I have a fair amount of experience with screeners in Europe and the US, far less so in Asia.

SDF_Traveler mentions Frankfurt. In my experience, screeners there are firm and efficient. When it comes to so-called 'high risk' planes - UK and US airlines - they become much more like those in the US though other planes such as LH don't suffer in the same way.

stimpy asks about consistency. I guess it's because Europe has far more experience of security fears than the US and we've ironed out the problems over time.

Having said that, there can be inconsistency. Yesterday, for the first time outside the US, I was asked to remove my belt . This was at Nice, France, and there happened to be two DL planes on the ground - I don't know if that is relevant, but it might be.

I made a comment to the security person - in a friendly way, natch - asking if we were now in the US. He took it in a friendly way and explained that they had had a police request yesterday morning to ask for belts to be removed.

No shoe drill, but an inconsistency nevertheless. I just hope it's not repeated.