The Global War on Anarchism

328 : diplomatic history
agreements with European governments. Second, because the United States
lacked such an institution, the Immigration Bureau assumed those duties, giving
immigration inspectors law enforcement powers to patrol the border and ports of
entry. 144
Also at this time, the Senate played an important role in checking presidential
powers and influencing diplomatic relations. As with arbitration treaties and the
creation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the activist and internationalist
Roosevelt administration faced considerable opposition to any agreement that
threatened the Senate’s privileged position to ratify treaties or jeopardized its legislative
purview. 145 In short, the configuration of U.S. governmental institutions—the
limits on federal authority, the small size of the executive branch, and
the power of the Senate—all influenced the policy options that the Roosevelt
administration had in combating terrorism.
CONCLUSION
The history of anarchist terrorism brings to light the intimate relationships between
terrorism and publicity, unilateral versus multilateral action, counter-terrorism
and immigration law, and anti-terrorism legislation and domestic politics.
Governmental campaigns against anarchism depended on perceptions of threat
and the frequency and proximity of terrorist attacks. Government structure also
played a role, as domestic political culture and representative bodies in the United
Kingdom and the United States limited international cooperation but opened the
door for internal surveillance programs and stricter immigration laws. 146
At the same time, continental European governments negotiated a number of
multilateral treaties against anarchism. European policy makers viewed anarchist
terrorism as a transnational threat that necessitated a European-wide security
system, which officials initiated in 1898 with the International Conference at
Rome for the Social Defense Against Anarchists. Following these multilateral
talks, European delegates adopted a final protocol that attempted to synchronize
national laws and police networks for the purpose of monitoring, arresting, and
prosecuting anarchist terrorists.
While U.S. policy makers did not participate in the Rome conference, the
growing global media, epitomized by the advent of mass-circulation newspapers,
144. Preston,Aliens and Dissenters, 18–19. Preston writes that “In the years before World
War I, Immigration Bureau customs became steadily more repugnant to normal judicial procedures
and to commonsense notions of fair play. There was neither mystery nor conspiracy behind
this trend. It was the natural growth of an administrative technique unrestrained by publicity or
opposition.” Lucy E. Salyer, Laws Harsh as Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern
Immigration Law (Chapel Hill, NC, 1995), xiv.
145. David S. Patterson, Towards a Warless World: The Travail of the American Peace Movement
1887-1914 (Bloomington, IN, 1976), 128; WarrenF.Kuehl,Seeking World Order: The United
States and International Organization to 1920 (Nashville, TN, 1969), 113–15, 138–39.
146. In the United Kingdom, Parliament enacted restrictive immigration legislation for the
first time with the Aliens Act of 1905.