As we just marked the 15th commemorations of the harrowing attacks against the United States on 11 September last, now facing the most significant terrorist threat over ten years in Europe, common issues for countering the challenges of terrorism head on is higher than ever on the agenda. Whether we are now in a new era of international cooperation against terrorism, over time, new laws and international agreements have grown into a denser international counter-terrorism regime to address nefarious militants and violent extremists. At the European level, the launch of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) within the organisational structure of Europol has materialized as of January 2016 a substantial shift towards an enhanced central hub by which the Member States can increase information sharing and operational coordination. At the international level, INTERPOL, as the inter-governmental body facilitating police cooperation, has been taking a special place among counter-terrorism efforts, enhancing its capacities to provide the tools and services necessary to facilitate information exchanges and intelligence sharing.

In order to picture what are the current challenges and prospects for an effective international police cooperation in matters of counter-terrorism, as well as considering the form in which international police cooperation against terrorism and intelligence sharing take place, we have invited Mr Pierre St Hilaire, Special Representative of INTERPOL to the EU, and former Head of Counter-terrorism at that organisation. Mr Hilaire’s intervention pro-vides a unique opportunity to understand INTERPOL’s role and international police coope-ration at large in the dynamics of global counter-terrorism.