scholarly journals Brazil-Israel Relations and the Marketing of Urban Security Expertise

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 114-130
Author(s):  
Erella Grassiani ◽  
Frank Müller
Keyword(s):  
Security Technologies ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
International Recognition ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Urban Warfare ◽  
Israel Defense Forces ◽  
The Military

The transnational (re)making of contemporary urban pacification practices, discourses, and technologies between Brazil and Israel is underpinned by coercive entanglements. The Israeli experience with the occupation of the Palestinian territories has brought the Israel Defense Forces and the country’s private security industry international recognition for their urban warfare skills and related security technologies; Brazil has recently gained international recognition for urban pacification efforts that emphasize the country’s military’s ability to combine “hard” and “soft” skills, thereby foregrounding the nexus of military and humanitarian forms of engagement on urban battlefields. Empirical findings framed by critical scholarship on pacification demonstrate how recent shifts in the military and diplomatic relations between the two countries seek to symbolically capitalize on their own and each other’s urban warfare experiences to promote themselves as security experts capable of addressing a range of future urban threat scenarios—from urban warfare to antigang and antiriot policing and peacekeeping. A reorganização transnacional das práticas, discursos e tecnologias de urbanização contemporânea entre Brasil e Israel são movidas por envolvimento coercitivo. A experiência israelense de ocupação dos territórios palestinos trouxe prestígio internacional às Forças de Defesa Israelense, bem como à indústria de segurança particular do país, em virtude de tecnologia de combate urbano. Brasil recentemente alcançou reconhecimento internacional pelos esforços de pacificação urbana, que enfatizam a habilidade das forças armadas do país em combinar “soft and hard skills”, criando assim um nexo de interação militar e humanitário no campo de batalha urbano. Observações produzidas em moldura crítica acadêmica sobre pacificação demonstram de que modo mudanças recentes nas relações diplomática e militar dos dois países visam capitalizar simbolicamente as experiências respectivas para promoverem a si mesmos como especialistas em segurança capazes de tratar uma variedade de cenários urbanos de risco—desde a guerra urbana contra gangs até o policiamento de manifestações.

Military (Non-)Policing in the Occupied Territories

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-100
Author(s):  
Nir Gazit
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Reciprocal Relations ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
Israel Defense Forces ◽  
The Military ◽  
Israeli Soldiers

Since 1967, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been engaged in various military missions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including occasional high-intensity fighting and counter-insurgency, as well as civilian duties, such as administration and policing. While existing literature emphasizes the organizational and professional burden this combination of duties places on the military, the actual forces that shape soldiers’ policing practices in the field remain largely unexamined. The present article offers a micro-sociological examination of the patterns of military policing implemented by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. It explores the social and political forces that shape soldiers’ ‘logics of action’ and demonstrates the reciprocal relations between the IDF’s disparate modes of policing of Jewish settlers and Palestinians. Three clusters of factors shape these interrelations: the relationships between soldiers and settlers, the blurring between ‘security’ and ‘civilian’ missions, and situational variables. The research for this article was conducted between 2004 and 2018.

The Military in Israeli Politics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoram Peri
Keyword(s):  
Value System ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Israel Defense Forces ◽  
Military Structure ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Normative Code

Fifty years of occupation of the Palestinian territories, changes in the nature of warfare, demographic developments, and transformation of the civilian value system have all resulted in deepening the gap between civilian society and the military in Israel over the past two decades. The military is well aware of the impact of these factors and of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF’s) deteriorating status in society. Indeed, the chief of the general staff has even portrayed these issues as more serious than the external threats posed by Israel’s enemies. Thus, the military has implemented a series of mechanisms aimed at reducing the gap, dealing with the expectations of civilian groups, reconstructing the military structure and normative code, and even introducing a new model of conscription, all in order to renew its contract with civilian society. What will be the repercussions of these steps, and what are the various scenarios for future developments in civil-military relations in Israel?

The Application of International Humanitarian Law by the Israel Defense Forces

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amichai Cohen ◽  
Eyal Ben-Ari
Keyword(s):  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Advocate General ◽  
The Past ◽  
Junior Officers ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Israel Defense Forces ◽  
The Military

This chapter describes how increased juridification and demands to apply international humanitarian law (IHL) have influenced the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The authors analyze the IDF’s compliance with IHL and other legal frameworks through a multilevel and multidimensional model of military compliance describing the law and external institutions involved in applying it. The past decades have seen the relatively autonomous sphere of the military increasingly come under judicial overview. Judicial and international pressures have also increased the role of the operational legal advisors. The chapter ends by discussing the ceremonies intended to promote compliance with IHL involving soldiers and junior officers. It is based on interviews (with Israeli academic experts, members of nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], and military commanders), off-the-record conversations with members of the IDF’s Military Advocate General, and newspaper articles, reports of NGOs, and secondary material.

scholarly journals The un Guidelines on the Use of Armed Guards

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Krahmann
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Security Industry ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
New Guidelines ◽  
The Military ◽  
Industry Associations

In 2012, the United Nations approved new Guidelines on the Use of Armed Private Security Companies by its agencies, funds and programmes. The Guidelines hold the potential to not only enhance the quality of armed security services contracted by the un, but also raise professional standards within the military and security industry more generally by serving as a model for other consumers and companies. Nevertheless, a close reading of the Guidelines indicates that there is still room for improvements. Drawing on best practices identified by industry associations, major clients and academic research, this article makes six recommendations for revision. Specifically, the article contends that expanding the scope, content and enforcement of the Guidelines would contribute to strengthening the control over private security contractors.

scholarly journals Governance through pluralization: Jerusalem’s modular security provision

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 438-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lior Volinz
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Private Institutions ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Modular Assembly ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
The Military ◽  
East Jerusalem ◽  
Ad Hoc Security ◽  
At Will

Security responses increasingly involve the delegation of security roles from state actors, such as the police and the military, to a plurality of public and private institutions. This article focuses on the emergence of a modular governance logic in security provision, in which urban security is diffused into differing modules – security actors, performances, technologies and practices – which can be enlisted, deployed, instructed, entwined, detached and withdrawn at will. This article identifies three features of urban modular security provision: the heterogeneity of its public and private components, the development of reserved capacities, and the differential multifacetedness of its performances and practices. These are explored through the case study of East Jerusalem, in which a modular security provision emerged where previously undefined and ad-hoc security arrangements became cohesive, normalized and codified through practice and law. In tracing the flows of security authorities, personnel and knowledge produced within a modular security assemblage, this article proposes that the modular assembly of security actors complements policing institutions by providing other informal disciplinary, punitive and statecrafting powers, in a manner which obfuscates controversial state policies and unequally distributes rights and resources.

Order and Disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 200-212
Author(s):  
David Dickson
Keyword(s):  
Capital City ◽  
Military Establishment ◽  
Order And Disorder ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Food Shortages ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Standing Army ◽  
Building Project ◽  
The Military

This chapter spotlights the role of the state (via the army) in enforcing urban security and in creating professional policing for the capital city. It begins by describing the greatest building project in Dublin, the Royal Barracks. The creation within a capital city of such a vast military establishment was a consequence of the agreement by the (all Protestant) Irish Parliament to house and maintain on Irish soil the bulk of the English standing army during peacetime. The chapter then turns to study the logic behind the increased concentration of the military in the cities. It argues that the permanent presence of military manpower, albeit in largely open residential barracks, helped make the case for continuing the gradual process of urban de-fortification. The chapter also looks into the three collective threats to urban order: faction fights, scarcity riots and artisan protests. It focuses more on the severe food shortages across Ulster and the food protests in 1729 in which civic authorities turned to the military for help. Finally, the chapter reviews the implications of industrial protest — a collective action by producers taken against their masters, other traders or workers, or even against consumers.

A Future Focus of Gaming

2016 ◽  
pp. 566-585
Author(s):  
DeAnna Proctor ◽  
Lenora Jean Justice
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Response ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Military Medicine ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Hard Skills ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
Games And Simulations ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
The Military

The authors discuss the instruction of soft skills by games and simulations as a future direction for the use of educational gaming in P-12 education. Technical or hard skills are taught in the educational curriculum; however, soft skills training, such as communication, collaboration, decision-making, problem-solving, negotiation, and leadership, are lacking. Soft skills training through games and simulations have been successful in areas such as the military, medicine, business, and disaster response, as well as those individuals with learning disabilities; therefore, the authors investigate the potential for soft skills training using games and simulations. In addition to instruction of soft skills, this article also addresses the inherent nature of games and simulations as teaching and assessment tools.

Dodging the Draft: Federal Constitutional Court Evades Review of Germany's Military Service Law

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Explicit Recognition ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
The Military ◽  
Domestic Issue

The incendiary image of German soldiers, serving as members of a proposed UN peace keeping force assigned to the Palestinian territories, formed the emotionally-charged and highly controversial backdrop to the Constitutional Court's recent consideration of the constitutionality of Germany's military/civil service obligation. The conflict in the Middle East aside, the military/civil service obligation has also emerged as a hot domestic issue as the campaign for the September federal elections catches its stride. Given this political climate it is hardly surprising that the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) opted to dismiss, on procedural grounds, two cases that posed distinct but related challenges to Germany's military/civil service obligation. It is, however, precisely the Court's explicit recognition of the politically-loaded nature of questions concerning Germany's military/civil service obligation that makes its decision in the first of the two cases remarkable.

“I am the Law!”—Perspectives of Legality and Illegality in the Israeli Army

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Zagor
Keyword(s):  
Israeli Society ◽  
Military Establishment ◽  
Public Rhetoric ◽  
Daily Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Palestinian Territories ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Middle East Conflict ◽  
Israeli Army ◽  
The Military

The language of morality and legality infuses every aspect of the Middle East conflict. From repeated assertions by officials that Israel has “the most moral army in the world” to justifications for specific military tactics and operations by reference to self-defense and proportionality, the public rhetoric is one of legal right and moral obligation. Less often heard are the voices of those on the ground whose daily experience is lived within the legal quagmire portrayed by their leaders in such uncompromising terms. This Article explores the opaque normative boundaries surrounding the actions of a specific group within the Israeli military, soldiers returning from duty in Hebron in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. By examining interviews with these soldiers by an Israeli NGO, it identifies different narratives of legality and illegality which inform their conduct, contrasting their failure to adhere to conventional legal discourses with the broader “legalization” of military activities. Seeking an explanation for this disjunction, it explores the ways in which the soldiers' stories nonetheless reflect attempts to negotiate various normative and legal realities. It places these within the legal landscape of the Occupied Palestinian Territories which has been normatively re-imagined by various forces in Israeli society, from the judicially-endorsed discourse of deterrence manifested in the day-to-day practices of brutality, intimidation and “demonstrating power,” to the growing influence of nationalist-religious interpretations of self-defense and the misuse of post-modernist theory by the military establishment to “smooth out” the moral and legal urban architectures of occupation. The Article concludes by considering the hope for change evident in the very act of soldiers telling ethically-oriented stories about their selves, and in the existence of a movement willing to provide the space for such reflections in an attempt to confront Israeli society with the day-to-day experiences of the soldier in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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