Sharing Data with Peers from the Same Region: A Matter of Mutual Trust

Among the main cooperative activities to be pursued to counter terrorism, information and intelligence sharing maintain top priority. This chapter analyses and compares the development of intra-regional methods of cross-border cooperation. It examines how the EU and ASEAN, and their Member States, have developed data sharing mechanisms to combat terrorism and whether trust plays a role in developing such cooperation. The EU and its members have been able to entrust regional bodies and agencies with facilitating cooperation. In return, these bodies constitute a step further in building mutual trust and, subsequently, enhancing cross-border cooperation. ASEAN Member States have agreed on platforms of dialogue, but they remain the only ones in the driving seats. The interactions between competent national authorities are particularly strategic in ASEAN, while the interactions may be both strategic and operational in the EU. As such, the EU Member States have established ambitious cooperation mechanisms as well as regional bodies and entities aiding the transnational flow of data, which is not the reality in ASEAN. Notably, the premises of intra-regional cooperation in criminal matters emerged much earlier in the EU than in ASEAN. However, it remains unclear whether ASEAN is at an early phase of a three-dimensional mutual trust process, similar to the one in the EU, or whether it is travelling along a different path. In a virtuous circle, sharing data as well as establishing channels of communications is essential to build up trust. In return, mutual trust allows streamlining and strengthens data sharing.