The life, death and diversity of pro-government militias: The fully revised pro-government militias database version 2.0

This article introduces the global Pro-Government Militias Database (PGMD). Despite the devastating record of some pro-government groups, there has been little research on why these forces form, under what conditions they are most likely to act, and how they affect the risk of internal conflict, repression, and state fragility. From events in the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria and the countries of the Arab Spring we know that pro-government militias operate in a variety of contexts. They are often linked with extreme violence and disregard for the laws of war. Yet research, notably quantitative research, lags behind events. In this article we give an overview of the PGMD, a new global dataset that identifies pro-government militias from 1981 to 2007. The information on pro-government militias (PGMs) is presented in a relational data structure, which allows researchers to browse and download different versions of the dataset and access over 3,500 sources that informed the coding. The database shows the wide proliferation and diffusion of these groups. We identify 332 PGMs and specify how they are linked to government, for example via the governing political party, individual leaders, or the military. The dataset captures the type of affiliation of the groups to the government by distinguishing between informal and semi-official militias. It identifies, among others, membership characteristics and the types of groups they target. These data are likely to be relevant to research on state strength and state failure, the dynamics of conflict, including security sector reform, demobilization and reintegration, as well as work on human rights and the interactions between different state and non-state actors. To illustrate uses of the data, we include the PGM data in a standard model of armed conflict and find that such groups increase the risk of civil war.

The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan in 2021 has led to calls for a review of counterinsurgency strategy. One aspect of COIN strategy in Afghanistan was the use of militias in the anti-insurgent campaign the Taliban. As well as their use in Afghanistan, states have successfully countered insurgent violence through the deployment of, or cooperating with, pro-government militias elsewhere. Indeed, between 1981 and 2014, more than 504 militias were active across the world, 1 1 Sabine Carey, et al., ‘The Life, Death and Diversity of Pro-Government Militias: The Fully Revised Pro-Government Militias Database Version 2.0’, Research and Politics 9/1 (2022). of which many were identified as anti-insurgent non-state forces in counter-rebel campaigns. Taking Colombia and Philippines as two contemporary cases, this paper will explore the limited contributions of anti-insurgent militias (such as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia and the Manila Crusaders for Peace and Democracy) in counterinsurgency campaigns. The paper will seek to identify the reasons why these armed groups produce contributions in countering armed rebels. These case studies are diverse and both have faced highly adaptable and unique rebel campaigns. Both highlight how the use of militias as counterinsurgency mechanisms can yield positive results. Using evidence from both case studies (government reports, primary archives etc.), I provide evidence of how militias can produce valuable results for a government’s anti-insurgent campaign.

Problem setting. The relevance of the article is confirmed by the fact that the interaction between the main components of the Security and Defense Sector of Ukraine, namely the security forces and defense forces, in both peacetime and wartime, is the main condition for national (state) security. The problem of the Security and Defense Forces development is at the planning stage, as, given their current state, there are still many shortcomings in the actions of the state leadership and the governing bodies of the Security and Defense Sector. With the adoption of the new version of the National Security Strategy, the tasks of the security and defense forces become more complicated, which requires some adjustments for changes in strategic planning. This very point actualizes the topicality of the article. Recent research and publications analysis. The analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature has shown that the issues, considered following the topic of the research, are now covered in the studies of many authors, such as V. Bogdanovich, O. Bodruk, O. Vlasyuk, V. Gorbulin, S. Kononenko, G. Perepelytsia, V. Pocheptsov, O. Reznikov, A. Semenchenko, G. Sytnyk, M. Sitsinska, M. Sungurovsky, V. Lipkan, I. Hrytsyak, A. Kachynski, V. Telelym, A. Paderin, T. Starodub, A. Sitsinsky, O. Sukhodolia, L. Chekalenko, V. Chaly and other scientists. However, a comprehensive study to determine the role and place of the security and defense forces of Ukraine in the system of military security of the state has hardly been conducted. Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. The purpose and the objective of the article is to analyze the problems of security and defense forces development in the context of ensuring Ukraine’s military security, and to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of interaction between the security and defense sector components in the course of implementation of the new national security strategy. Paper main body. The main element of the security and defense forces is the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces of Ukraine is a military formation, which, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, is responsible for the defense of Ukraine, protection of its sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability. The Armed Forces of Ukraine provide deterrence and repulse of armed aggression against Ukraine, protection of state airspace and underwater space within the territorial sea of Ukraine; in cases specified by law, they participate in activities aimed at combating terrorism. The main military formation of the security forces is the National Guard of Ukraine, which is designated to perform tasks of the state security and protection of the state border, and which also participates in cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while repelling armed aggression against Ukraine and eliminating armed conflict by conducting military (combat) actions, and in the implementation of territorial defense tasks as well. Conclusion of the research and prospects for further studies. It is stated that, given the complexity of the threats the country is facing, the accumulation of efforts of all components of the security and defense forces is required, especially in conditions of aggravation of the social and political situation in Ukraine, caused by the active influence of the Russian Federation on the spread of anti-state and separatist tendencies and direct intervention in all social processes of our state. Therefore, only after the elimination of the threat from the Russian Federation it will be possible to divide the issues into separate security or defense ones, since such issues as ensuring the territorial integrity of the state, preserving public peace, freedoms and rights of citizens are very interrelated.

Today the security environment is characterized by a continuous increase in uncertainty - we are faced with numerous non-traditional threats and challenges. Regardless of time and place, these threats have an impact not only on individual regions and countries. They are generating different risks and negative consequences on a global scale. The radically altered security environment has increased the need to improve ways and mechanisms for interaction between institutions throughout the security sector. Developing coordinated policies and a strategic conceptual framework for countering new threats, including hybrids, has proved to be a key task in security. Obviously, all of this can’t happen without the help of the communication experts in the structure. In almost all security-related institutions, units have been set up to support and inform the public of all actions of the security authorities. It is clear that the PR in the security sector must derive from the specific nature of the sector in which they take place. In crisis situations, activities related to PR include speaking to members of the media, crisis communication, etc. The goal in PR is to have interaction between the organization, the media and the society. It is generally good that the PR activity is proactive, not reactive, to outpace events, not to run after them.

Research aim. Improving the efficiency of solving information security tasks by eliminating standard technical barriers that prevent the application of artificial intelligence technologies in advanced information security systems. Research method. The article applies the method of functional decomposition of intelligent tasks of information security, based on the analogy of artificial and natural intelligence. With respect to the proposed functional structure, the intelligent information security system is decomposed according to the processes of its life cycle with the specific tasks of technical regulation identification, that is specific to each of the processes, and the subsequent aggregation of tasks into groups corresponding to the main areas of standardization of such systems is performed. Results obtained. The research presents a structured list of information security tasks, the solution quality of which can be improved with the use of artificial intelligence technologies. It is shown that the main standard technical barriers to the effective creation and application of intelligent information security systems are associated with the shortcomings of metrological support for intelligent systems, also with the peculiarities of ensuring the confidentiality of information processed in such systems. The analysis of the current state of work on the preparation of national and international standards governing the creation and application of intelligent information security systems is carried out, and it is indicated that the work in this direction is of an initial, staged nature. The list of specific standardization tasks aimed at overcoming the identified standard technical barriers in the implementation of individual processes of the intelligent systems life cycle is justified. Specific tasks are grouped by the main standardization areas, for each of which the proposals for the adjustment of existing and the development of new standard technical documents in the field of artificial intelligence and information security are prepared.

The Austrian Armed Forces (AAF) have historically played a significant role in accomplishing security tasks in the domestic sphere. These tasks, extending beyond territorial defense, form an integral part of the constitutionally defined spectrum of possible military missions, and extend back to the times of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. These tasks are categorized as law enforcement assistance and disaster relief operations. According to Austrian legal regulations, military activities within the national territory in principle require that “the lawful civil power request its [the military’s] cooperation.” On the basis of such a request, however, a relatively wide range of military action is possible. The Security and Defense Doctrine, which was adopted in December 2001, provides the political and strategic guidelines for adapting Austria’s security policy to the challenges of the post-Cold War era. It includes plans to further develop and adapt the Cold War-driven concept of “Comprehensive National Defense” to the new risks and challenges posed by a multipolar security environment. A concrete operational model based on this doctrine, including a new definition of the tasks for the AAF in the framework of a modern “homeland security” strategy, does not yet exist. Simultaneously, due to the change of paradigms, Austrian security-political priorities have changed from reactive defense to proactive and multinational stabilization. This functional priority placed on external tasks requires a clear concentration of resources, which causes problems for homeland security tasks due to the low level of defense expenditures. The reorganization of the national security sector will therefore have to include a re-assessment of the financing of national security tasks. While the international profile of the AAF is becoming clearer, the process of defining the military role domestically has been initiated only recently. It is quite obvious that the national policy of deployment of the AAF must be embedded in a comprehensive national concept, and should take into consideration all relevant developments at the regional level (namely, the EU). However, due to its capabilities and special expertise, the AAF is able to make valuable contributions to cope with the new domestic security risks. The qualitative improvements of the transformed AAF (“Bundesheer 2010”) will lead to further enhanced military capabilities, especially concerning readiness, command and communication, and defense against nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks.

The article is devoted to the problems of organizing the activities of the National Police as a subject of the security and defense sector. The analysis of the scientific works of the scholars who were engaged in research within the framework of this issue made it possible to formulate the author’s definition of the concept of the security and defense sector. It was established that it is necessary to study, analyze and practically apply the experience of international institutions, organizations (NATO, EU, OSCE) of democratic European countries in order to improve national legislation and eliminate gaps, taking into account the experience of practical activities of police officers in the field of security and defense, to update the legal framework for ensuring the functioning of the national security system. The powers of the National Police as a subject of the security and defense sector is considered. It has been established that they can be of a general nature, that is, aimed at protecting the national interests of Ukraine from internal and external threats, ensuring the independence of the state and the protection of state sovereignty, as well as the territorial integrity of Ukraine, prevention of threats to national security, and more. It has been proven that a mandatory condition for a police officer during the performance of assigned tasks is compliance with the principles enshrined in international and national regulatory legal acts. Among the general principles, the following are distinguished: the principle of the rule of law, the principle of respect for human rights and freedoms, the principle of legality, the principle of openness and transparency, the principle of political neutrality, the principle of interaction with the population on the basis of partnership, the principle of continuity. It is proposed to make changes to the normative legal acts, namely: in the Law of Ukraine “On the National Police” to define the police as a subject of the security and defense sector, and in the Law of Ukraine “On the National Security of Ukraine” to define specific tasks of national security that require its provision by the police. This will make it possible to improve the role of the National Police of Ukraine as a subject of SDS.

Life cycle assessment can support decisions for improving the environmental performance of construction products. However, the amount of data required for developing life cycle inventories limits the adoption of LCA. This work associates the interpretation of the impact results of construction products at the unit process level with a quantitative definition for the foreground and background system, for guiding primary data collection towards foreground processes that can be affected by decision-makers in the construction sector. A set of construction products commonly used in Brazil is selected, and their cradle-to-gate life cycle inventories are modeled using the ecoinvent database (version 2). Life cycle impact assessment is performed using the ReCiPe Midpoint Hierarchist method. The contribution of each process during the life cycle of construction products for each impact category is quantified. These processes are associated with economic sectors, which are classified as belonging to the foreground or background system from the perspective of the construction industry. Foreground sectors are those controlled or influenced by the construction sector and are defined based on the production share consumed by the construction value chain. The elementary flows defining each impact category are also identified. Foreground processes show significant contributions to most impact results of construction products. Global warming, fine particulate matter formation, ozone formation, acidification, human carcinogenic toxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity are mainly caused by direct emissions and fossil fuel combustion in manufacturing processes. Land occupation for production activities contributes to land use change, while the consumption of fuels, raw materials, and water causes fossil and mineral resource scarcity and water consumption respectively. Freshwater and marine ecotoxicities and human non-carcinogenic toxicity have foreground contributions only for steel and copper products due to emissions from the landfilling of mining tails. Ionizing radiation and stratospheric ozone depletion are mostly driven by background processes. A reduced group of elementary flows covers a big share of the environmental impacts of most construction products. The results indicate priorities for life cycle inventory primary data collection of construction products, by focusing on foreground processes and the corresponding elementary flows that cause many of the potential embodied impacts of construction. Increasing the availability of primary data for these processes improves the reliability of LCA-based decisions in the construction sector, especially in countries which still lack local LCI databases.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for assessing the environmental impact of a product, activity, or system across all the stages of its life cycle. LCA can identify the activities with a major impact on the environment throughout the life cycle of a product. To analyze the environmental implications of footwear, the LCA was applied to a pair of shoes designed for professional use. In this paper, the impact of a single pair of shoes was studied. Every year, footwear production worldwide is over 22 billion pairs, which has a significant impact on the environment. In this case study, the “cradle-to-grave” approach was used, which refers to all the activities involved in the life cycle of a footwear product, starting from raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, maintenance, and, in the end, disposal. The LCA was conducted using the SimaPro software. The environmental impact assessment of the analyzed shoe needed the acquisition of two crucial datasets. Background inventory data were sourced from the Ecoinvent database (version 3.3). The impact was quantified using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) metric, which calculates the contribution of emissions to global warming over a 100-year time limit according to the established values provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was measured in relative carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2eq) to facilitate a standardized comparison. The results show that the total carbon footprint for a pair of safety boots is 18.65 kg of CO2eq with the “component manufacture” stage as a major contributor accumulating almost 80%.

An efficient security data-driven approach for implementing risk assessment

The Sidac system: Streamlining the assessment of the embodied energy and CO2 of Brazilian construction products

The article presents the results of a study of the UK’s involvement in the European Union–NATO relations process during 1990–2010s in the context of establishment the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). The methodology of the study was formed by a systematic approach, methods of historical analysis, historical-genetic, periodization, comparative-historical, etc. An interdisciplinary approach made it possible to use certain methods of other sciences, in particular, political science (institutional comparative analysis, event analysis), elements of political modeling and forecasting. It is stated that the British leadership has been in the position of preserving the integrity of the Atlantic co-operation system since the early 1990s. The UK’s position as a staunch supporter of Atlanticism has become one of the decisive and at the same time controversial factors in the creation of the EU Security and Defense Council. Until the second half of the 1990s, British governments opposed the EU’s provision of military and political resources and supported the WEU as a «European support» for NATO. The Blair government’s consent to the transfer of WEU functions to the European Union opened the way for establishing a direct relationship between the union and the Alliance. The signing of the Berlin Plus Agreement with the European Union in 2002–2003 was one of the main elements of NATO’s reform. The political and strategic crisis of NATO in the early 2000s reinforced the relevance of a purely European defense structure. However, the inability of the EU to deploy military resources, the resistance of the Atlanteans, led to a general failure of the autonomy of the CSDP. During the Cameron governments, London openly favored the formation of a NATO Response Force, rejecting the development of EU military resources. Although in the context of Russia’s aggressive foreign policy, Europeans’ attention has shifted from the EU’s military capabilities to traditional Atlantic security structures, the strengthening of the Union’s military mechanisms following Britain’s exit has not been ruled out. The United Kingdom is directly involved in the strategic weakness of the EU as a subject of the European and world security system, in a NATO-dependent operational and resource plan. At the same time, Brexit can complicate the task of unifying security, weakening the difficult EU–NATO relationship. Key words: Great Britain; EU; NATO; Common Security and Defense Policy; USA.

PurposeCrucial transition of the Indian residential building sector into a low-emission economy require an in-depth understanding of the potentials for retrofitting the existing building stock. There are, however, limited studies that have recognised the interdependencies and trade-offs in the embodied energy and life cycle impact assessment of retrofit interventions. This research appraises the life cycle assessment and embodied energy output of a residential building in India to assess the environmental implications of selected retrofit scenarios.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilises a single case study building project in South India to assess the effectiveness and impact of three retrofit scenarios based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and embodied energy (EE) estimates. The LCA was conducted using SimaPro version 9.3 and with background data from Ecoinvent database version 3.81. The EE estimates were calculated using material coefficients from relevant databases in the published literature. Monte Carlo Simulation is then used to allow for uncertainties in the estimates for the scenarios.FindingsThe three key findings that materialized from the study are as follows: (1) the retrofitting of Indian residential buildings could achieve up to 20% reduction in the life cycle energy emissions, (2) the modification of the building envelope and upgrading of the building service systems could suffice in providing optimum operational energy savings, if the electricity from the grid is sourced from renewable plants, and (3) the production of LEDs and other building services systems has the highest environmental impacts across a suite of LCA indicators.Originality/valueThe retrofitting of residential buildings in India will lead to better and improved opportunities to meet the commitments in the Paris Climate Change Agreement and will lead to enhanced savings for building owners.

The last year has seen much activity in preparing the new Act on Private Security, which should be coming in force in early 2020. One of the main reasons for the legislator to pass the new law is to improve the implementation of physical and technical protection in practice, to improve the quality of regulation, and to improve the private protection sector in the context of current security threats. Also, the inevitability of inclusion of private protection in the homeland security system is an additional reason for further modernization, which implies the parallel increase in quality of private security services in the Republic of Croatia. One of the expected goals is to further increase the participation of private security in locations with increased security risk in a partnership between public and private security, which is a trend in EU countries. In this regard, a new category of security professional is proposed, which would be further educated by experienced professionals and, under the new Act on Private Security, entrusted with the most responsible and complex tasks of private security. However, in the current conditions in the Croatian private security sector, which currently lacks almost 25% of trained professionals, in which negative staff selection has been present for over 5 years, with enormous fluctuation of staff, and sector wide minimum wages, it is important to ask whether is the new security guard definition just a different name and form, or does it bring new content. This paper will present a part of the research into private security professionals' attitudes towards lifelong learning. The aim of this paper is to: determine the attitudes of guards and security guards on lifelong learning, ways in which guards and security guards participate in the training process, their motivational factors for acquiring new knowledge and barriers to training and ultimately assess the benefits of training.

Version 3 of ecoinvent includes more data, new modeling principles, and, for the first time, several system models: the “Allocation, cut-off by classification” (Cut-off) system model, which replicates the modeling principles of version 2, and two newly introduced models called “Allocation at the point of substitution” (APOS) and “Consequential” (Wernet et al. 2016). The aim of this paper is to analyze and explain the differences in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results of the v3.1 Cut-off system model in comparison to v2.2 as well as the APOS and Consequential system models. In order to do this, functionally equivalent datasets were matched across database versions and LCIA results compared to each other. In addition, the contribution of specific sectors was analyzed. The importance of new and updated data as well as new modeling principles is illustrated through examples. Differences were observed in between all database versions using the impact assessment methods Global Warming Potential (GWP100a), ReCiPe Endpoint (H/A), and Ecological Scarcity 2006 (ES’06). The highest differences were found for the comparison of the v3.1 Cut-off and v2.2. At average, LCIA results increased by 6, 8, and 17 % and showed a median dataset deviation of 13, 13, and 21 % for GWP, ReCiPe, and ES’06, respectively. These changes are due to the simultaneous update and addition of new data as well as through the introduction of global coverage and spatially consistent linking of activities throughout the database. As a consequence, supply chains are now globally better represented than in version 2 and lead, e.g., in the electricity sector, to more realistic life cycle inventory (LCI) background data. LCIA results of the Cut-off and APOS models are similar and differ mainly for recycling materials and wastes. In contrast, LCIA results of the Consequential version differ notably from the attributional system models, which is to be expected due to fundamentally different modeling principles. The use of marginal instead of average suppliers in markets, i.e., consumption mixes, is the main driver for result differences. LCIA results continue to change as LCI databases evolve, which is confirmed by a historical comparison of v1.3 and v2.2. Version 3 features more up-to-date background data as well as global supply chains and should, therefore, be used instead of previous versions. Continuous efforts will be required to decrease the contribution of Rest-of-the-World (RoW) productions and thereby improve the global coverage of supply chains.