Democratic Security Research Articles

Democratic Security

Democratic Security

Ukraine’s Fate and Europe’s Future: A View from Sweden

By starting the war with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has trampled the cooperative and democratic security order in Europe agreed upon in 1990, seeking to replace it with the tyranny of empire. If Russian aggression is not repelled in Ukraine, Moscow will be in a strong position to threaten and coerce the rest of Europe. The West needs to prepare for a long war. Sweden applied for NATO membership out of a sense of moral outrage, but also felt compelled to follow the realist instincts of its close geographical and historical neighbour Finland, which sensed imminent danger. In Europe as in Sweden, idealism and practical compulsion have converged. The West must decisively turn back Russia’s assault on Europe’s peaceful order by helping Ukrainians preserve their nation substantially intact.

U.S. Foreign Policy On Democratization In Tunisia:, The Democratic Security Doctrine And Myopic Policymaking

U.S. Foreign Policy On Democratization In Tunisia:, The Democratic Security Doctrine And Myopic Policymaking

The Indonesian military and counter terrorism in Poso, 2015–2022

ABSTRACT The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) has been applauded for its contribution in eradicating the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) networks in Poso Regency, Central Sulawesi Province. The military contributed to the operation in various ways, particularly intelligence gathering, and territorial and counter-guerrilla operations. The operation in Poso is a case whereby the threats are beyond the police’s capabilities. On the one hand, counter terrorism against MIT requires deep involvement of the military primarily due to the strategic and structural challenges surrounding the conflict area. On the other hand, such profound entanglement can produce detrimental impacts toward democratic security arrangement. We argue that TNI involvement is indeed valuable but should be on a case-by-case basis. This article highlights that the operation has been able to nurture coordination between the police and the military. However, there are also potential risks for the future of counter terrorism efforts in Indonesia. Counter terrorism requires a multidisciplinary approach, yet the involvement of TNI in all sectors would only lead to suboptimal achievements of the military. This article also discusses the militarisation approach in counter terrorism is likely to escalate the use of violence.

Deliberative Security: Policy Making for the Police Based on Deliberative

The paper puts forward of approache which will help to promote Evidence Based Policy (EBP) in decision about of security policy.The aim of this paper is to identify lessons and approaches from EBP in developing democratic security. In a deliberative security framework, the policy formulation process not only emphasizes the protection and fulfillment of human rights, but also provides public space for society to be actively involved in the formulation and evaluation of policies in the security sector. This article uses the Evidence Based Policy (EBP) approach which to informs the policy process, rather than aiming to directly affect the eventual goals of the policy. Security is related to socio-political values and security is a process of negotiation and contestation, so a process involving society or deliberative security is needed.

Social Movement Madres de Soacha (Mothers of Soacha)

This article analyzes the history of the Madres de Soacha, a social movement of mothers that searched for the truth about the extra-judicial killings of their sons in 2008. After a judicial battle, these mothers proved that the Colombian Army perpetuated these massacres under the state policy of Democratic Security. This research argues for a robust notion of collective identity and memory building of this female movement, which is not reduced to a mere concept of victims. It displays different national and international actions that the Madres de Soacha developed for building memory and collective identity through narratives and agency.

Hacer legible a Ciudad Neza: reestatalización del gobierno mediante la reforma policial democrática

Based on an ethnographic review of professional experiences in “democratic security” policies in Mexico (2011-2017), this paper analyzes the appropriation of community policing schemes by certain local authorities. As illustrated by the neighborhood police service in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, this process involves diverse actors such as social scientists and members of civil society organizations, whose co-production of security and citizen participation programs can be aligned with illiberal and, in fact, characteristically state projects –i.e., introducing police intermediation in the clientelist management of services and demands, as well as making the population socially and spatially legible in terms of planned intervention.

ДЕМОКРАТІЯ, ГРОМАДЯНСЬКЕ СУСПІЛЬСТВО І БЕЗПЕКА В УМОВАХ ПОШИРЕННЯ СИТУАЦІЇ РИЗИКУ

In the conditions of a military invasion of Ukraine, the discourse of national security and the place of our state in the system of international relations is expected to be actualized. This trend originates from such a global characteristic of the modern world as the spread of risk situation. From our point of view, the development of democracy and civil society is an important factor in ensuring the internal and external security of our country. One of the important prerequisites for effective security of Ukraine is the level of involvement of civil society into this process. Hence the need for a theoretical analysis of the discourse of civil society and democracy, reconstruction of the main concepts and concepts used in it. Otherwise, if this discourse is used uncritically, there is a danger that terms and words begin to obscure reality from our view. The works of domestic and foreign authors were used to study the problem posed in the article. The research is based on the principles of such methodological approaches as critical, interdisciplinary, systemic and comparative analysis, as well as on general scientific principles of objectivity and historicism. A developed civil society provides for the articulation of public interests, within the horizon of which the realization of private interests takes place. This situation requires the replacement of «patronage politics» by «politics of real affairs». From the point of view of the study of mechanisms for ensuring democratic security, this means that it is possible to talk about it within the functioning of the public space. Democratic security is possible if citizens are active.

A kingdom with many internal facets: power, politics and instability in a post-colonial state. Ramifications for public stability

Lesotho offers an exciting case study for the analysis of the interface between power, politics and instability. Since gaining its independence from Britain in 1966, Lesotho has over the last five decades been plagued by persistent political instability that has paved way for the breakdown of the rule of law, gross human rights violations, underdevelopment and insecurity where at times the security sector like the Lesotho Defence Force has taken over several key institutions in the country. Political instability in the tiny kingdom has been a daunting agenda for all concerned actors, including political parties, civil society, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other continental stakeholders. While the security sector of any state is of importance, it becomes problematic if it becomes involved in a state’s political affairs. The repercussions of such trajectories of governance have been quite profound for democratic stability and security. Using a qualitative methodology, supplemented by secondary data, this article seeks to unearth Lesotho’s political instability, the role of its security forces and continental actors in its continuous internal governance crisis post the colonial era. The article rightfully shows that The power, possessed by both the military and police, has made them have a robust role in state affairs rather than institutions, mandated to safeguard Lesotho’s citizens. The legitimacy of the security sector underpins restructuring, transparent and accessible security sectors enhance healthy civil-military relations. Restructuring a state’s security and political dynamic reforms is not an easy task, it requires a state managerial and dedication prowess and assistance from different role players and therefore an ample amount of time and effort is invested in the coordination of this process.

Sporting Mega-Event Security in Hyperreality and its Consequences for Democratic Security Governance

ABSTRACT Within the sporting mega-events literature three key developments exist: 1. Security is performative and symbolic; 2. Security reactivates state authority and legitimacy in developing security responses; 3. Security measures have discernible security ‘legacies’. Taking a case study of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the resultant securitization of an existing residential community, this article uses Baudrillard’s concepts of hyperreality and simulation (1981) and the ‘virtual’ (2005) to examine the above developments in depth. It is shown that mega-event securitization operates as a form of hyperreal performativity. For local residents, this heightens perceptions of risk, increases demands for security, and legitimizes security measures which impact on democratic freedoms.

Urban Design as Technology of (Counter‐) Democratic Security Politics

AbstractHow does architecture operate as a security technology? This contribution sets out how reflexive security research and urban studies approach built environments as political inclusion and exclusion instruments. It first presents how this role is understood to operate in the respective scholarly fields, and then illustrates its ambivalent operation with two mini‐case studies centering on Bogotá and Zürich. In doing so, the contribution seeks to familiarize readers with architecture‐oriented reflexive political analysis, and to draw out main lines of further investigation.

Biden\u2019s Security Policy: Democratic Security or Democratic Exceptionalism?

By emphasising the internal-external security nexus inherent in democratic security, the US could aspire again to lead through the example of its democracy’s resilience and ability to self-correct.

Evidence a svazky Státní bezpečnosti v polistopadové politice

Prior to the Velvet Revolution of November 1989, the State Security Service (StB) was surrounded by secrecy. This soon produced a vivid sense of threat posed by the potential active influence of the “old apparatchiks” on post-November politics as well as by the vulnerability of former secret collaborators, who had assumed new roles in the new times, to blackmail. For society at large, the problem of secret collaboration has always been a sensitive matter. Reactions to records that are more than thirty years old are still surprisingly strong today. This paper attempts to describe the milestones in dealing with the StB’s legacy, including the first ad hoc screenings (lustration), the non-transparent processing of partial data from records and files, the role of the newly emerging democratic security apparatus, the adoption of the Lustration Law and the developments leading up to the present. The handling of this legacy has been characterized by a great deal of incompetence, improvisation, confusion and uncertainty. The elimination of secret collaborators of the StB from post-1989 politics was intended to put the country on a new footing. Scandalous revelations, public ostracism, media leaks of lists of agents, lustration disputes and the gradual opening of archives became part of political and public life. The recent period is still viewed as sensitive and thus difficult to map, not least because of the relative inaccessibility of archival material.

La reorientación afectiva de la nación en tiempos de la seguridad democrática (2002-2010) y sus efectos de verdad sobre la escuela

Este artículo de reflexión indaga cómo la seguridad democrática y la revolución educativa, como programas educativos bandera del Gobierno de Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), lograron posicionar una lectura polémica de la realidad sociopolíticadel país, además de sus posibles efectos de verdad en la escuela. A partir de algunos trazos teóricos y metodológicos provenientes de la perspectiva genealógica buscamos comprender las prácticas, los saberes y los poderes en juego en la relectura del pasado reciente realizada por la seguridad democrática. Como hipótesis se sostiene que esta reorientación afectiva está vinculada a diversos dispositivos escolares e ideologemas, así como a políticas de olvido del maestro como trabajador de la cultura. La principal conclusión del artículo es que más que negación de la enseñanza la historia, el Gobierno de la seguridad democrática buscó una instrumentalización de esta mediante la movilización de emociones políticas y la domesticación de una interpretación del pasado reciente en Colombia.

Civil-military Relations: Conflict and Cooperation between Military Bases and Host Communities in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The growing strength, responsibilities, and involvement in internal security operations of the Nigerian armed forces have brought rapid increase in the number of military bases required to accommodate personnel and project their operations across the country. Nigeria is currently estimated to have between 250 and 330 military bases that are dispersed across the 36 states and the federal capital territory, from where different operations have been projected in the last two decades. Amidst these, the conduct of personnel in and around military bases, and their projected operations, have generated both positive and negative effects for the development and security of host communities, from where they have attracted resistance and support from the populations. Although these developments are critical to Nigeria’s military preparedness and performance, democratic consolidation, peace and security, and international reputation, they have received inadequate policy and academic attention. Accordingly, this article seeks to examine civil-military relations at the grassroots, with emphasis on conflict and cooperation between the Nigerian military and host communities of its (operationally active and passive) bases.

Community policing’s extended military history: Brazilian pacification from the Global Cold War to the Global War on Terror

ABSTRACT This article analyses the frequently neglected synergies, past and present, between community-oriented policing (COP) and community-centred military interventions in Latin America. From the vantage point of Brazilian pacification efforts, from the Global Cold War to the Global War on Terror, it is argued that COP is a transnational security governance rationale that emerged during the Global Cold War out of the discovery of the ‘community’ as a key target for military interventions seeking to counter the presence of non-state armed actors challenging state authority. This underlying logic survived the end of the Cold War, including in Latin America. In the post-9/11 context COP efforts returned to their militarized Cold War origins, when local security bureaucracies (re)discovered the usefulness of engaging with local communities in order to confront challenges to state power from non-stated armed actors, such as gangs and drug traffickers. This argument will be elaborated through an analysis of on one of the most recent Latin American COP ‘success stories’: the pacification programme operating in Rio de Janeiro since 2008. Drawing on historical and contemporary policy documents, as well as multi-sited empirical fieldwork, the transnational historical entanglements of domestic and external pacification experiences will be highlighted, allowing us to point towards the negative potentials of militarising COP efforts in regards to the inclusiveness of democratic security governance.

The dual causes of fragmentation: Democratic security and the communitarian state in Colombian politics

This chapter analyzes speeches delivered by former Colombian President, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, between August 2002 and August 2009, which can be found on the official website of the presidency: ( http://web.presidencia.gov.co/discursos/ ). We attempt to identify the webs of meaning surrounding the concepts of ‘Democratic Security’ and ‘Communitarian State’ with awareness of the relationship between discourse, ideology and power. The aim is to better understand the political power of the plans, programs and projects developed by Uribe’s administration, and how this was affected by widespread deployment of the media. These policies are conditioned by a set of colonialist principles that are embodied in symbolic-discursive strategies that result in representations, by means of which mechanisms of marginalization, discrimination and polarized hierarchy are legitimized from the different social spheres. During the 7-year period analyzed there were controversial debates over the commission of crimes against humanity by national security agents, as well as corruption scandals over topics like ‘para-politics’, ‘false positives’, selective arrests, extrajudicial killings and violations of the sovereignty of bordering countries. Within this political context, we attempt to identify the inherent tensions and social conflicts. It is argued that the analyzed discourses reproduce colonialist thoughts, in relation to neoliberal principles and the application of global policies. Using the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), we explore the strategies and resources used in Uribe’s speeches and how major themes are positioned to reproduce systems of beliefs, values and attitudes.

Estrategias de intervención para disminuir la violencia y la delincuencia: avances y desafíos en República Dominicana

El objetivo de este estudio es analizar diversas estrategias de prevención de la violencia y la delincuencia, que cuenten con respaldo científico de su eficacia. Se hace una comparación de estos con los programas “Seguridad Democrática” y el “Plan de Seguridad Ciudadana” de República Dominicana. Es un estudio de tipo documental, basado en fuentes secundarias y se utilizan las técnicas de análisis y comparación. Los resultados más importantes revelan que durante la ejecución del Plan Seguridad Democrática, la tasa de homicidios aumentó en un 26 %. Sin embargo, durante la ejecución del Plan de Seguridad Ciudadana, la tasa de sobrepoblación penitenciaria ha aumentado en un 22 %.
 Dentro de los avances del Plan de Seguridad Ciudadana, se destaca la utilización de las TIC. Además, se utilizan los enfoques de persecución del delito y la intervención basada en la comunidad. Los desafíos más importantes son integración de los diferentes sectores en las diversas fases del plan. La utilización del diseño experimental en la evaluación de los programas y verificación de su impacto. Diseño de estrategia en el tercer nivel y disminución de la sobrepoblación penitenciaria.

Explaining Peaceful Change without Democracy: The Case of the Sino-Soviet Security Community

Some scholars have claimed that democratic regime type needs to be treated as a necessary precondition for the formation of a pluralistic security community. This essay argues that one should not overestimate the explanatory power of linking the democratic peace proposition to the study of security communities. Democratic values, norms, institutions, and practices may certainly facilitate the formation of a security community, but it is by no means the only or even most plausible path to assure dependable expectations of peaceful change. While a number of authors have of late made similar claims, what is not settled is why non-democracies can form security communities. The findings in this essay advance scholarship on this issue by showing that the same causal logics commonly attributed exclusively to democratic security community formation are also present in the formation of non-democratic security communities. The study adds empirical evidence to this argument by developing a historical case study of the Sino-Soviet relationship. In sum, the findings demonstrate that (1) democracy is not a necessary (though facilitating) precondition for the development of a pluralistic security community and (2) a pluralistic security community may form between autocratic regimes based on the causal logical nexus of non-democratic norm externalization, ideological coherence, a common Other (normative logic) and autocratic domestic institutional constraints (institutional logic).

Do transitional justice measures help foster democratic security forces?

ABSTRACTTransitional justice faces growing expectations about its ability to support democratisation processes in countries transitioning from conflict and/or authoritarian rule. Empirical research investigating these claims, however, remains divided on its effects. Certain aspects also remain underexplored, such as transitional justice’s impact on the security forces, despite broad recognition that the latter’s transformation is key to supporting transitions. This paper seeks to fill this gap by undertaking a structured comparative analysis of four countries – Brazil, Chile, Sierra Leone and Uganda – to critically examine some of the commonly postulated pathways through which transitional justice is expected to impact the security forces: reform, removal, narrative reframing and resistance. We find there is little evidence of transitional justice having had a distinctly positive or negative effect.Where there was impact, this was often discrete, time-bound and accompanied by broader societal and political dynamics that simultaneously drove processes of change within the security forces.