Joint Security Research Articles

How Is Health Promoting University Strategy to Handle the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected many countries, including Indonesia. Many parties, including educational institutions, have to deal with pandemic conditions. This paper aims to describe how the academic institution, Jenderal Soedirman University, is handling the pandemic situation. Various activities led by the COVID-19 Unsoed Task Force undertook several efforts to respond to the pandemic, such as conducting active supervision for all academics, mentoring teams, educating, conducting real work lecture programs, and forming COVID-19 joint volunteer teams. During data monitoring, several activities were completed such as handling patients in surveillance, tracking, and follow-up. Other efforts in the education field were also carried out to keep running the activity, but with a joint security procedure COVID-19 as well as several policies set such as changing the way of teaching to be online. Best possible efforts have been made by the university to respond to the pandemic quickly and effectively.

A New Security Model for Darfur: Between DDR, Integration, and a Joint Security Keeping Force

The signing of the Juba Peace Agreement in 2020 presents a unique opportunity to address longstanding security challenges affecting the civilian population in Darfur. The provisions on permanent ceasefire and final security arrangements set ambitious goals of implementing a comprehensive disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration program, facilitating security sector reform, and promoting peace and security in Darfur. However, although the complicated and protracted endeavor of signing the Juba Peace Agreement marked an important step toward peace and democratic transition in Sudan, its implementation may prove to be even more challenging if the key stakeholders fail to adhere to the agreement and continue to promote their, often conflicting, political agendas. This briefing paper examines the final security arrangements of the Juba Peace Agreement, analyzes challenges and opportunities, and offers options and recommendations for tangible and sustainable implementation of the JPA provisions on security in Darfur.

Cybersecurity, European digital sovereignty and the 5G rollout crisis

This article analyses the European Union's (EU) regulatory response to the 5G roll-out crisis in the context of its digital sovereignty policies with a specific focus on whether it complies with its international law commitments. Framing the broader cybersecurity policies with reference to EU sovereignty emphasises these policies’ significance in addressing the joint security interests of the EU Member States through coordination of national measures, even in areas that remain their sole responsibility. The security measures adopted in relation to the deployment of the fifth-generation mobile communication (5G) infrastructure played a significant role in reshaping cybersecurity policies in the EU adopted to achieve digital sovereignty. In a global context, these policies reflect the ambition of the EU to reaffirm its normative power in cybersecurity governance and the need to protect its strategic interests. This goal entails navigating the pressures of the rivalry between the United States and China, epitomised by the 5G roll-out crisis. The EU's normative framework will likely appeal to other nations looking for solutions to the global cybersecurity challenge, which is exacerbated by the great power polarisation and the stagnation of multilateral organisations. The compliance of its laws and policies with international law will legitimise them and further the EU's global influence.

Joint Security and Energy-Efficient Cooperative Architecture for 5G Underlaying Cellular Networks

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a promising technology which can improve the spectrum efficiency of cellular networks. Despite abundant research on resource allocation and interference cancellation for D2D communication, few works discuss how D2D is realized within cellular communication. In this paper, we propose a symmetric cooperative communication architecture combining security and energy efficiency, in which the users in 5G cellular networks can adaptively select the communication mode among cellular, direct D2D, and relay-assisted D2D communication according to the energy-consumption requirement. Considering the security aspect, we propose a novel relay selection strategy based on the asymmetry of social networks for the architecture. Firstly, we reduce the number of candidate relay devices based on energy consumption, the devices’ battery status, and the devices’ state. Then, an appropriate relay device is selected according to the proposed criteria, combining energy consumption, wireless channel quality, proximity prestige, and spreading ability. Simulation results reveal that, compared with conventional cellular communication and D2D communication, the proposed architecture can increase the number of users accessing the cellular networks simultaneously, improving the throughput and the security of data transmission. It can also significantly reduce the energy consumption as well as outage probability.

Joint Security and Train Control Design in Blockchain-Empowered CBTC System

The communication-based train control (CBTC) system ensures the high efficiency and orderliness of trains and is widely used in urban rail transit networks. The adoption of wireless communication and network techniques makes the CBTC systems more vulnerable to cyber attacks. Identity authentication is an effective approach to improve system security. The existing identity authentication mechanisms in CBTC adopt a centralized key management system sensitive to single-point failures. To improve system security, in this article, we deploy a blockchain in CBTC systems. The client that runs the blockchain program not only acts as blockchain nodes to provide distributed key management for the CBTC system but they also work as a relay node to authenticate the communication between train control nodes in CBTC systems. Based on the blockchain-empowered distributed security scheme, the block producer selection and onboard blockchain client handoff decision problem are studied. With the objective to minimize the impact of the key updating process on CBTC system performance and keep the system security under a reasonable level, we formulate the block producer selection and onboard blockchain client handoff decision problem using the deep reinforcement learning approach. Extensive simulation results illustrate that the proposed blockchain-empowered security scheme can significantly improve the CBTC system security, and CBTC systems need to sacrifice part performance to ensure system security.

Joint timeliness and security provisioning for enhancement of dependability in Internet of Vehicle system

The Internet of Things has emerged as a wonder-solution to numerous problems in our everyday lives, such as smart homes and intelligent transportation. As an extension of the IoTs, the Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) also requires increasingly high security and timeliness. This article proposes a vehicle-assisted batch verification (VABV) system for IoV, in which some vehicles called auxiliary authentication terminal (AAT) are selected to assist the roadside unit for Basic Safety Message (BSM) verification. As a measure to enhance the timeliness performance for system dependability, comprehensive AAT selection strategies are designed. To overcome the security weaknesses of VABV system, a Sybil detection scheme based on Extreme Learning Machine is developed. For the evaluation of VABV system, the quantified Age of Information (AoI) is used as an integrated timeliness and security indicator. The proposed AoI indicator synthesizes the effects of BSM verification, re-verification for failure of some AATs, Sybil attack, and Sybil detection scheme. As illustrated by the simulation results, by employing AoI as a performance evaluation indicator, we can better and more intuitively design an AAT optimal selection strategy based on changes in AoI. Simultaneously, the performance of the proposed Sybil detection scheme can be evaluated more intuitively and effectively under different IoV scenarios based on AoI.

Network Coding-based Resilient Routing for Maintaining Data Security and Availability in Software-Defined Networks

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) improves network performance by flexible traffic control. Data security and data availability are two main concerns for designing a resilient routing algorithm in SDN. Existing algorithms such as the MPT algorithm consider joint data security and availability, but they cannot make a good trade-off. In this paper, we propose a Network Coding-based Resilient Routing algorithm named NCRR to jointly achieve data security and availability. NCRR is a heuristic algorithm that computes routing decisions in three scenarios based on the number of disjoint paths. Specifically, the scenario of three disjoint paths is enough to ensure joint security and availability for a flow when three or more disjoint paths can be used for forwarding this flow. However, due to topological diversity, we cannot always find three disjoint paths for each flow. Thus, the scenarios of two disjoint paths and one path are used to ensure joint security and availability if only two disjoint paths and one path can be used. To evaluate the performance of NCRR, simulations have been conducted using two real-world network topologies. Simulation results show that NCRR improves the joint data security and availability performance by approximately 6.23% on AttMpls topology and 21.34% on Cernet topology, compared with existing MPT.

A Faulty Prescription? Critiquing Joint Security Units after Peace Agreements in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic

ABSTRACT This article critiques the prescription of joint security units called for by civil war peace agreements as a means to integrate armed forces previously in conflict. Drawing on cases from Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, this article offers a comparative assessment of the joint security units attempted in each country. As negotiators and mediators often employ templates from other contexts, the deficits exemplified by these cases call for rethinking the practice of establishing joint units in the doctrine of military integration, as well as in the wider practice of negotiating security arrangements in peace processes.

МІЖНАРОДНО-ПРАВОВИЙ СТАТУС ДЕМІЛІТАРИЗОВАНОЇ ЗОНИ МІЖ ПІВНІЧНОЮ І ПІВДЕННОЮ КОРЕЄЮ (DMZ)

The article considers the international legal status of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea), its preconditions, and consequences. It was emphasized that the DMZ provides for the liquidation of military facilities and if that is not possible, a ban on their use for military purposes may be introduced at the stage of post-war relations between states or during the armistice. It is established that the creation of the demilitarized zone began in 1945 when two "allies" (the United States and the Soviet Union) shared control of the Korean Peninsula. It is emphasized that by 1948 the Soviet leadership had established a communist regime in the area north of the 38th parallel, and a US-backed military government had been formed in the south. The article notes that although the Korean War (1950-1953), aimed at resolving the question of "which regime represented the 'real' Korea," is still not over (North and South Korea are still formally at war, as the peace treaty after the de facto the end of the Korean War in 1953 was never signed), the conditional end of the conflict was the signing of the 1953 Armistice Agreement. The main content of the study is the analysis of the DMZ between North Korea and South Korea, the legal status of which is governed by the Armistice Agreement of 1953. The analysis of the agreement in the article is prohibited within the DMZ (Article 1, paragraph 6). The Military Ceasefire Commission and the Neutral Observation Commission, which were established under the 1953 Ceasefire Agreement, are mentioned. provided by this agreement, it is responsible for the implementation of a certain part. Discussion issues are being raised regarding the creation of the World Peace Park in the DMZ. The article examines the problems of the Joint Security Area (JSA), which is located in the border village of Panmunjom and is a meeting area for representatives of the North and South. It is noted that despite the presence of the DMZ and numerous attempts to establish relations between the two countries, there are still constant risks of escalation of the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which causes constant tension for citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the international community.

Joint security enhancement and PAPR mitigation for OFDM-NOMA VLC systems

Security is of crucial importance to visible light communication (VLC) systems. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a secure non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) VLC system with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, where the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is also significantly reduced. Based on 2D chaotic map, the public key serves a two-fold purpose: to provide physical-layer security against eavesdropper, and to generate a set of phase-rotated candidate signals in the chaotic selected mapping (SLM) scheme where the signal with lowest PAPR is selected for transmission. The private keys further enhance the security and guarantee the privacy among the legitimate users via chaotic data scrambling. The experiment based on a direct current-biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM) VLC system with two legitimate users and one eavesdropper successfully verified the joint security enhancement and PAPR mitigation performance of the proposed scheme for NOMA VLC application.

An Analysis of the Reasonableness of the Internal Recourse Rights of the Guarantor in Hybrid Joint Security

An Analysis of the Reasonableness of the Internal Recourse Rights of the Guarantor in Hybrid Joint Security

Joint security and performance improvement in multilevel shared caches

Joint security and performance improvement in multilevel shared caches

Regionalism and bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation: the case of India and Thailand

ABSTRACT After major terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, Bali, Indonesia in 2002, and Mumbai, India in 2008, India and Thailand responded in disparate ways. Thailand was slow to respond out of fear of alienating the large Muslim population in its restive south. India, after Mumbai, moved to create and strengthen domestic institutions that would hasten counter-terrorism measures, with limited success. In the years that followed these seminal events, both Bangkok and New Delhi have, like other South Asian and ASEAN states, moved toward bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism partnerships. This paper surveys the history of terrorism in both countries and their domestic responses, persistent domestic and regional challenges, and documents a growing India-Thailand bilateral counter-terrorism partnership – particularly in the sectors of maritime security, intelligence sharing, extradition, and joint security cooperation. This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on emerging South-South partnerships by evaluating India-Thailand counter-terrorism cooperation and explores avenues for future bilateral exchanges and multilateral opportunities within institutional bodies, such as ASEAN and BIMSTEC.

Ballots and Bullets: Electoral Violence and Gubernatorial Elections in Oyo State, Nigeria, 2007–2015

Abstract This article is an empirical study of the causal factors of electoral violence in gubernatorial elections in Oyo state from 2007 to 2015 and its implications on the state’s democratisation process. The methodology is qualitative, drawing data from primary and secondary sources. Data were analysed using content analysis. The article adopted political clientelism and patronage as the theoretical framework. Findings revealed that the nature of politics based on clientelism and patronage and the politicisation of leadership tussle of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) were among the factors responsible for violence in the state during the period of the study. It is recommended that the establishment of a Joint Security Consultative Council can help in securing future elections.

Indian Ocean Geopolitics

The relevance of the IOR is fourfold, First historical relevance. The Indian Ocean has been a zone of human interaction for several millennia, boasting a 1,500 years history of active high seas trade -much before the arrival of Europeans in 1498. Adequate proofs exist to establish that the seafaring and maritime trade across these waters supplemented with facts of human migration, the spread of religion, visit of scholars, and many more since as early as the pre-historic era. Second, geographical relevance, it is said that in geopolitics, geography plays a vital role in influencing peace and security in the region. The Indian Ocean is the third largest Ocean having an area of 68.56 million sq km and covers about 20% of the earth's surface. It is nearly 10,000 km wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia and extends nearly 13,500 km from the Persian Gulf to Antarctica. It is physically the most complex, walled ocean bounded on three sides by land. The Indian Ocean is not 'open-ended' like the Pacific or Atlantic. IOR stretches from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Malacca with its entry and exit constrained by choke points. Third, economic relevance, the IOR has 40 per cent of the world's energy reserves, 65 per cent of strategic raw material reserves and the largest producers of rubber, tea, spices and jute. It is also a region of extreme economic diversity and its natural resources add to its strategic significance. More than 65% of the world’s Uranium and oil reserves exist on the ocean bed. Last, the Strategic Relevance, Strategically, Indian Ocean is the most important water body of the world where global struggles will play out in the 21st century. The Indian Ocean is the focal point of all the major shipping routes of the world. Major sea routes passing through IOR connecting the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The IOR is also the lifeline of international trade and economy, with half of the global cargo trade, two-third of the energy supplies and one-third of the bulk cargo trade passing through the Indian Ocean. Unlike the Pacific and Atlantic, 80% of the trade pattern is 'extra-regional'. About one Lakh ships pass through these waters in a year. According to an estimate, Indian Ocean shipping comprises the highest tonnage of goods in the world. Therefore, IOR needs effective maritime governance and maritime domain awareness by all littoral states. It needs soft power geopolitics practices together with regional integration – a strategic alliance. These can be achieved bridging through dialogues. Prospective military Alliances, Military Training Assistance, Military Diplomatic Exchanges and Defence industry and Technological Transfer are the realistic and appropriate defence integration that can be achieved for the unity of effort for a joint security mechanism. Integrated intelligence Sharing and Integrated Space and Cyber Security Organisations are the modern measures that can support the joint security strategies in the region. This paves the way to implement common cause missions for maintaining peace and order in the IOR.

Water and ‘imperfect peace’ in the Euphrates–Tigris river basin

Abstract Transboundary water relations in the Euphrates–Tigris (ET) basin are often marked by political confrontation and rivalry between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Even in the absence of political stability, riparian states have remained in contact with one another over the ET rivers at different levels by establishing and revitalizing joint governance mechanisms. In these processes, multiple actors—ranging from bureaucracies and heads of state and government, to epistemic communities—have focused on cooperative socio-economic development aspects of otherwise divisive water-related matters in the basin. Hence, the article aims to examine various emerging actors and mechanisms, arguing that their co-existence in the basin demonstrates a case of ‘imperfect peace’. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and with the start of the domestic unrest in Syria in 2011, transboundary water relations in the basin have been carried out within the context of an unstable international security environment, particularly with the emergence of the non-state armed groups who have used water as a weapon against their opponents. The article therefore addresses policy-relevant research questions, such as what kind of joint security mechanism the riparian states should create to cope with violent non-state actors who control water and infrastructure under the conditions of ‘imperfect peace’. In the same vein, the article analyses the strategic role that water plays in environmental peacebuilding and discusses the possible ways and means to improve the protection of water during and after armed conflicts.

Joint Cryptography and Channel-Coding Based on Low-Density Parity-Check Codes and Advanced Encryption Standard for 5G Systems

Security and reliability issues have always been a big challenge in digital communications. With the emerging 5G technologies, new requirements are introduced where latency reduction is one of the most important. In this paper, a joint security and reliability method is proposed to fulfil both requirements in a single step with reduced computational complexity that leads to reduced latency for 5G communication systems. Based on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptosystem and Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes, the proposed method processes encryption and encoding at the same time. MATLAB simulation results show that the proposed method performs better compared to the previous conventional methods where encoding is done after encryption.

US MISSILE DEFENCE EFFORTS AND CHINESE RESERVATIONS IN EAST ASIA

ABSTRACT Asia, with the world's largest population, extensive natural resources and fast growing economies, has become one of the world's most dynamic regions and a theatre for a variety of actors, distinct interests and national armament efforts. Focusing on East Asia, the most significant regional powers are the US and China, which although they are becoming competitors, also depend on each other over a large number of economic and regional security issues (e.g. North Korea). But on the whole, China and the US are struggling for regional hegemony and influence. They are pursuing large-scale armament efforts and investing heavily in emerging military technologies, thereby feeding the risk of violent confrontations and threatening stability and peace. In this connection, US Missile Defence represents one of China's major concerns. Focusing on US Missile Defence efforts in the Western Pacific region, this article presents an overview of the currently-deployed systems and plans for further development. It analyses the technological capabilities of associated sensor and interceptor elements and estimates their individual abilities to contribute to an integrated US Missile Defence architecture in this region. Finally, this state of short- to mid-term US Missile Defence capacity in the region is situated in relation to its impact on nuclear deterrence and strategic stability, taking account of both Chinese security concerns and US security interests. Assuming that both the US and China have a common interest in regional and strategic stability, the article concludes by discussing arms control measures. It suggests concrete options for confidence building and proposes achievable steps, which would promote a Sino-American discourse on joint security issues and strengthen crisis stability as well as regional security.

The Borderland Theory in the Context of Pak-Afghan Border

This paper discusses the Borderland Theory from the perspective of the Pak-Afghan border that gained great momentum in the post-9/11 episode. Borders play the most significant role in determining the relations between the bordering countries. The insurgents use it as a sanctuary after getting their nefarious designs fulfilled. For the very first time in the history of Pak-Afghan relations, Pakistan had to deploy security personnel on its western border in such a great number owing to the greater need for security from this border. Cross border infiltration had a great impact on the security paradigm of Pakistan. Some of the most noteworthy networks that were hotly pursued include the Neo-Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network. Border management, making joint security troops from both the countries for deployment along both sides of the border, while negotiation coupled with diplomacy will do a lot in eradicating terrorism and insurgency across both sides of the border.

Trans-state security complexes and security governance in West Africa

ABSTRACT Security discourse in contemporary times has brought to the fore the relevance of regions as indispensable loci for analysing, understanding and managing security challenges across many spaces of the globe. In the process of deepening this discursive analysis of regional security, scholars have developed a few concepts. Two of these analytical concepts are ‘security complexes’ and ‘regional security governance’. However, extant literature rarely examines the conceptual and empirical interplay between these two constructs. It is on this note that this article asks: how are security complexes and security governance impacting one another? To what extent could their pragmatic interactions shape the choice of regional organisations that will coordinate joint security undertakings? It argues that while it is the formation of security complexes from a trans-state perspective that will generate the necessity for regional security governance, the dissolution of such a complex equally demands an effective orchestration of regional security governance. The article also contends that the spatial scope of a trans-state security complex is a central factor for determining the appropriateness of the regional organisation that will coordinate its security governance project. It specifically draws on empirical evidence from West Africa to bolster these arguments.