Influencing International Airport Security

Bob, over at the TSA Blog, has a good explanation of how U.S. aviation security regulations can influence the security standards adopted in other countries:

On Dec. 25, TSA took swift action immediately following the incident to strengthen those standards even further at airports across the country and around the world--enhancing screening for individuals flying to the United States and deploying additional airport law enforcement, air marshals and explosives detection canine teams, among other security measures. Because effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders, and as a result of extraordinary cooperation from our global aviation partners, TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening. TSA's new directive also increases the use of enhanced screening technologies and mandates threat-based and random screening for passengers on U.S. bound international flights. This means the majority of ALL international travelers will go through enhanced screening under this new security directive.

Obviously, the U.S. can't just mandate that other countries do precisely what TSA would prefer. But if America sets standards for entry into the country, business travelers in other countries in particular are likely to make sure those standards are met quickly so they can keep coming to meet with U.S. clients and vendors. It's possible, of course, that the U.S. could go overboard, and companies could simply switch to webconferencing or to doing business in areas like Europe with more integrated security regulations. But some travel to the U.S. is always going to be necessary or desireable. And even though our security has gotten much tighter since 2001, I don't think we've reached prohibitive levels yet.