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13 Eur. J. on Crim. Pol'y & Rsch. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/eurjcpr13 and id is 1 raw text is: Eur J Crim Policy Res (2007) 13:1-2 DOI 10.1007/s10610-007-9037-4 Editorial Ernesto U. Savona Published online: 22 March 2007 © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 I am grateful to Marianne Wade and to all the contributors for the high quality results included in this double issue of the Journal. The topic suggested to Marianne was difficult and the way in which she has managed it fully satisfies the aim and the scope of this Journal. The European flavour in the debate of security versus liberty does exist and it looks like the small flame of a candle that we need to keep alive. This Journal wants to contribute to that task. Recent developments in international terrorism overlap this phenomenon with different segments of unresolved war and peace. There is the long-standing conflict between Palestine and Israel, the growing difficulties in restoring democracy in Iraq and the ambiguity of the new Lebanese conflict. In all these instances, local and international terrorism have emerged with different flags yet have one aim: to destroy western civilisation and its rights. This process is and will become increasingly dangerous for European politics and culture if we do not manage it appropriately. We cannot reduce the issue to a small group of terrorists led by Bin Laden who are capable of convincing the weak minds of thousands of young Muslims, in the Middle East or in Europe, who are prepared to expend their lives in the killing of others. More than this, terrorism is a cultural-political phenomenon that should be considered under many different perspectives. All these perspectives belong in the same framework: the surviving compatibility of different cultures and traditions in a world split between the rich and the poor countries and crossed by the growing processes of globalisation including the flows of migration. In this framework, the more immediate question that needs answering is how to defend ourselves from trading away the values of our democracy. We, as Europeans, need to ask this question: How many rights (human, constitutional and civil) do we want to trade for more security? The US Patriot Act and its legitimate and illegitimate implementation, together with a multiplicity of international agreements and different forms of international co-operation on one side, and the technologies developed after 9/11 on the other, illustrate to us that increased security demands the surrender of rights. The problem is how to combine the two: security per E. U. Savona (E) Universiti Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, TRANSCRIME, Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy e-mail: ernesto.savona@unicatt.it ' Springer