Changes In Security Policy Research Articles

Among threats and a “perfect excuse”: understanding change in Japanese foreign security policy

Abstract This article is written against the backdrop of widely discussed changes in Japanese foreign security policy in the 2000s—changes often attributed to an intensifying North Korea threat and growing rivalry with China. Employing Walt's notion of “threat” (in effect, offensive power plus aggressive intentions), the thesis of this article is that China and North Korea could be construed as increasingly threatening to Japan. The antithesis is that changes in Japanese foreign security policy have rather taken place within the context of a public discourse that has increasingly framed China and North Korea as “threats.” The article demonstrates that, while Chinese military capability has burgeoned in the past decade, North Korea has experienced something like military stagnation. Moreover, although both actors have histories of foreign aggression, their respective official discourses lack aggressive intentions vis-a-vis Japan. The article also demonstrates that while Japanese government sources have kep...

The US–Russian security ‘reset’: implications for Central-Eastern Europe and Germany

The article examines the reactions of selected European states to the US-performed ‘reset’ in relations with Russia and explores the ways in which they have been adapting to the new set-up. The article is divided into three parts: after the discussion of the substantive continuity and limited change in US foreign and security policy (USFSP), the multilateral and bilateral dimensions of USFSP procedure are examined through John Ruggie's theoretical observations. The second part of the article deals with implications of the USFSP for Central-Eastern European countries. This part begins with a discussion of Russian attempts to wheedle Europe into embracing its plans for new European security architecture. The next section sheds light on the unexpected process of strategic realignment of the region (USA/NATO/EU/CSDP) and simultaneous transformation of the special relationship with the USA into ‘normal life’. The third part of the article tackles the implications of heightened US–Russian bilateralism for Germany. Authors' findings, many of them based on conducted elite interviews, suggest the contrary process, namely Germany's strengthened multilateral commitment to the EU and specifically to European Security and Defence Policy, limiting the bilateral option to energy trade with Russia. What follows are concluding remarks.

Social Security and Marginal Returns to Work Near Retirement

Using the Social Security Administration's MINT (Modeling Income in the Near Term) model, this paper calculates the marginal returns to work near retirement, as measured by the increase in benefits associated with an additional year of employment at the end of an individual's work life. With exceptions for certain population subgroups, the analysis finds that marginal returns on Social Security taxes paid near retirement are generally low. The paper also tests the effects on marginal returns of a variety of potential Social Security policy changes designed to improve incentives to work.

A good policy

In this article, Simon Heron of Network Box considers the requirement to change security policy to treat outbound connections in the same way as inbound. It assesses the threat to company security from inside the network, including malware, tunnelling applications, and man-in-the-middle attacks. The use of signatures, walled garden and raw IP format blocking are considered, along with the option of blocking outbound ports except those to secure proxies such as DNS, SMTP email and so on, forcing all web access through a web proxy for control and policy enforcement. A long time ago, I installed my first firewall and took the unusual approach at the time of blocking all incoming ports below 1024 and only opening up those incoming connections that the company needed. Back then, it was far more common to allow all incoming connections and to block only certain specified ports (such as telnet, rsh etc.). It seems incredible now that that was a realistic approach to perimeter security.

Japan's security policy: from a peace state to an international state

The paper argues that a significant change in Japanese post-Cold War security policy has occurred, as compared to its Cold War security policy. Instead of relying solely on power-based realist variables, this paper argues that a significant change is taking place because of the shift in Japan's security identity from a ‘peace state’ to an ‘international state’. What this refers to is that Japan sees itself as playing a more active role in military-strategic affairs in the post-Cold War period due to the normative structure shift within Japan in relation to the practices and role(s) in the regional and international security environment. To show change in Japan's security identity and its resultant security behaviour, norms in three areas that define and shape its security policy are contrasted – Japan's definition of national security; its contribution, in military terms, to regional and international security affairs; and the level of agency (control) Japan has in its security policy. The international-state security identity is increasingly recognised by the members of Japan's security policy-making elite and is used to formulate Japan's security policy in the post-Cold War period. It is also gradually being accepted by the larger Japanese society and has become a permanent feature of Japan's security discourse.

Conditions of emergence and their (bio)political effects: political rationalities, governmental programmes and technologies of power in the landmine case

The landmine case has usually been understood as an issue in which domestic politics did not play an important role. Known for unprecedented worldwide involvement of NGOs, the story, with a complete ban of antipersonnel landmines in the end, was traditionally thought to be the result of successful mobilization of global civil society. While not denying the input of global civil society, I suggest that a crucial moment enabling it to emerge and gain momentum was brought about by domestic transformations in Canada. While dealing with the question of what political rationality lies behind the emergence of international norms, I use concepts from critically oriented new public management literature and Foucauldean analytics of government. Also, two methodological moves are advanced. First, the need to refocus from macro-juridical diagnosis to micro-level analysis of government in Canada. Second, I argue that one cannot fully understand these micro-level practices and discourses without the examination of two crucial domestic structural conditions and their synergetic effect allowing the landmine case to emerge: (i) transformations of Canada's non-profit and voluntary sector and (ii) procedural and substantive changes in Canadian foreign and security policy. What follows is a Foucauldean theorization of the landmine case. The transformations of Canada's non-profit and voluntary sector will be examined through the notion of political rationalities. The theorization of procedural and substantive changes in Canadian foreign and security policy will be understood as a specific governmental programme carried out against the background of a changing security dispositif. Finally, the actual dynamics of the landmine case will be interpreted through the concept of governmental technologies. The conclusion addresses the findings of this article and sums up some lessons of the landmine case.

Comte's Caveat: How We Misunderstand Terrorism

Since the end of the Cold War, and particularly since September 11, 2001, the U.S. Government has substantially misunderstood its circumstances and has launched policies based on a compound error that has made those circumstances worse. The error consists of three parts: thinking the United States had more usable power after the Cold War when it had less; misreading the sources of apocalyptical terrorism; and failing to correct its misreading because of a bias set deep in its own political culture. Seeing the situation and the problems as they really are would lead to vast changes in both foreign and homeland security policies.

Not quite the ‘Great Britain of the Far East’: Japan's security, the US–Japan alliance and the ‘war on terror’ in East Asia

Japan, in responding to US expectations for support in the ‘war on terror’, has displayed a degree of strategic convergence on global security objectives, thus prompting policy-makers and observers to dub it the ‘Great Britain of the Far East’. This article argues, however, that Japan is far from assuming this role. For Japan, the ‘war on terror’ serves more as a political pretext for legitimating long-planned changes in military security policy that are often only marginally related to the US's anti-terrorism agenda. Instead, Japan has focused much more on using the terror threat rationale as a means to push forward its response to the regional and traditional security challenges of North Korea and China, even if at times it attempts to depict both as ‘new security challenges’ or as involving elements of counterterrorism. The final conclusion is that US military hegemony may be weakened by Japan's and the Asia-Pacific's potential divergence from the US global security agenda.

Why Japan Will Not Go Nuclear (Yet): International and Domestic Constraints on the Nuclearization of Japan

Japan's status as a nonnuclear weapons state remains of ongoing interest to policy analysts and scholars of international relations. For some, Japanese nuclearization is a question not of whether but of when. This article reassesses the state of the evidence on the nuclearization of Japan. It finds that support in Japan for the development of an independent nuclear deterrent remains negligible. Evidence demonstrates that ministries and agencies with responsibility for foreign and security policy have sought to consolidate Japan's existing insurance policies against nuclear threats—multilateral regimes and the extension of the U.S. nuclear deterrent to Japan—rather than seeking an indigenous nuclear deterrent. The article also finds, however, that the door to independent nuclearization remains ajar. Policymakers have ensured that constitutional and other domestic legal hurdles do not significantly constrain Japan from developing an independent nuclear deterrent. Further, recent centralization of authority in the prime minister and Cabinet Office has increased the freedom of action of leaders, enabling them to overcome political opposition to changes in security policy to a degree not possible in the past. This suggests that Japan's future position toward nuclear weapons could be more easily altered than before, should leader preferences change.

Inequality and social security reforms

This paper develops a quantitative Markovian overlapping generations model with altruistic individuals and incomplete financial markets in order to analyze the long-run distributional implications of two hypothetical public social security policy changes, made in response to impending future demographic shifts. The two policy changes considered are first, raising the tax rate while keeping the replacement rate constant and second, keeping the tax rate constant while lowering the replacement rate. Whereas this latter policy is detrimental to the relative situation of the retirees, the huge financial heterogeneity in the first scenario explains why the increase in the proportional labor tax is relatively badly absorbed by low-productivity workers, leading to an increase in welfare inequality. We show that the very popular idea that a more funded system would ineluctably lead to more inequalities in well-being can be justified only by focusing on the inequality of positions in case of general equilibrium.

Using Aspect Programming to Secure Web Applications

As the Internet users increase, the need to protect web servers from malicious users has become a priority in many organizations and companies. Writing crosscutting functions in complex software should take advantage of the modularity offered by new software development approaches. With AspectOriented Programming (AOP), separating concerns when designing an application fosters reuse, parameterization and maintenance. In this paper, we design a security aspect called AProSec for detecting SQL injection and Cross Scripting Site (XSS), that are common attacks in web servers. We experimented this aspect with AspectJ language and JBoss AOP. By this experimentation, we show the advantage of runtime platforms such as JBoss AOP for changing security policies at runtime. Finally, we describe related work on security and AOP.

Japan’s Changing Security Norms and Perceptions Since the 1990s

Changes in Japanese security policy and institutions over the past decade and a half nullify cultural and institutionalist views of Japan's postwar pacifism. The boundary of the Self-Defense Force (SDF)'s activity-which had been understood exclusively as defending Japan's own territorial integrity-was expanded to UN peacekeeping activities in the early 1990s, and through a series of policy and institutional changes was expanded further to rear support for U.S. troops in regional contingencies and antiterrorist actions. These changes have been accompanied by significant shifts in Japanese attitudes on defense and security issues. Despite the public's fear of entrapment in war through the alliance relationship with the United States, most Japanese believe that Japan needs to strengthen its defense capability through closer military ties with its alliance partner, and that it is better to revise the peace constitution in order to legitimize the SDF and provide it with military flexibility. Key words: Japan, East Asian security, U.S.-Japan relations Dominant Views Postwar Japanese security norms and institutions generally have been regarded as being consistently pacifist. Based on his public opinion survey analysis from 1945 to 1984, for example, Bobrow maintained that Japanese security perceptions had been passive, with the nation relying on its alliance with the United States and pursuing military minimalism with no clear principles. 1 Since the end of World War II, the Japanese have embraced peace as the integral part of postwar democracy.2 Ikenberry and Kupchan argue that this resulted from socialization by a hegemonic power, the United States. During the post-World War II occupation, the United States was able to force the acquiescence of Germany and Japan through diffusion of a set of normative ideals of democratization and demilitarization and the internal reconstruction upholding these ideals.3 Both culturalists and institutionalists in the field of international relations argue for the continuity of Japanese security norms and the maintenance of Japan's postwar security policy, which allow only for a basic defense capability. Katzenstein finds that Japan has indeed kept to its passive and peace-oriented security policy, despite changes in material relations following the end of the cold war, precisely due to the consolidated anti-military culture. He points out that the anti-military culture has effectively limited Japanese government's security policy options, helped by Japanese procedural norms respecting a vocal minority such as radical pacifists.4 Berger also emphasizes that anti-military sentiments still bind post-cold war leaders of Japan and Germany so that, most recently, neither country could opt for participation in the coalition forces during the Gulf War despite belief in its desirability.5 Institutionalists take the general public policy structure to be more accountable for the continuity of security policy in Japan. Katzenstein and Okawara point out that bureaucratic control of the Japanese military and the decision-making process of public policy prioritizing economics have prevented the centralization of security policy and its autonomy. In addition, social isolation of the military and its lack of legitimacy in society make defense and security policy much weaker.6 Risse-Kappen classifies the Japanese security policy process as quasi-corporatist, where major policy groups participate through institutionalized channels rather than seek broader political coalition.7 These groups tend to be much weaker, however, compared to those in other policy areas. Calder says defense policy remains an orphan in Japanese distributive politics since there are no visible interest groups representing defense policy and politicians specialized in defense issues generally do not draw popular support.8 Gradual but Substantial Changes in Japan's Security Policy The aforementioned arguments rightly point to the importance of identity, norms, and institutions in shaping national interest and security policy. …

From Common Defence to Comprehensive Security: Towards the Europeanization of French Foreign and Security Policy?

This article looks at the relationship between European integration and national foreign and security policy -specifically, how and to what extent the development of a European (EU) foreign and security policy leads to adaptation and change in national foreign and security policy. The theoretical point of departure is an interest in national changes in response to EU norms. It will be argued that national approaches tend to adapt to norms defined by an international community or institution to which they are closely linked; that this adaptation takes place over time, through a socialization process; and that it may also, in the end, lead to changes in national identity. This argument challenges the common assumption of international relations theory that national identities and/or interests are fixed and independent of structural factors like international norms and values. The empirical focus is on changes in French foreign and security policy since the early 1990s. How and to what extent has the dominant French national discourse on foreign and security policy changed since the early 1990s? And how are these changes related to the European integration process in general, and to the development of a European foreign and security dimension in particular?

Engendering Democracy: Domestic Labour and Coalition-Building in South Africa

This article examines aspects of social change in South Africa through an analysis of paid domestic labour after the 1994 inception of a new democracy. Race, class and gender divisions continue to define this social institution as the ‘last bastion of apartheid’. Sharp power asymmetries between women positioned as either domestic workers or employers present distinctive challenges to the accessibility of gender rights that remain central to South Africa's democratisation. Although domestic workers comprise one of the largest sectors of working women, their location in private households poses severe obstacles to formalising this particular labour. In the South African case, domestic work continues to reinforce social constructions of the household as a feminised and racialised space, through the paid labour of black women. While domestic workers face severe marginalisation as a result of continuing social inequalities, women are also actively confronting barriers to democracy in the private employment sphere. Drawing upon 85 interviews and extensive field research, this article explores how domestic workers have collectively organised through unionisation and coalition-building to restructure the apartheid legacies contained within this institution. By aligning with South Africa's Gender Machinery, the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers' Union realised pivotal social security policy change through the first formal inclusion of the domestic work sector in unemployment insurance. This legislative victory emphasises the importance of engendering democracy at both the public and private levels to enhance the accessibility of women's rights, particularly within this isolated and highly gendered labour sector.

Constructing Insecurity: Australian Security Discourse and Policy Post-2001

This article explores the construction of security in the contemporary Australian context, arguing that the Australian government has represented, and attempted to construct support for, a statist, exclusionary and militaristic conception or discourse of security. This understanding of security is evident in the government’s representation and response to a range of issues since 2001, including asylum-seekers, terrorism and the war in Iraq. In exploring the processes through which the Australian government has elaborated this discourse and sought to create resonance for it in a domestic context, I argue that there remain important bases not simply for contesting this conception of security, but for acknowledging immanent possibilities for the understanding of security in the Australian context to change in normatively progressive ways. Acknowledging these possibilities is important in identifying the potential for progressive change in Australian security policy, while also shedding light on the role of security in the modern political project.

Japan's changing role in the US‐Japan security alliance

US‐Japan security arrangements have formed one of the most significant pillars of Japan's security strategy ever since the end of World War II. However, what is noteworthy is the incremental growth in the Japanese profile within the alliance, from the time of its inception to the present. This paper traces the growing Japanese role within the alliance and argues that the relationship is likely to remain robust in the foreseeable future. Japan's changing security policy as well as its augmented role within the parameters of the partnership has ensured that the alliance has made a marked shift from being asymmetrical to a mutually beneficial and reciprocal arrangement.

A Personal Agenda for the Next Decade

AbstractThe paper sets a broad agenda touching several areas of policy. It starts from the least likely policy at this point of time, the use of the tax system for redistribution. It discusses prudent macroeconomic coordination without the strings of the Maastricht Treaty in business troughs. Regulation of financial markets, agricultural policies, and health issues are coming up on a desirable agenda of the United States, but are probably important for all countries, as are social security policy and climate change.

Explaining Government Preferences for Institutional Change in EU Foreign and Security Policy

Some member-states of the European Union (EU) want a supranational foreign and security policy, while other member-states oppose any significant limitation of national sovereignty in this domain. What explains this variation? Answering this question could help us to better understand not only the trajectory of European unification, but also the conditions and prospects of consensual political integration in other regional contexts and territorial scales. The main research traditions in international relations theory suggest different explanations. I examine the roles of relative power capabilities, foreign policy interests, Europeanized identities, and domestic multilevel governance in determining the preferences of the fifteen EU member governments concerning the institutional depth of their foreign and security policy cooperation. I find that power capabilities and collective identities have a significant influence, but the effect of ideas about the nature and locus of sovereignty, as reflected in the domestic constitution of each country, is particularly remarkable.

Country survey XVII: New zealand's defence policy

New Zealand's current defence strategy, first expressed in NZ Government (1991), is one of "self-reliance in partnership". We outline the country's defence policy in historical context, examine its current defence expenditure and capabilities, and document the genesis of recent major changes in security policy. We pay particular attention to the role of explicit economic analysis and advice in the formation of these policy changes.

Window on the world. Social policy and social work in New Zealand

In recent years, New Zealand has attracted some international attention for its relatively rigorous application of monetarist, neo-liberal social and economic policies. This has led to its transformation from being one of the most socialized and protected economies in the western alliance to being relatively deregulated and open to global trade. The implications for New Zealand society and its publicly funded services have been profound. This article gives a summary of the outcomes of the neo-liberal era for New Zealand, including some of the major changes specific to social policy and social work. Areas of interest include: the growing recognition of the bi-cultural foundation of New Zealand society; the changes in welfare, labour, housing, and social security policies; and especially New Zealand's unique approach to the welfare of children and young persons. The implications of New Zealand's strong emphasis on contracting-out of social services are considered, alongside a broader assessment of the benefits of the 'reforms' for New Zealanders collectively. Some indications of future changes in direction, subsequent to the recent change in government, are also given.