Terrorism, counter‐terrorism and democracy: The assessment of national security threats

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Crelinsten
Author(s):  
Michael Stohl

After 11 September 2001 it was routinely declared that 9/11 ‘changed everything’ and that what had changed was immutable. Following the synthesis on democracies’ war justifications over the last three decades presented by Anna Geis and Wolfgang Wagner, Michael Stohl focuses on US-American justifications of the ‘war on terror’: He explores how 9/11 altered the constructions of the threat of terrorism and how these constructions in turn affected arguments and justification for the use of force in the context of counter-terrorism. The creation of the ‘war on terror’ was a core component of the construction of new national security threats. This was accompanied by the securitization of counter-terrorism. Increased fear of further attacks reinforced the persistence of a Westphalian interstate system and the central role of sovereignty claims within the global governance regime. This altered the balance within most democratic national states between law enforcement approaches for domestic threats and alliance-based or unilateral armed responses for international threats. The chapter explores how this has further altered arguments for and justifications of the use of force at home and abroad.


Author(s):  
Oksana Gaiduchok ◽  
◽  
Oleksiy Stupnytskyi ◽  

In modern times, it is believed that by reducing the risk of military intervention, military security has lost its relevance, and economic security has become a priority of national interests. The principle of economic security is as follows: national interests are supported through an economic system that supports free exchange and ensures the upward mobility of the nation. The analysis of economic security is based on the concept of national interests. It is well known that the problem of national security and its components cannot be considered only from the standpoint of current interests; it is closely related to the possibilities of their implementation over a significant, long-term period. Each stage of realization of national interests of the country is characterized by its assessment of its geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic conditions, security threats and the main carriers of these threats, the mechanism of realization of national interests (each of the stages has its own assessment of the main definitions and categories of security, the main vectors of geoeconomic policy). Economic security is the foundation and material basis of national security. A state is in a state of security if it protects its own national interests and is able to defend them through political, economic, socio-psychological, military and other actions. There is a close connection between economic security and the system of national and state interests, and it is through this category that the problems of economic potential and economic power of the state, geopolitical and geoeconomic positions of the country in the modern world are intertwined. At a time when regional forces are trying to expand markets, provide access to finance and the latest technology, economic security has become a necessary component of the ability of regional forces to expand their influence. The article is devoted to the study of economic security of Ukraine and its components using the model of quantitative assessment of economic security of Ukraine. Using the Fishburne method, a model is built that allows to obtain an integrated assessment of the level of economic security based on the synthesis of nine partial indicators.


Author(s):  
Sir Richard Dearlove

This article discusses the changing perceptions on national security and civic anxiety. During the Cold War and its aftermath, security was rather a simple and straightforward issue. The countries knew their enemies, where they are and the threats they presented. On the event that, the enemies's secrets were unknown, probing techniques were employed to determine the weaknesses of the enemy. This formulaic situation which seeped through in to the twenty-first century left little room for innovation. In fact, in some countries, security maintained at the Cold War levels despite criticisms that new and emerging national security threats should be addressed at a new level. Of the powerful nations, America maintained the role of a world policeman and adapted its national security priorities according to its perception of a new series of strategic threats; however these new security strategies were without a sense of urgency. However, the perception of global threats and national security radically changed in the event of the 9/11 attack. The sleeping national security priorities of America came to a full force which affected the national security priorities of other nations as well. In the twenty-first globalized world, no conflict remains a regional clash. The reverberations of the Russian military action in Georgia, the Israeli intervention in Gaza, and the results of the attacks in Mumbai resonates loudly and rapidly through the wider international security system. While today, nations continue to seek new methods for addressing new security threats, the paradox of the national security policy is that nation-states have lost their exclusive grip of their own security at a time when the private citizens are assailed by increased fears for their own security and demand a more enhanced safety from the state. Nation-states have been much safer from large-scale violence, however there exists a strong sense of anxiety about the lack of security in the face of multiplicity of threats. Nations have been largely dependent on international coordinated action to achieve their important national security objectives. National policies and security theory lack precision. In addition, the internationalization of national security has eroded the distinction between domestic and foreign security. These blurring lines suggest that the understanding of national security is still at the height of transformations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-392
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Cawkwell

Britain’s war in Afghanistan – specifically its latter stages, where the UK’s role and casualties sustained in the conflict rose dramatically – coincided with the institutional emergence of Ministry of Defence-led ‘Strategic Communication’. This article examines the circumstances through which domestic strategic communication developed within the UK state and the manner in which the ‘narratives’ supporting Britain’s role in Afghanistan were altered, streamlined and ‘securitised’. I argue that securitising the Afghanistan narrative was undertaken with the intention of misdirecting an increasingly sceptical UK public from the failure of certain aspects of UK counter-insurgency strategy – specifically its counter-narcotics and stabilisation efforts – by focusing on counter-terrorism, and of avoiding difficult questions about the UK’s transnational foreign and defence policy outlook vis-à-vis the United States by asserting that Afghanistan was primarily a ‘national security’ issue. I conclude this article by arguing that the UK’s domestic strategic communication approach of emphasising ‘national security interests’ may have created the conditions for institutionalised confusion by reinforcing a narrow, self-interested narrative of Britain’s role in the world that runs counter to its ongoing, ‘transnationalised’ commitments to collective security through the United States and NATO.


2021 ◽  
Vol 307 ◽  
pp. 09001
Author(s):  
Ihor Todorov ◽  
Nataliia Todorova

The article studies the interrelated categories of national security and sustainable development, which are currently the object of special attention of government institutions, civil society, political parties, territorial communities, etc. The purpose of the study is to specify the topical issues associated with sustainable development of the national security, building on the international experience in this area, and to determine the locally adaptable ways of ensuring sustainability of the national security of Ukraine. The process of sustainable development of national security is to be more effective when there is a clear idea of its structural and functional elements, direct and indirect ties among them. The synergy of national security with the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is able to ensure comprehensive modernization in accordance with today’s requirements and strengthen the level of welfare and security of citizens. The integrated level of national security of Ukraine correlates with the goals of sustainable development. The country’s stability and its resistance to national security threats is a necessary condition for implementing a purposeful sustainable development strategy for 2030. Successful implementation of sustainability tasks for Ukraine is possible provided there exist unity and capacity of state power and society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Chibuzor Chile Nwobueze ◽  
James Okolie-Osemene ◽  
Ndu John Young

Currently, Nigeria’s security sector needs effective policing considering the spate of insecurity and frustrated relationship between the citizens and the police. Consequently, some officers are seen as dishonest and agents of complicity. Unlike most parts of the world where the people love, support the police, Nigeria still records threats to police-public relations owing to the attitudes of some officers who tarnish the image of the security agency through uncivilised, inhuman and unlawful acts while on duty and beyond. With qualitative data, this paper explores how training and people-oriented security education can enhance effective policing for a more secure Nigeria. This paper argues that police effectiveness should no longer be hinged only on equipping officers for counter-terrorism or establishment of special units to eradicate organised crime, but also on training them on weekly/monthly basis to respond to rapidly emerging threats to national security and trainings on enhancing collaborative police-public relations.


Author(s):  
Paul Ashby

This chapter contends that the Western Hemisphere is not only key to the development of U.S. national security but also remains of great importance today. Quite simply, U.S. national security interests grew firstly within their own “neighborhood,” and those interests continue to be both important and complex into the present day. Crucially, this is where national security threats come into direct contact with the U.S. homeland. Understanding this history and these interactive dynamics is important to the analysis of contemporary national security questions in the Western Hemisphere. The chapter focuses on key issues that are deeply intertwined: economics and trade; democracy, development, and human rights; drugs and transnational threats; and homeland security and homeland defense.


2021 ◽  
pp. 86-107
Author(s):  
Ken R. Crane

The War on Terror’s aggressive surveillance of Arabs and Muslims as national security threats accelerated their becoming a racialized Other. The history of race-making in America has followed a pattern of groups differentiating themselves from lower-status nonwhites in order to gain membership as white. Iraqis who came to the Inland Empire’s majority-Latinx neighborhoods found themselves in an America they had not anticipated, prompting some to ask, “Where are the Americans?” While the Latinx-Iraqi interactions evoked frustration, confusion, and ambivalence toward an unexpected cultural reality, Iraqis were ultimately able to bridge differences and recognize many similarities with their Latinx neighbors, such as family values and hospitality. The youths frequently quoted the Arabic proverb “not all your fingers alike,” meaning that it is better to be accepting—after all, not all people are the same, everyone is different, just like the fingers on your hand.


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