Dangerous criminals and terrorist fighters
neither respect state borders nor formalised and established competences and tasks between state ministries and their law enforcement agencies responsible for national security and public safety and order.
State borders are unique, diverse in their nature, have individual characters, and define a national territory. They are divided into three categories of areas, namely land, water and air. Cybercrime is increasingly coming into the focus of law enforcement agencies as a supposed fourth category in the context of border security and management. Sovereign nationhood is defined, inter alia, to the self-conception of a modern and secure state, whether a state is able to effectively control crossings of its borders, and also being able to oversee and manage it.
Organised crime groups and terrorist fighters in fact often target gaps created by borders as they can present opportunities for higher criminal profit and lower risk. Respecting the fact that each government needs to be able to align its resources to deal with its border security related priorities in the most effective and efficient manner possible, there remains an underlying need for all experts to work collaboratively and cohesively to address the most serious threats related to terrorism and cross-border organised crime.
Integrated border management is an extraordinary responsibility of each sovereign state to choose best practices and most modern standards to control, survey and secure their borders with regards to political, security, socio-economic, environmental and cultural considerations. In general, states are committed to act responsibly in line with international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.
The access of persons, goods and services should be regulated and controlled, based on a consistent application of the principle of legality and the implementation of effective control mechanisms to enforce the domestic jurisdiction. Therefore, sovereign state activities have a direct relationship to territory, personnel, communication, technology, equipment, training and collaboration at intra-agency, inter-agency and international level.
In the 21st century, along with the process of globalisation, an evolving security environment creates new dimensions of threats and challenges to security and stability of trans-national nature. This seeks for close cooperation and comprehensive, multidimensional, collective and well-coordinated strategies and action plans.