Examining the Efficacy of France's Counter-Terrorist Financing Approaches

Recent years have seen the growth of concern by French policymakers specifically – and European policymakers more widely – over the problem of terrorist financing and the role it plays in enabling terrorist groups to perpetrate attacks internationally and at home. Certain significant events, most notably, have fuelled concern over terrorist financing from France, including the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the Paris attacks of 2015 against Charlie Hebdo, and the often called “Bataclan” attacks, as well as the “Panama Papers” scandal of 2016. To be sure, the growing counterterror financing regime reaches back to the Financial Action Task Force's 2001 recommendations on countering the financing of terror. One key driver in much recent European counterterror financing policy has been the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. France's emphasis on countering terrorist financing has had a significant impact on international policy and cooperation against terrorist financing.