National Security Community Research Articles

Responding to the West’s environmental security paradox: organic national security and the contemporary state embrace of severe anthropogenic environmental degradation, contamination, and vanishing (SEDCOV)

ABSTRACT Western nations ultimately rely for all aspects of their security and survival upon the natural, non-human world, yet they are currently degrading and depleting it to an extreme and potentially terminal extent. Recognizing this security paradox, scholars and policymakers have, in recent years, begun to renew and expand upon the West’s decades-old uneasy acknowledgement of the national security relevance of global anthropogenic environmental decline. However, important gaps in this renewed discourse remain. Approaches rooted in environmental science and environmental studies tend to frame the problem in simple biophysical terms instead of using the political and power frames of reference of actual states. On the other main side of the renewed discourse, Western national security apparatuses themselves (and their adjacent expert communities) have adopted a problematic neo-traditional approach, focusing on predicting which new strategic conditions and threats global environmental decline will generate, and how a largely status quo, intact state should prepare to respond to these conditions. This side of the renewed discourse arguably grossly underestimates environmental decline’s truly radical potential to destabilise the domestic state as well as external powers, and also avoids the central problem that a key origin of this decline is mundane Western state behaviour. This paper aims to introduce two new elements into Western national security community approaches to global environmental decline. First, I introduce a new way of defining organic national security and suggest why this may be a useful concept in evaluating and pursuing national security in the 21st century. Second, I lay out how re-attaining a modicum of organic national security will require that the West first reappraise its own contemporary embrace and normalisation of severe anthropogenic environmental degradation, contamination, and vanishing (SEDCOV) across nearly every policy domain.

Points of entry dynamics: understanding the cross-border threats for Ebola virus disease and COVID-19 in Ghana using a logic model approach.

The influx of people across the national borders of Ghana has been of interest and concern in the public health and national security community in recent times due to the low capacity for the prevention and management of epidemics and other public health risks. Although the international health regulations (IHR) stipulate core public health capacities for designated border facilities such as international airports, seaports, and ground crossings, contextual factors that influence the attainment of effective public health measures and response capabilities remain understudied. This study aims to assess the relationship between contextual factors and COVID-19 procurement to help strengthen infrastructure resources for points of entry (PoE) public health surveillance functions, thereby eliminating gaps in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of pandemic-related interventions in Ghana. This study employed a mixed-methods design, where quantitative variables were examined for relationships and effect size interactions using multiple linear regression techniques and the wild bootstrap technique. Country-level data was sourced from multiple publicly available sources using the social-ecological framework, logic model, and IHR capacity monitoring framework. The qualitative portion included triangulation with an expert panel to determine areas of convergence and divergence. The most general findings were that laboratory capacity and Kotoka International Airport testing center positively predicted COVID-19 procurement, and public health response and airline boarding rule negatively predicted COVID-19 procurement. Contextual understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola epidemic is vital for strengthening PoE mitigation measures and preventing disease importation.

Politics and intelligence analysis: the Canadian experience

ABSTRACT Academic debate on the interplay between politics and intelligence is dominated by the U.S. experience. Our research, based on interviews with over sixty individuals in the Canadian intelligence and national security community and including political staffers, provides a new case study: that of Canada, a middle power with considerable access to intelligence through the Five Eyes partnership. We found that cases of hard politicization of intelligence analysis are virtually non-existent in Canada. The most important factor explaining this finding is Canada’s structural position in the world, or how its geography shapes the broader context of interactions between intelligence and politics. Beyond this, six more specific factors at the domestic level also matter: the relative unimportance of foreign and security policy as political issues, few opportunities, a lack of political benefits, low intelligence literacy generally among policy makers, poor transparency in national security decision making, and a tradition of non-partisanship in the civil service. The paper concludes by reflecting on this assessment: while hard politicization remains a rarity in Canada, the shields that have prevented the emergence of politicization will likely be increasingly tested in the future.

National Security Transparency and Relations with Minority Communities

National security and intelligence communities in democracies have traditionally not been very transparent, in general and specifically in their relations with minority communities. This goes against basic principles of democratic governance, but it is also counterproductive: the lack of transparency hinders these organizations’ ability to protect national security. This article argues that a broader, proactive definition of transparency should replace traditional perspectives to better support enhanced engagement with minority communities. Next, it explains that for its gains to be sustainable, transparency must be institutionalized into the everyday work of national security organizations. Yet enhancing transparency is easier said than done: while the gains tend to emerge in the longer term, risks emerge in the short term. The article concludes by recognizing that enhancing national security transparency in relations with minority communities, although necessary, is complex and time-consuming, a reality underestimated by some of its proponents in civil society.

EMERGING NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS AND BUILDING STATE RESILIENCE

On November 22, 2022, the Honourable David McGuinty, Chairman of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), presented on Emerging National Security Concerns and Building State Resilience. The key points discussed were what is NSICOP, how NSICOP conducts reviews into Canada’s National Security and Intelligence community, and the future of NSICOP’s mandate. The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS Vancouver executives. Received: 20223-01-02Revised: 2023-01-12

How Is the American Foreign Policy Establishment Structured? A Multiple Correspondence Analysis of the US China Field

AbstractChallenging visions of the US national security “Establishment” as either hamstrung by ideological homogeneity bordering on groupthink, or riven by irreconcilable party political divisions, we deploy multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to uncover empirically the structure of the China segment of the US national security community. MCA—a form of geometric data analysis—finds latent structures in categorical datasets. Using an original dataset of organizations with a strong presence on China issues, we show that the China organizational field is far from homogenous, but is split less between left and right than over degree of political engagement, separating older think tanks and cultural organizations from business-focused research and consulting firms, and academic/research institutions outside from politically oriented groups located primarily within the Beltway. We explore our findings using the Trump and Obama administrations’ choice of locations to give speeches and remarks on US–China relations.

Top Secret Canada Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community

Top Secret Canada Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community

Interaction between health insurance, household income, and public health financing in Ukraine

The most significant problems in financing the public health system in Ukraine are the permanent deficit of public spending on medicine and the shallow development of the voluntary health insurance market. The aim of study is the search of optimal interactions between stakeholders in the system of relations “state – insurance companies – households” in the context of voluntary health insurance. The study hypothesizes that households can become more active participants in health insurance only if their average monthly income reaches a certain threshold level. It is calculated based on the results of simulation games using the Brown-Robinson iterative method. According to the simulation results, this threshold level is only 7% higher than the actual value of the average monthly income of Ukrainian households during the analysis. At the same time, under this condition, the state in Ukraine will be able to transfer part of the financial burden of compensating healthcare costs to insurance companies. According to the calculations made with the help of the game theory toolkit, with the maximization of insurance payments to the population under health insurance contracts, the burden on public health financing in Ukraine could be reduced by 67.7%. The paper was conducted on the data of the ten most potent insurance companies of Ukraine as of 2021 (it is they who accumulate the lion’s share of household insurance premiums), that is, before the start of a full-scale war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The obtained results can be used both by insurance companies during the management of insurance premiums and payments and at the level of state management of costs in the field of public health. AcknowledgmentThis study was undertaken as a part of the research projects granted by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine: “Socio-economic recovery after COVID-19: modeling the implications for macroeconomic stability, national security and local community resilience” (registration number 0122U000778); “The impact of COVID-19 on the transformation of the system of medical and social security of population: economic, financial-budgetary, institutional-political determinants” (0122U000781).

신흥기술을 이용한 테러이용수단에 대한 대응 : 미국 국토안보부의 과학-기술적 대응에 관한 연구

We witness a new wave of emerging technologies changing our society in every aspect. Along with the innovation of technologies in our daily lives, we encounter a challenge that violent non-state actors use the new technology for their terrorist attacks. These violent non-state terrorist groups and extremists rapidly adopted and exploited these emerging technologies in unanticipated and lethal ways. Today, therefore, terrorists and extremists became more technologically savvy with no readily existing effective countermeasures. In fact, combatting against the malicious use of technological innovations is not an easy task for national security communities globally. Therefore, it became an imminent and the most important mission for security communities to address the challenge of emerging technological threats now and in the foreseeable future to national security. In an attempt to deal with the treats and opportunities of emerging technologies, Department of Homeland Security(DHS) of U.S.A operates the Science and Technologies Directorate(S&T) to work with world-class experts, renowned research centers and labs to improve the ability of DHS component to protect critical infrastructure and the overall security of its homeland. S&T provides evidence-based scientific and technical solutions and advises to deal with a range of emerging threats from aviation security to CRNBE(Chemical, Radioactive, Nuclear, Biological & Explosives) detection for DHS. Operations by S&T are unique but very effective. Currently, we, South Korea, need the model of S&T of DHS to prevent emerging threats to our nation security. However, it seems to be that our counterterrorism agencies and communities are not adequately ready for the new challenge yet. Therefore, this study attempts to examine whether the US S&T model is applicable for our counterterrorism system to encounter newly emerging threats of innovative terrorist technologies. In results and discussion, we discussed policy implications and suggested current counterterrorism policies and revisions of relevant laws.

Un-Repeal: Reviving the Arms Control Impact Statements

From the late 1970s into the early 1990s, U.S. federal law mandated the executive branch to prepare annual analytical documents known as Arms Control Impact Statements (ACIS). These instruments – obviously patterned after the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which had been inaugurated only a few years previously – were intended to prod the national security community to undertake more rigorous, multi-dimensional study of major weapons programs, and to provide Congress and the American public with enhanced, timely information about key arms procurement decisions. However, unlike the EIS process – which rapidly became institutionalized, and which has proliferated to multiple tiers of government and around the world over the past fifty years – the ACIS process was a conspicuous failure. It was widely regarded as a meaningless exercise, consuming immense bureaucratic resources and hardly ever changing any outcomes – a colossal waste of time. The statute that created the ACIS operation was amended to abolish the entire program after only a decade and half of fitful operation. This Article undertakes to compare the starkly different case histories of the ACIS and EIS programs, with an eye to revival of the former in an appropriately modified form. It analyzes the goals of the legislation and the key features accounting for success and failure, and makes recommendations for a modern revival of ACIS that are based upon lessons learned in other contexts. The proposal seeks to underscore the concept that arms control is a key element in sound national security policy, to promote more systematic, wide-ranging analysis in support of key national decision-making, and to empower the legislative branch, as well as the public, to participate in policy debates in a more informed, timely manner.

Book Review: Top Secret Canada: Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community

Book Review: Top Secret Canada: Understanding the Canadian Intelligence and National Security Community

Un-repeal: Reviving the Arms Control Impact Statements

From the late 1970s into the early 1990s, U.S. federal law mandated the executive branch to prepare annual analytical documents known as Arms Control Impact Statements (ACIS). These instruments – obviously patterned after the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), which had been inaugurated only a few years previously – were intended to prod the national security community to undertake more rigorous, multi-dimensional study of major weapons programs, and to provide Congress and the American public with enhanced information about key arms procurement decisions. However, unlike the EIS process – which rapidly became institutionalized, and which has proliferated to multiple tiers of government and around the world over the past fifty years – the ACIS process was a conspicuous failure. It was widely regarded as a meaningless exercise, consuming immense bureaucratic resources and hardly ever changing any outcomes – a colossal waste of time. The statute that had created the ACIS operation was amended to abolish the entire program after only a decade and half of fitful operation. This Article undertakes to compare the starkly different case histories of the ACIS and EIS programs, with an eye to revival of the former, in appropriately modified form. It analyzes the goals of the legislation and the key features accounting for success and failure, and makes recommendations for a modern revival of ACIS, based upon lessons learned in other contexts. The proposal seeks to underscore the concept that arms control is a key element in sound national security policy, to promote more systematic, wide-ranging analysis in support of key national decision-making, and to empower the legislative branch, as well as the public, to participate in policy debates in a more informed, timely manner.

Next-Generation Intensity-Duration-Frequency Curves for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Design: Advances and Opportunities

National and international security communities (e.g., U.S. Department of Defense) have shown increasing attention for innovating critical infrastructure and installations due to recurring high-profile flooding events in recent years. The standard infrastructure design approach relies on local precipitation-based intensity-duration-frequency (PREC-IDF) curves that do not account for snow process and assume stationary climate, leading to high failure risk and increased maintenance costs. This paper reviews the recently developed next-generation IDF (NG-IDF) curves that explicitly account for the mechanisms of extreme water available for runoff including rainfall, snowmelt, and rain-on-snow under nonstationary climate. The NG-IDF curve is an enhancement to the PREC-IDF curve and provides a consistent design approach across rain- to snow-dominated regions, which can benefit engineers and planners responsible for designing climate-resilient facilities, federal emergency agencies responsible for the flood insurance program, and local jurisdictions responsible for developing design manuals and approving subsequent infrastructure designs. Further, we discuss the recent advances in climate and hydrologic science communities that have not been translated into actional information in the engineering community. To bridge the gap, we advocate that building climate-resilient infrastructure goes beyond the traditional local design scale where engineers rely on recipe-based methods only; the future hydrologic design is a multi-scale problem and requires closer collaboration between climate scientists, hydrologists, and civil engineers.

Narrative Framing and the United States’ Threat Construction of Rivals

Abstract Constructing a credible foreign threat is a key activity in the US national security community. By adopting a narrative approach to threat formation, we attempt to delineate the contours of the Soviet Union, Japan, and China in the US threat discourse spectrum. The Soviet threat is constructed through a story of two ideologically opposed rivals competing for world domination and the Japan-bashing narrative is of victimisation due to Japan’s unfair competition. China threat stories, however, are now more complex, conflating a story of US victimhood at the hands of China’s unfair competition, advocated by President Trump, with a widely embedded but malleable epic tale of power competition between a rising power and the ruling power, and a new Cold War script propagated by the 'deep state' hawks. We have found that as long as a country may potentially threaten the United States’ hegemonic identity, be it a formidable power with an antagonistic outlook like the Soviet Union, an ally from inside like Japan, or a rising peer competitor like China, the United States will invariably construct a diametrical self-other story in a zero-sum mindset and resort relentlessly to its superior Self while customising its threat story scripts in accordance with the rival’s characteristics and dimensions of challenges.

Quantum technology hype and national security

Technology hype is an important concept in business, marketing, and science and technology studies, but it is rarely related to security studies. What is technology hype? How does it relate to national security? And to what effect? This article examines rational and performative perspectives on technology hype as either a kind of exaggeration or expectant discourse. Adopting the latter view, I compare and contrast hype cycles with threat inflation and securitization theory. I then sketch my own theoretical propositions about technology hype as being common in national security, with variable degrees of acceptance, familiar content, and significant consequences. A case study on quantum technologies provides proof of concept. I find ample evidence of hype over quantum computers, communications, and sensors; audience acceptance in the national security community varies with familiarity; and consequential decisions appear to follow. While cyclical expectations suggest the need for caution when citing quantum technologies in support of quantum approaches to international relations, a middle-range theory about technology hype provides useful insight into security practice.

Pending Section 232 Litigation and Broader Trade Trends: Will the US Courts Restrict Presidential Authority from Relying upon “National Security”?

This article discusses American Institute for International Steel v. the United States, which is pending in the little-known United States Court of International Trade in New York. It involves an attempt to declare that the US legislation delegating authority to the president to impose trade restrictions is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. A loss would legally curtail the president’s discretionary power to use national security as a reason to impose punitive measures against trading partners. The article identifies legal trends, where this case fits into the trade policy debates, and why it is so important. The article concludes that domestic U.S. litigation in 2019 may well have a tremendous impact on U.S. law and the global trading system. Many in the domestic and international trading communities (as well as those in the foreign policy and national security communities) are waiting for the results of this little-known steel litigation.

Change and Continuity in U.S.-Taiwan Security Ties

Change and Continuity in U.S.-Taiwan Security Ties Lauren Dickey (bio) The Taiwan Strait in 2019 is characterized by a combination of change and continuity. As it has for decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains focused on the goal of reunification. However, the growing strength of China's statements concerning Taiwan, along with the appearance of greater resolve among Chinese leaders that reunification is inevitable, is a notable change.1 On the opposite side of the strait, Taiwan is a vibrant democracy with a sizable economic and political presence in the region. The island is also an important U.S. partner. In Washington, attitudes toward both China and Taiwan have shifted. The U.S. national security community is attuned to the challenges of a "revisionist China" as described in recent key strategy documents, including the effects that Chinese actions may have on the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait.2 Perhaps unsurprisingly, adaptation and evolution in U.S.-Taiwan security ties are due in no small part to this shift in U.S. perceptions of China and regional challenges. This essay seeks to make sense of the change and continuity in U.S.-Taiwan security ties. It begins with an assessment of how the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) has shaped relations in the security domain. It then turns to a discussion of three current trends in the U.S.-Taiwan defense relationship and what these trends may indicate for the future. Re-examining the Foundation of U.S.-Taiwan Security Ties For the last 40 years, the TRA has provided a solid foundation for the development of U.S.-Taiwan security and defense ties. It has offered [End Page 18] an enduring framework for relations that can be, and arguably has been, implemented flexibly in response to changing regional security dynamics.3 The TRA sets out several key stipulations. First, the stability and peace of the Taiwan Strait are identified as a U.S. interest. Any nonpeaceful efforts to determine the future of Taiwan are considered of "grave concern" to the United States and a threat to regional security. Second, the TRA identifies clear parameters to guide the development of the bilateral security relationship and states that it is U.S. policy to "provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character." More specifically, in the section on implementation, the TRA directs the U.S. government to "make available to Taiwan such defense articles and defense services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability" (secs. 2.25, 3.1). The TRA also provides loose guidance for how the U.S. military may be involved in a Taiwan crisis or conflict. The United States is to maintain the capacity "to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." It is not legally bound by the TRA to come to Taiwan's defense in times of crisis or conflict but rather to maintain the military capability to do so if directed by the president and Congress (secs. 2.26, 3.3). Similarly, assertions that the TRA in fact requires the United States sell arms to Taiwan exaggerate the text's legal meaning. When it comes to providing for Taiwan's defense and security, the TRA directs the United States to supply Taiwan with defense articles and services based on U.S. assessments of Taiwan's needs. The statute delegates to the president, Congress, and the Department of Defense the ability to determine what constitute defensive capabilities. As Richard Bush has noted, the text of the TRA is a legislative commitment that must be backed up by political commitment.4 Changes in the strategic environment of the Taiwan Strait and the broader Indo-Pacific have led different U.S. administrations to interpret and implement the TRA differently. It is these shifts in implementation that provide insight to current trends in U.S.-Taiwan security ties. [End Page 19] Trends in U.S.-Taiwan Security and Defense Ties While U.S. engagement with Taiwan has traditionally received robust bipartisan support in Congress, the TRA...

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration

American Muslim Community under Bush and Obama Administration Abdullah Alshrari Abstract Incidents of 9/11 caused American government to shift policy towards American Muslims. The policy changes involved legislative measures. One major legislative measure was the Patriot Act. The FBI was authorized to increase the surveillance of Muslim American citizens. These measures negatively affected the Muslim American communities including restrictions on immigration rules. The political and the social environment in Bush and Obama administrations were different; the public have different views of the problem of National Security and Muslim community. Local and state government reflects to these views at the federal level specific laws such as the Patriot Act, also changed in each administration. The Muslim community is now learning to find its voice and become participant in the American society and politics. In order to understand the different impact of government policies on the American Muslim community in the post 9/11 environment, it is necessary to analyze what happened during each administration. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rhps.v7n2a2

Beyond the Reach of Regulation? "Basic" and "Applied" Research in the Early Cold War United States.

This article describes the place of the basic/applied science distinction in negotiations over the limits of secrecy between the U.S. "scientific" community and the American government. It combines an analysis of Vannevar Bush's key report to the President in 1945 with Congressional hearings in the late 1950s that were concerned about the increasingly vast scope of government controls over the circulation of knowledge. The concept of "basic research" was used as a political weapon to push back against the extended, uncoordinated, and frustrating constraints on the circulation of new research findings by the expanding apparatus of the National Security State. Mapping basic vs. applied research onto open vs. regulated and classified knowledge served as key to a workable political compromise between the scientific and national security communities.

Behavioral Public Choice, U.S. National Security Interests, and Transnational Executive Decision Making

This article considers how behavioral public choice theory can evolve and apply to U.S. national security, transnational security, and human rights fields. It draws upon the processes by which CIA, Defense Department, and other the Bush-Cheney administration officials implemented a new global detention-interrogation program during the Global War on Terror using techniques that violated the transnational law of torture and longstanding U.S. policy. With a focus on recent scholarly work by Paul Slovic and Cass Sunstein, the article recommends opportunities to study and improve decision making processes and the roles that attorneys play in U.S. national security communities. Leadership and ethics are identified as fields for future interdisciplinary work and attention by government organizations.