The Parliamentarisation of Security in the UK and Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W Neal

Abstract This article examines the parliamentarisation of security through four decades of committee activity in the UK and Australia. Security governance has expanded since the Cold War from defence and secret intelligence to an array of problematisations that could arise in almost any policy area. This has driven parliamentary activity, with the effect that a much wider range of committees have done substantive work on security issues. The UK and Australia display similar levels of security parliamentarisation but of a different character due to differences in executive/legislative relations, party discipline, parliamentary rules and geopolitical circumstance.

1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Bayne

IN MY GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION/LEONARD SCHAPIRO lecture in 1993 I attempted an incomplete analysis of international economic relations after the end of the cold war, in particular the unexpected tensions and difficulties. The end of superpower confrontation had not only removed one incentive for Western countries to settle their economic disputes. It had also lowered the priority given to security issues, where national governments were in control, and had exposed their dwindling ability to take economic decisions, because of the extent of the interdependence which was the price paid for their prosperity. I could not think of a single area of domestic policy immune from international influence. Professor Susan Strange has developed a more trenchant analysis of this trend in her Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro lecture this year.


Author(s):  
Joseph Heller

Kennedys presidency marked a new era, but not to the extent of fulfilling Israel’s goals. It stopped treating Jewish emigration to Israel as escalating the conflict with the Arabs, and took Israel’s security issues more seriously. That led to the American decision to supply Israel with the Hawk missiles, although Israel was disappointed because they were defensive missiles, while Egypt had already offensive weapons, such as bombers and missiles. However, US was trying hard to convince Egypt side with the west by launching a new initiative to solve the Arab refugee question. Israel knew the return of the refugees would be the equivalent of the annihilation of the state of Israel. Ben-Gurion met Kennedy but could not convince him that Israel should be treated as an ally. Kennedy did not promise the immediate supply of Hawk missiles, and warned Israel against developing nuclear weapons, which would damage American-Israeli relations, In view of Soviet–Arab alliance Israel was left with no choice but to build the Dimona nuclear facility, thus gaining a powerful bargaining card.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-210
Author(s):  
Brian D. Taylor

Security issues were a central part of Soviet studies. This article considers how the study of security issues has changed with respect to Russia and Eurasia since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It highlights a series of positive changes: a broadening of vision beyond Moscow, more engagement with mainstream social science, greater attention to security issues internal to post-Soviet states, and the creation of an expert community that spans North America, Europe, and Eurasia. At the same time, I argue that scholarship on Russian and Eurasian security issues has become less strategic, in the sense this word is used by Richard Betts – about the interaction of political ends and military means, rooted in an appreciation of military science. The academy, especially in North America, has become a less welcoming place for scholars working on Russia and Eurasia who care about previously central issues in the field such as nuclear strategy, weapons procurement, military doctrine, and defense planning.


1981 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 80-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Briggs

Perhaps no other foreign policy area brought forth the emotional anti communism characteristic of the 1950s as did American relations with the People's Republic of China. The so–called “ loss of China ”issue beginning in 1949, for which the Republicans primarily blamed the Democrats, severely strained the bipartisan approach towards foreign policy. In addition, four years before he died in 1951, Republican foreign policy leader Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg excluded China policy from the area of bipartisan agreement, while his party's loyalty to the defeated Nationalists remained strong. Senator Joseph McCarthy's“communists–in– government” charges during the Korean War, when American forces were engaged in combat with the People's Liberation Army, further exacerbated relations between the Republican and Democratic parties, and between the legislative and executive branches of government. Ominously, the possibility of a preventive strike on the China mainland also became the focus of serious consideration and possible implementation during the Formosa Strait confrontation of 1954–55.


1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-86
Author(s):  
Marika Sherwood

This article outlines the formation, ideology and activities of the West African National Secretariat (WANS), established in London in 1945-6 by Nkrumah and this colleagues, from both the English and French West African colonies. Their aim was unity, as the only hope of real independence was through unity of all ethnic groups and all social classes, not just the ‘intelligentsia’. Outlined are WANS’ activities, its work with other political groups/activists in the UK and France, and reports in Gold Coast and Nigerian newspapers, which were kept fully informed. Labelled a communist, Nkrumah was under surveillance by MI5 in the UK and on his return home in 1947. Was this the beginning of the Cold War in West Africa? La Quête au Royaume-Uni pour l’Union Africaine, 1945-48  Résumé Cet article présente la formation, l’idéologie et les activités du West African National Secretariat [Secrétariat National de l'Afrique de l'Ouest] (WANS), établi à Londres entre les années 1945 et 1946 par Nkrumah et ses collègues issus des colonies anglophones et francophones en Afrique de l’Ouest dont le but était l’union, le seul espoir pour l’Independence réelle étant réalisable à travers l’union de tous les groupes ethniques et de toutes les classes sociales, et non pas seulement « l’intelligentsia ». Sont présentés dans cet article les activités de WANS, ses opérations avec d’autres groupes/militants politiques au Royaume-Uni et en France, ainsi que les rapports dans les journaux au Gold Coast et au Nigeria qui étaient bien informés. Qualifié de communiste, Nkrumah était sous la surveillance de MI5 au Royaume-Uni et à son retour au pays en 1947. Ce fait marque-t-il le début de la Guerre Froide en Afrique de l’Ouest?


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbie Zelizer

This article considers the lifeline of the Anglo-American imaginary in news. It tracks its evolution, consolidation during the Cold War era and centrality in the UK/US coverage of Brexit and Trump in 2016-2017. It argues that not only has the imaginary prevailed but it continues to shape contemporary coverage to the detriment of public understanding of current events.


Author(s):  
Uta A. Balbier

This chapter explores the Billy Graham revival campaigns in Washington, London, New York, and Berlin in the 1950s as expressions of a transnational religious revival that took place simultaneously in the USA, Germany, and the UK. During this short-lived revival, discourses around Christianity, anti-Communism, democracy, and the Free World blended, produced new forms of civil religious identities, and seemed to briefly challenge secularization processes. The chapter explores the mindset of political and religious leaders who supported the Billy Graham Crusades as well as the staging of events as important performances in the transnational culture of the Cold War. It argues that despite obvious differences in the religious landscapes on both sides of the Atlantic regarding church attendance and the role of religion in political discourse, there still existed significant similarities. These can only be explained when taking transnational phenomena such as Cold War culture or secularization processes into consideration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Olmsted

This article examines the espionage and propaganda networks established by former professional spies and other anticommunist activists in the interwar period in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. In both countries, conservatives responded to the growing power of labor in politics by creating and funding private groups to coordinate spying operations on union activists and political radicals. These British and US spies drew upon the resources of the government while evading democratic controls. The anti-labor groups also spread anti-radical propaganda, but the counter-subversive texts in the UK tended to highlight the economic threats posed by radicalism, while those in the USA appealed to more visceral fears. The leaders of these anti-labur networks established a transnational alliance with their fellow anticommunists across the Atlantic decades before the beginning of the Cold War.


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