Security Actors Research Articles

\u2018Climatizing\u2019 military strategy? A case study of the Indian armed forces

Climate change is increasingly shaping security narratives, including military strategy. While considering climate change a security issue, the military’s role in this discourse and praxis becomes critical as a security actor. However, the interrelationships between climate change, security and the military are conceived and approached by different states diversely. Within different states, this triangular relationship is guided by processes with varied practical/policy implications. While ‘securitization’ has generally been used to explain climate security, other processes such as ‘climatization’ have assumed significance, wherein security practices are climatized. The Indian military too has been engaging with security implications of climate change, but by using approaches distinct from Western states, which have been the usual focus in such analyses. In this paper, the framework of climatization is used to analyse the triangular relationship, using the case study of the Indian military—by categorizing climatizing moves as symbolic, strategic, precautionary and transformative.

Flattening the international: producing financial intelligence through a platform

ABSTRACT This paper engages in ‘flat’ International Relations (IR). Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), it studies how geographically dispersed security actors produce shared understandings of financial intelligence on the EU-FIU Platform, a European Commission expert group. Studying the Platform enables empirical observation of how ‘the international’ is not a natural given nor a static analytical framework, but instead is actively made to exist in everyday practice, entailing numerous human and non-human actors. Engaging the Platform with a flat ontology allows the significance of materiality to be drawn out and key IR concerns such as power and governance to be readdressed. The paper examines the publicly accessible minutes of the EU-FIU Platform meetings and traces the development of the phrase ‘for intelligence purposes’, demonstrating both its interpretive flexibility, allowing actors to cooperate across heterogeneous understandings, and its flexible scalability, allowing actors to assign and navigate several scales concurrently.

The many gendered faces of teachers’ views on schools and security

This article analyses the gendered nature of teachers’ views on schools and security. Current research on security emphasizes masculinity and the absence of femininity in relation to the security field – traditionally dominated by the military and emergency rescue services. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the areas of society that are new to the security field. Schools, pupils and teachers are gendered in many ways. What happens when security is added to this nexus? Existing, limited research suggests that this relationship may be both complicated and gendered. A qualitative content analysis is conducted based on interviews with teachers and principals from two municipalities in Sweden. It shows that teachers hold gendered views of their roles as security actors; of pupils in relation to security, as subjects of risks and sources of threats; and of external security threats. Men are embodied as positive or negative actors, whereas women are embodied mostly as powerless actors. Teachers give voice to a discourse focused on everyday insecurities. This is important, as the role of teachers (in particular women) as promoters of democratic citizens risks becoming undermined, and individual perspectives of security risk becoming replaced by national perspectives.

Toward a Better Understanding of Human Security Risks: Developing a Risk Assessment Methodology for Human Trafficking at the onset, during and after conflict

ABSTRACT Human trafficking is one of a number of issues that can undermine human security and exacerbate conflict and crisis, and so it has significant implications for the planning and conduct of military operations and associated conflict-related stabilization activities. While public and private sector bodies have expended much energy in efforts to tackle human trafficking in domestic policing and criminal justice contexts, challenges remain in understanding and responding to human trafficking during times of conflict and crisis. This article reports on the results of a study conducted in collaboration with the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) to co-design and validate a proof-of-concept risk assessment methodology on human trafficking in conflict. The risk assessment includes three components: (a) an assessment of human trafficking prevalence; (b) an assessment of threats and vulnerabilities; and (c) a scenario-based impact assessment. The study also developed a cloud-based version of the risk assessment which incorporated the question sets and involved the creation of open data-based dashboard visualizations to support data-driven decision-making. The findings from this study contain the potential to be expanded beyond the military toward other actors in the human security and humanitarian domains, thereby supporting progress toward UN Sustainable Development Goal 16 regarding promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

Violent maritime spaces: Conservation and security in Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, India

The militarisation of conservation involves the integration of conservation, security and counterinsurgency through violent and armed strategies, or ‘war, by conservation’. We describe a militarised conservation practice in which a marine protected area was established by the state and supported by international actors in a region of ongoing ethnic and military conflict as a case of conservation, by war. Conservation and security actors actively criminalise artisanal fishing communities in Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park in India. The harvest of sea cucumbers, marine species of commercial value historically traded between the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, was banned and has become the target of militarised action. When the Sri Lankan civil war broke out in 1983, sea cucumber trade turned into a security concern as the same sea routes were also being used for trafficking arms, ammunition, and other contraband. Tamil Nadu was geographically and logistically involved in the civil war due to ethnic ties. The Sri Lankan civil war and its social and political consequences on the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu due to ethnic ties is a fitting case of the nexus of conservation and security in a marine context. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with artisanal fishers and conservation and security actors, we show that violent political conflict provided the justification for securitisation of conservation. As the state focuses its conservation efforts on the marine protected area, commercial fisheries detrimental to fisheries and biodiversity conservation continue. Marine protected areas allow the state to achieve its security outcomes even as it fails to meet its conservation goals due to non-local drivers of declines in species populations. Trans-boundary marine environments are particularly difficult to govern due to the dynamic nature of the seascape. The materiality of the sea and the conservation-security nexus results in the creation of a violent maritime space.

Cyber security threats in the microbial genomics era: implications for public health.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) is becoming the new gold standard in public health microbiology. Like any disruptive technology, its growing popularity inevitably attracts cyber security actors, for whom the health sector is attractive because it combines mission-critical infrastructure and high-value data with cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In this Perspective, we explore cyber security aspects of microbial NGS. We discuss the motivations and objectives for such attack, its feasibility and implications, and highlight policy considerations aimed at threat mitigation. Particular focus is placed on the attack vectors, where the entire process of NGS, from sample to result, could be vulnerable, and a risk assessment based on probability and impact for representative attack vectors is presented. Cyber attacks on microbial NGS could result in loss of confidentiality (leakage of personal or institutional data), integrity (misdetection of pathogens) and availability (denial of sequencing services). NGS platforms are also at risk of being used as propagation vectors, compromising an entire system or network. Owing to the rapid evolution of microbial NGS and its applications, and in light of the dynamics of the cyber security domain, frequent risk assessments should be carried out in order to identify new threats and underpin constantly updated public health policies.

ХИБРИДИЗАЦИЈА СИСТЕМА БЕЗБЕДНОСТИ У ФУНКЦИЈИ РЕАЛИЗАЦИЈЕ КОНЦЕПТА ЉУДСКЕ БЕЗБЕДНОСТИ

Depending on the inclination of the authors and the focus of their security research, we recognize two most common approaches: the first focuses on the stability of national governance structures and territorial integrity (state and/or national security); while the second approach focuses on security as a civil right in daily life, the availability of necessary resources and the quality of life. The latter approach is known in theory as the concept of human security. Considering the fact that a comprehensive analysis of the security situation involves elements of both approaches, in the paper we consider the complex relationship between state and non-state security actors through the hybridization of the political system. The mismatch between the level of the national strategy and its operationalization at the level of meeting the needs of citizens requires the introduction of new elements in the space between the strategic and operational levels. The outlined approach can be called the Hybrid Security System because of its potential contribution to raising the level of Human Security (HS) in local communities. We will present the hybrid security system conceptually in the form of a decentralized computer network. The presented diagram of System Dynamics and the proposed model of HS operationalization through the hybridization of security systems using the potential of Information and Communications Technologies are a good basis for the analysis and raising the level of citizens’ security in relation to current threats.

Between Public and Private: The Co-production of Infrastructural Security

ABSTRACTThe paper proposes to use the concept of co-production to account for the mutual co-production of private as well as public security actors and critical infrastructure. Through an exploration in the field of urban security provision, we aim to contribute to critical security studies by turning to the entanglements of public and private security actors in the process of securitising infrastructure. As the construction and provision of infrastructural security depends neither solely on public nor private actors but on their interaction, we propose the concept of co-production to account for these dynamics. Based on a focused ethnography, the paper mobilises material collected during a security conference in Israel, in which the close connections between private and public security actors were forged and where infrastructure was at the heart of the security concerns.

‘The more, the merrier?’ Euro 2020, transnational collaboration, opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACT The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2020 will, for the first time in the history, be staged in 12 different countries across the European continent. However, such a geographically diffuse celebration also gives life to certain challenges. Particularly for the event’s security, which will involve a larger number of host countries and actors, responsible for, and required to cooperate transnationally and form what literature refers to as ‘security networks’. As such, this article draws upon academic literature in the fields of sociology, policing and event management and delineates three key challenges and related opportunities speaking to international cooperation between security actors provided by Euro 2020’s format. These include (1) overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers (2) valuable lessons for less experienced hosts and (3) establishment of new, ‘good practices’. Undeniably, the event produces opportunities, but also significant hurdles, important to give academic attention and examination with the event approaching in time.

Yemen’s Defence Structure: Hybridity and Patronage after the State

Yemen’s defence structure presents a dynamic of “double hybridization”: hybridization due to the overlapping of tribal and military roles and loyalties, and hybridization because of the vague boundaries between formal and informal security actors. Since 2011 onwards, patronage has assumed a sub-state connotation, not a systemic one, occurring in a space of contested authority, beyond the state’s institutional perimeter: patronage develops outside the framework of the central state establishing direct connections between Yemeni local chiefs or warlords and Middle Eastern powers. This new dynamic highlights the deep crisis of the national level, revealing the fracturing of the state and of its formal institutions. Adopting critical security lenses and choosing the defence structure as unit of analysis, this article contends that the army used to rely, before 2011, on informal forces as coup-proofing strategy; since then, however, militias have turned now into the pillar of an emerging defence sector built on composite military alliances. While Yemen’s defence matrixes have changed, their hybridity persists, as, with the collapse of central state institutions, multiple military players have emerged.

The military ombudsman institute as an integral part of the national security system.

Self-control, secrecy, secrecy, preservation of maximum independence and separation from socio-political processes and institutions cannot guarantee the rights and freedoms of servicemen, nor do they guarantee that subjects of the national security system will not act contrary to the will and interests of society, government, state. The need for civilian control of the defense and law enforcement sectors is primarily driven by national security interests. In other words, security actors should not be a danger to civil society. One of the fuses of possible law enforcement or military arbitrariness is the institute of military ombudsman, who is called upon to act solely for the benefit of the law, rights and freedoms of servicemen and civilians in the territory of special or military operations. The relevance of the introduction of the Military Ombudsman Institute is further enhanced by the current trends and conditions of civilizational development, the globalization processes of total information transparency. In countries where government institutions are predominantly objects rather than news subjects, any positive event can be turned into a sensation of negative content. The primary sources (subjects) of news reports are mainly the democratic governments of countries with the introduction of military censorship (USA, UK, Israel, etc.) and totalitarian regimes (China, Russia, Iran, etc.) [1]. Having chosen the western direction of civilizational development, Ukraine is now in the process of transit between Soviet totalitarianism and European democracy, whose energy is mainly directed at counteracting the "Russian peace" rather than introducing contrary to the valuable principles of Western civilization. At present, the introduction of military censorship, and even more so in the realities of lack of political culture / traditions, is unacceptable without the prior implementation of the military ombudsman institute in the system of legal support of the state.

Kapaciteti formalnih i neformalnih sredstava kontrole privatnog obezbeđenja u Srbiji

In contemporary society, given the development of technologies and the general increase in all forms of human activity, the issue of security is indisputably posed as a basic precondition for the functioning and development of the individual, the state and the entire society. In such a situation, since society is constantly exposed to harmful effects produced by those who give themselves the right to jeopardize the safety of others, who respect the legal norms of the society in which they live, the common preoccupation of every society is to maintain the optimum state of security through participation of all security actors. Given that security is a very sensitive issue, which requires the participation of different actors and excludes the exclusivity of the right to services, there is an increasing need for privatization of security operations, with normative regulation thereof, because the legislation is the basis and guarantee of operation of all the entities within the society. The above indicates that private security must be normatively regulated as an adequate system of protection, where the control and surveillance mechanism is a guarantor of full professionalization of security services, respect for the freedoms and rights and the limits of the activities and responsibilities of its entities. The paper analyzes the current normative principles of control and supervision of private security in Serbia, as one of the components of private security. After introductory deliberations and conceptual determination of control and supervision in the private security of the Republic of Serbia, the paper elaborates on the types of control and supervision of private security in Serbia, with a special emphasis on formal and informal control and supervision of private security. Also, the concluding observations point to the importance and role of the control and supervisory function in the private security sector, taking into account the circumstances of the current functioning of the private security entities and the beginning of the application of the provisions of the current Law on Private Security of the Republic of Serbia.

Ključni institucionalni akteri evropske bezbjednosti - stanje i izazovi

This paper addresses the adaptability and ability of three institutional actors of European securitythe EU, the NATO, and the OSCE - to properly respond to security challenges facing Europe, especially those existing at the non-state level. The position, status, nature and functions, and the relations within and between the key institutional actors of European security are considered within the study of international relations. Weaknesses in their operation have been identified, which are of a structural nature, but also a consequence of the international environment. In the EU, it is possible to identify a wide range of security policies, different developments and efficiencies. As a "civil force", the EU addresses security challenges using civil, political and economic instruments, focusing on the stability of its immediate environment. However, in order to play the role of a global security actor, the EU must build an autonomous security identity, which is, for now, an unsolvable problem. The NATO continues to be the personification of hard, military power in the face of security challenges, which does not sufficiently guarantee its security, and often means breaching the security of other countries. The OSCE, like NATO, is a relic of the past and its basic quality is diplomatic inclusiveness. It is an organization of "displaced" political power, without the necessary authority. The weaknesses of these three institutional actors, as well as the complexity of international relations, require a far higher level of political, functional and operational adaptability in order to understand and address the existing security challenges.

The main consequences of continued illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing within Indonesian waters for maritime security actors and coastal communities

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing is known as a global serious threat and become International major issues. Indonesia, as one of the biggest archipelago countries and Mega Biodiversity that has rich, various, and potential marine resources has succeeded in attracting domestic fisheries and foreign fisheries to commit Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU Fishing) practices. This research aims to understand the phenomenon of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing in Indonesia and to understand the consequences of IUU Fishing practices to the coastal community and the maritime security state actors. This research finds that IUU Fishing practices have significant and negative impact towards Coastal communities on Economic, Environmental, and Social aspect. Furthermore, IUU Fishing practices has also significant and negative impact on the integrity of Maritime Security State Actors in protecting Indonesian waters.

Lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic: sustainability is an indispensable condition of Global Health Security

Abstract Among the possible developments of the Covid-19 pandemic at the international and national levels is the advancement of the Global Health Security (GHS) agenda. On the one hand, GHS might be able to give priority to health problems on the political agenda-setting, on the other, however, it might open up space for public security actors in decision-making processes to the detriment of the power of health authorities. This article critically analyzes the concept and the progress of the GHS agenda seeking to demonstrate that there can be no security in matters of public health when sustainability in its multiple dimensions is not taken into account. At the end, sustainability has a twofold responsibility: to maintain the consistency and permanence of emergency response actions, especially with investments in public health systems, with universal access, and to minimize the structural causes of pandemics linked to the environment.

Beyond Seablindness: A New Agenda for Maritime Security Studies

This article examines the rise of maritime security in concept and practice. We argue that developments in the maritime arena have flown beneath the radar of much mainstream international relations and security studies scholarship, and that a new agenda for maritime security studies is required. In this article we outline the contours of such an agenda, with the intention of providing orientation and direction for future research. Our discussion is structured into three main sections, each of which outlines a core dimension of the maritime security problem space. We begin with a discussion of the issues and themes that comprise the maritime security agenda, including how it has been theorized in security studies to date. Our argument is that the marine environment needs to be understood as part of an interlinked security complex, which also incorporates strong connections between land and sea. Second, we examine the ways in which maritime security actors have responded to these challenges in practice, focusing on issues of maritime domain awareness, coordination of action, and operations in the field. Third, we turn to the mechanisms through which the new maritime security agenda is being disseminated to local actors through a processof devolved security governance. We focus particularly on efforts to distribute knowledge and skills to local actors through capacity building and security sector reform. In the conclusion, we outline the future challenges for maritime security studies that follow from these observations.

‘Brothers in arms’? A police-paramilitary partnership in Karachi

ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between two state institutions, a civilian police and a paramilitary force, jointly tasked with maintaining law and order in Karachi. I describe this system of pluralised policing as a ‘competitive-network model’, in which unstructured cooperation between police and paramilitary officers coincides with competition and inter-agency conflict. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Karachi between 2015 and 2019, I analyse the impact of the competitive-network model on the civilian police. I argue that this relationship model causes institutional disruptions within the civilian police, reinforces the belief that militarisation of routine police work is necessary, and creates a crisis of self-legitimacy for civilian police officers who identify their institution as the ‘younger brother’ in such relational dynamics. This is the first study to investigate the partnership between two public policing providers in Pakistan. In doing so, it makes an empirical contribution to an expanding scholarship on the pluralisation of policing that currently lacks an understanding of partnerships between state officials and entities jointly tasked with public policing. It therefore raises important questions about the effects of police pluralisation, and prompts in-depth ethnographic research that assesses the impacts of pluralised policing on civilian police officers, particularly from contexts where the diversification of security actors may be politically motivated and detrimental to the professionalisation of civilian institutions.

Security for Enhancing Peace and Stability in Changing Context of Nepal

The world is facing new security challenges in 21st century that has forced global and national security actors to think differently. Unconventional security issues such as resource scarcity, climate change effects, livelihood insecurity, environmental insecurity, food and water insecurity, health insecurity, natural calamities and disasters, pandemic diseases, etc. are now integral part of security going beyond conventional security issue of protecting sovereignty and territory of the state. Further, Nepal has also specific geopolitical and geo-strategic issues and challenges emerged from the Sino-Indian dynamics. Global economic and strategic power is shifting from US to China and therefore China will be most influential in the world order in coming few decades. Similarly, India is also rapidly expanding its influence in global and regional sphere. Hence, small countries like Nepal will have both negative and potentially positive efforts (economically, politically, strategically) to deal in the changing global order (protecting national interests in a situation of aggressive approaches of old and emerging powers) in the context of China-India revelry. As Nepal is having rapid change in political and strategic sphere advancement of security sector is eminent. However, dealing with new security challenges requires enabling environment (favourable legal-regulatory provisions, supportive institutional arrangement, required resources, investing in capacity development especially in education and research, developing sound intelligence and integrating security policy with international relations, economic development and social services). Hence, it is essential to expand security discourse and engage citizen to develop ownership, strengthen the National Security Council, create enabling environment (developing relevant policy and strategies, promulgation of laws and development of rules and procedures, creating responsive institutional mechanisms, developing capabilities, making required resources available, parliamentary oversight and monitoring provisions, invest in security research and education) to address emerging new security challenges of the 21st century.

Pop-up governance: Transforming the management of migrant populations through humanitarian and security practices in Lesbos, Greece, 2015–2017

This paper intervenes in recent debates on humanitarianism and security in migration by introducing the notion of ‘pop-up governance’. It reflects on our two year-long fieldwork on Lesbos, Greece at the peak of Europe’s migrant reception crisis (2015–2017). We present recent developments in border and migration management in the EU and we position these within recent migration debates. We then present the two main facets guiding migrant reception and governance in Lesbos, namely humanitarianism and security. Through our interviews with humanitarian and security actors we show how top-level government decisions followed and resembled the flexibility and adaptability of humanitarian and security operations. We define this turn as ‘pop-up governance’, which comprises a practice-based, abruptly introduced and retractable set of governance mechanisms responding to the situation at hand. We argue that the seemingly disorganised management of migration actually bore hallmarks of a new, flexible and adaptable mode of governance. Finally, we show how ‘pop-up governance’ can help move beyond present understanding of governance based either on the rule or its exception. This has important implications for our comprehension of migration, humanitarianism, security and the governance of vulnerable populations and contemporary socio-political crises.

State fragility and conflict nexus: Contemporary security issues in the Horn of Africa

Although research on natural resource and ethnic identity-based conflict abounds, studies which critically examine how the state fragility–conflict nexus shapes the contemporary security of the Horn of Africa are rather limited. Qualitatively designed, this study attempts to explore and explain security implications of such a nexus. Analysis of the regional security complex (RSC) and empirical data from the field reveal that conflict dynamics feed and fuel state fragility in the Horn of Africa sub-region. The presence of extra-regional security actors, who are competing for military bases along the coast of Djibouti, the spill-over effects of violence in Yemen, and the Iran–Saudi power rivalry, together with incompetent regional political leadership, tend to shape the security of the Horn. Hence, a new and innovative approach to contemporary security and political commitment are sine qua non since the existing institutions and policies are not fully capable of coping with the need for a new security regionalism. It is hoped that the recent rapprochement between Eritrea and Ethiopia, albeit at an embryonic stage, is and will be a positive force capable of bringing about a paradigm shift in security structure, and inducing a viable and sustainable economic, political and security community in the Horn of Africa. Keywords : conflict dynamics, Horn of Africa, military bases, political community, regional security complex, state fragility