US National Security Research Articles

English

The mission statement of US African Command (AFRICOM), articulated by President George Bush in 2007, declared African underdevelopment and human insecurities as a threat to US national security. Since 10 years have elapsed from the time of AFRICOM’s inauguration, this paper seeks to highlight that the organization has fallen short in realizing its mission statement. This unnerving reality has given credence to intellectuals who adopt an apocalyptic position vis-a-vis the organization. Intellectual skeptics disconcerted with AFRICOM located in the Global South and Global North have come to the conclusion that AFRICOM’s actuality as an organization primarily advanced American economic interest and perceived issues of African development as trivial. In the 21st-century, US security experts discursively shifted Africa from being a politicized issue to a securitized issue thereby constructing the continent as posing an existential threat not only to American geostrategic interest, but also American identity of exceptionalism. By using the work of New Left historian William Appleman Williams and by referencing speech actors with political capital, this paper highlights that the process of securitizing Africa using exceptional speech acts to expand corporate capitalism is not unique to Africa since there are historical discursive parallels between early and current speech acts deliberated during junctures involving US foreign ventures. Key words: US African Command (AFRICOM), African Union (AU), securitization, speech act, exceptionalism, expansionism, economic-frontier, security-development discourse, US informal empire, William Appleman Williams, apocalyptic-complementary positions.

New Evidence for the Surprisingly Significant Propaganda Role of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense in the Screen Entertainment Industry

This article reassesses the relationships of the Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense with the American entertainment industry. Both governmental institutions present their relationships as modest in scale, benign in nature, passive, and concerned with historical and technical accuracy rather than politics. The limited extant commentary reflects this reassuring assessment. However, we build on a patchy reassessment begun at the turn of the 21st century, using a significant new set of documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. We identify three key facets of the state-entertainment relationship that are under-emphasized or absent from the existing commentary and historical record: 1. The withholding of available data from the public; 2. The scale of the work; and 3. The level of politicization. As such, the article emphasizes a need to pay closer attention to the deliberate propaganda role played by state agencies in promoting the US national security state through entertainment media in western societies.

A Potential Tool of Investment Protectionism: US National Security Review System

After the Financial Crisis happened in 2008, investment protectionism has become rampant again around the world. For the consideration of the maintenance of national economic security and market stability, a number of countries start to take measures to set up barriers to restrict the entry and operation of foreign investment. After decades of development, the national security review system of the United States has gradually evolved into a potential tool of investment protectionism. The scope of the national security review has increasingly expanded, while the procedure of the national security review has been increasingly stringent. Gradually, it has become a stumbling block of foreign investment. International society should be vigilant to this phenomenon of investment protectionism, which is in the name of the national security review though.

Media technology, covert action, and the politics of exposure

States wishing to use force in the modern era frequently face strong incentives to exploit secrecy. Successful covert operations can reduce the likelihood of unwanted escalation with powerful rivals and help leaders conceal unpopular actions from domestic and foreign audiences alike. The many benefits of secrecy, however, can only be realized if covert operations remain covert. We argue that access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) is a critical factor that increases the chances that a covert mission will be exposed. As a result, leaders are much less likely to reach for the quiet option when a potential target has dense ICT networks. We illustrate our mechanism through US national security archival vignettes. We test our argument using a dataset of declassified US military and electoral interventions intended to subvert incumbent regimes throughout the Cold War. The core finding, that leaders are less likely to pursue covert action relative to alternative options when the chances of exposure are high, holds across five distinct measures of ICT networks as well as different model specifications and placebo tests. Our findings suggest that Cold War-style covert operations may well be a thing of the past in an age where communication and media technologies have proliferated to the far corners of the globe. We advance debates on communications technologies, covert action, and political violence.

Containing revolution: democracy promotion, the Cold War and US national security

This article examines the rise of democracy promotion as a US national security priority and the origins of the US’ first democracy promotion organization: the National Endowment for Democracy. During the 1970s, non-state actors called for the foundation of a private democracy promotion organization to overcome strategic and organizational dilemmas which had resulted in the US state limiting its export of democracy in favour of short-term national security objectives and restraining state–private network organizations during the Cold War. Blueprints for a private democracy foundation resolved these dilemmas by removing the US state as the key actor in democracy promotion. However, the fact that private democracy promoters required state funding to be effective led to a reconciliation with the state, and the foundation of the NED as a privately managed but state-funded organization during the Reagan administration. This reconciliation has led to a recurrence of previous dilemmas, which impact US democracy promotion today.

Scholarly attention and the limited internationalization of US social science

What parts of the world does American social science consider worthy of scholarly attention? Analyzing the geographic focus of more than 2 million bibliographic records of journal articles, books, and dissertations, the study finds a weak trend toward internationalization of US social-scientific attention over the past half-century. Moreover, the share of scholarly attention devoted to particular regions has remained surprisingly stable over this period, with Western Europe remaining the primary focus of internationally-oriented work. Shifts in US national security priorities, international trade, student demand, and demographic characteristics account for only a small portion of the variation in the rate of social-scientific publications on world regions, lending credibility to the view that scholarly attention is shaped in large part by inertia that is built into academic institutions and cultures.

Tracing the traces: The critical role of metadata within networked communications

The information sciences have traditionally been at the center of metadata‐focused research. The US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence documents revealed by Edward Snowden in June of 2013 brought the term “metadata” into the public consciousness. Surprisingly little discussion in the information sciences has since occurred on the nature and importance of metadata within networked communication systems. The collection of digital metadata impacts the ways that people experience social and technical communication. Without such metadata, networked communication cannot exist. The NSA leaks, and numerous recent hacks of corporate and government communications, point to metadata as objects of new scholarly inquiry. If we are to engage in meaningful discussions about our digital traces, or make informed decisions about new policies and technologies, it is essential to develop theoretical and empirical frameworks that account for digital metadata. This opinion paper presents 5 key sociotechnical characteristics of metadata within digital networks that would benefit from stronger engagement by the information sciences.

Governing ‘ungoverned’ space: humanitarianism, citizenship, and the civilian sphere in the territorialising practices of the US national security complex

ABSTRACTThe ‘war on terror’ has seen an increased overlap between military and humanitarian practices in US national security strategy. Guided by imaginative geographies of ‘ungoverned’ or ‘under-governed’ space, aid distribution and humanitarian assistance efforts are frequently coupled with stability efforts and counterinsurgency operations. This overlap has been buttressed by a growing collaboration between the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development – often termed the ‘3Ds’of defense, development and diplomacy – bringing a greater influence of the civilian sphere on US national security strategy. In this paper, I explore the influence of the civilian sphere on these military-humanitarian practices. Through an analysis of publications and policy documents from across the US national security complex, I argue that the civilian sphere is central to US efforts to territorialize ostensibly insecure, ‘ungoverned’ space so as to extend US global geopolitical influence and the US-led global neoliberal market. This involves both a more substantial role for civilian organisations in security efforts, adding legitimacy and civilian expertise to territorialising military-humanitarian practices, and a growing focus on the harnessing of the civilian sphere of targeted populations on-the-ground through a greater emphasis on citizenship, and its related ideas of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, in security policy. Not only does this focus on citizenship couch US intervention in a moral discourse, it also indicates how ‘ungoverned’ space is to be rendered ‘governed’ through the encouragement of a technology of citizenship and a subjectivity conducive to the expansion of the neoliberal market.

Beyond the buzzword: big data and national security decision-making

This article explores the role big data plays in the national security decision-making process. The global surveillance disclosures initiated by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden have increased public and academic discussions about big data and national security. Yet, efforts to summarize and import insights from the vast and interdisciplinary literature on data analytics have remained rare in the field of security studies. To fill this gap, we explain the core characteristics of big data, provide an overview of the techniques and methods of data analytics, and explore how big data can support the core national security process of intelligence. Big data is not only defined by the volume of data but also by their velocity, variety and issues of veracity. Scientists have developed a number of techniques to extract information from big data and support national security practices. We find that data analytics tools contribute to and influence all the core intelligence functions in the contemporary US national security apparatus. However, these tools cannot replace the central role of humans and their ability to contextualize security threats. The fundamental value of big data lies in humans' ability to understand its power and mitigate its limits.

America’s Generals Are Out of Ideas for Afghanistan

The decision to do more of the same and expect different results underscores a broader strategic bankruptcy within the US national-security establishment.

Risk and security on the Mexico-to-US migrant journey: women’s testimonios of violence

In this article, I argue that immigrants’ meanings, perceptions, and feelings of risk and (in)security are relational, multi-scalar, and contextual to lived experiences before, during, and after the migration journey. Paying attention to and analyzing Mexican women’s testimonios of intimate experiences uncovers why they migrate, how migration is experienced, and how migrant women frame their lives in the US. In this article, I compare how national and transnational policies of the War on Drugs in Mexico, which increased militarization of the US-Mexico border and created tougher immigration policies in the US (all in the name of US national security), form and transform intimate experiences of risk and (in)security across the migration journey for the same population. This comparative approach challenges and expands US-Mexico literature that does not read across experiences in the three sites of the migration journey.

The end of privacy for the populace, the person of interest and the persecuted

Erosion of US and foreign citizens’ privacy has resulted from the escalating use of electronic devices; creation of gargantuan commercial and government/intelligence databases; government access to business data; and the motivation and ever more sophisticated ability to mine and unaccountably use such information. After suffering the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US government led the way in globally collecting and exploiting personal data. This ultimately required revisions to existing US law, as well as altered legal interpretations of constitutional protections for civil liberties. The overwhelming focus of US communications and electronic storage policy has been on offensive intelligence operations; collection has been enhanced partly by undermining cyber defense for companies and citizens. As with other business sectors, US medical information now is vulnerable to both criminal cyber-attack and government access. This article is authored by a former US intelligence community and national security professional with highly specialized proficiencies and experience at some of the top levels of intelligence oversight – where technical, operational, analytic, inter-agency, legislative, regulatory, legal and budget activities converge. Using unclassified and public sources, the author summarizes the types and breadth of US domestic collection and its distribution, the degree to which individuals’ privacy may be impinged, abuse of these powers, and effects on governance. Resulting US ability to spot and forestall pending domestic terror attacks - the rationale used to justify surveillance without end - is evaluated.

What is the global landpower network and what value might it provide?

ABSTRACTUS national security guidance, as well as the US Army’s operational experiences since 2001, emphasizes the importance of working closely with partner countries to achieve US strategic objectives. The US Army has introduced the global landpower network (GLN) concept as a means to integrate, sustain and advance the Army’s considerable ongoing efforts to meet US national security guidance. This study develops the GLN concept further, and addresses three questions. What benefits can the GLN provide the Army? What are the essential components of the GLN? What options exist for implementing the GLN concept? By developing the GLN concept, the Army has the opportunity to transition the GLN from an often ad hoc and reactive set of relationships to one that the Army more self-consciously prioritizes and leverages as a resource to meet US strategic objectives.

NSA leak shows Russian attack on US electoral system

A document leaked from the US National Security Agency (NSA) shows that Russian hackers had some success in attacking 122 election officials and a vendor of voting software prior to the 2016 presidential election.

US national security: new threats, old realities

US national security: new threats, old realities

The Exascale Computing Project

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Exascale Computing Project is a partnership between the DOE Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Its mission is to transform today's high-performance computing (HPC) ecosystem by executing a multifaceted plan: developing mission-critical applications of unprecedented complexity; supporting US national security initiatives; partnering with the US HPC industry to develop exascale computer architectures; collaborating with US software vendors to develop a software stack that is both exascale-capable and usable on US industrial- and academic-scale systems; and training the next-generation workforce of computer and computational scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and data scientists.

The ambiguity of US foreign policy towards Africa

Since 9/11, the American policy towards Africa has been strongly influenced by national security interests and in particular by the fight against international terrorism and Islamic radicalisation. Traditionally, the American Africa policy has been the result of bureaucratic policymaking with the Pentagon and the State Department playing prominent roles. The paper argues that in the current century, evangelical Christian lobby groups have gained increasing influence on policymaking on Africa. Because policymaking has been influenced by a number of different actors, the American Africa policy may appear incoherent and ambiguous if judged narrowly on the expectation that it only aims to take care of US national security concerns and economic self-interests. The paper concludes that Africa was important to the United States during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama because of the combination of strong security interests and strong domestic lobby groups that have pressured to place Africa on the US foreign policy agenda.

General McMaster’s Sandwich

The new US national security advisor’s effectiveness will depend on President Donald Trump’s whim.

How an agency’s responsibilities and political context shape government strategic planning: evidence from US Federal agency quadrennial reviews

ABSTRACTThis paper extends the strategic planning literature by developing four original propositions about factors that affect the conduct of strategic reviews by government agencies. The propositions highlight how a strategic review’s design, analytical tools, and content are influenced by the extent of an agency’s reliance on collaboration or capital investments, the strength of an agency’s political support, and the existence or absence of a legislative mandate for a review. A plausibility probe involving qualitative analysis of three major quadrennial reviews by US national security agencies generates evidence that is largely consistent with the propositions.

Henry Kissinger as Contested Historical Icon in Post-9/11 Debates on US Foreign Policy

This article analyzes the role of historical memories of Henry Kissinger, former US national security advisor and secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations, in post-9/11 foreign policy debates in the United States. It argues that the Kissinger of the Cold War has become a historical icon and an important point of reference for many in the twenty-first century who seek to shape popular American understandings of contemporary international affairs. Furthermore, it argues that an analysis of Kissinger is useful in understanding how historical figures can utilize their own celebrity to steer the popular remembrance and deployment of memories of themselves.