
China Emergency Responses Law
2007
Source: Based on interviews with researchers at Statewatch UK and AWO.