Europe's Wars on Terrorism

Modern terrorism originated in Europe during the second half of the nineteenth-century. The systematic efforts of European governments to monitor terrorists and suppress acts of anarchist violence represent the first multilateral counter-terrorism initiatives. In response to anarchist terrorism, European governments organized two conferences: the 1898 International Conference of Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists and the 1904 St. Petersburg Conference, leading to the Secret Protocol for the International War on Anarchism.

Following the First World War, international interest in terrorism revived. The October 1934 assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, by Croatian separatists prompted the League of Nations to convene diplomatic anti-terrorism conferences from 1935 to 1937. The final act of the 1937 Terrorism Conference resulted in a Convention for the Punishment and Prevention of Terrorism, along with a Convention for the Creation of an International Criminal Court.

This paper draws on archival research in Geneva, London and Washington, DC to examine “the first shots of the Second World War,” as declared by Anthony Eden in his memoirs, and the 1937 convention against terrorism that followed. The 1935-37 diplomatic conferences echoed many of the initiatives of the 1898 Rome conference and the legal, political, ideological and definitional disputes that plagued the 1904 St. Petersburg Conference. These debates resurfaced again after 1945. Consequently, the study of terrorism’s resurrection during peacetime offers a new perspective on internationalism and international relations during the long 20^th century and suggestions for contemporary policymaking.