Detention in the ‘war on terror’: legal norms, strategic cultures and the future of the transatlantic security community

The status and the treatment of detainees in the ‘war on terror’ is one of the major contentious topics in current transatlantic relations. This article aims to explain the reasons for transatlantic disunity on this issue as well as to assess its impact on the stability and the persistence of the transatlantic security community. I argue that divergent strategic cultures are the main source of transatlantic differences in attitudes towards the question of detainees. In particular, strategic culture affects the way in which foreign policy elites and the military perceive of the threat emanating from transnational terrorism and the adequate response to it. These perceptions, in turn, influence a state’s approach to legal provisions pertaining to detainees. Given this close relation between strategic cultures and detention policy, any attempt to work towards a transatlantic rapprochement on this issue will have to take into account more comprehensive differences concerning threat perceptions and the nature of military operations in response to those threats.