Vital Systems Security: Reflexive Biopolitics and the Government of Emergency

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J Collier ◽  
Andrew Lakoff
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Infrastructure ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Systems Security ◽  
The Government

This article describes the historical emergence of vital systems security, analyzing it as a significant mutation in biopolitical modernity. The story begins in the early 20th century, when planners and policy-makers recognized the increasing dependence of collective life on interlinked systems such as transportation, electricity, and water. Over the following decades, new security mechanisms were invented to mitigate the vulnerability of these vital systems. While these techniques were initially developed as part of Cold War preparedness for nuclear war, they eventually migrated to domains beyond national security to address a range of anticipated emergencies, such as large-scale natural disasters, pandemic disease outbreaks, and disruptions of critical infrastructure. In these various contexts, vital systems security operates as a form of reflexive biopolitics, managing risks that have arisen as the result of modernization processes. This analysis sheds new light on current discussions of the government of emergency and ‘states of exception’. Vital systems security does not require recourse to extraordinary executive powers. Rather, as an anticipatory technology for mitigating vulnerabilities and closing gaps in preparedness, it provides a ready-to-hand toolkit for administering emergencies as a normal part of constitutional government.

Reluctant Cold Warriors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kontorovich
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The academic study of the Soviet economy in the US was created to help fight the Cold War, part of a broader mobilization of the social sciences for national security needs. The Soviet strategic challenge rested on the ability of its economy to produce large numbers of sophisticated weapons. The military sector was the dominant part of the economy, and the most successful one. However, a comprehensive survey of scholarship on the Soviet economy from 1948-1991 shows that it paid little attention to the military sector, compared to other less important parts of the economy. Soviet secrecy does not explain this pattern of neglect. Western scholars developed strained civilian interpretations for several aspects of the economy which the Soviets themselves acknowledged to have military significance. A close reading of the economic literature, combined with insights from other disciplines, suggest three complementary explanations for civilianization of the Soviet economy. Soviet studies was a peripheral field in economics, and its practitioners sought recognition by pursuing the agenda of the mainstream discipline, however ill-fitting their subject. The Soviet economy was supposed to be about socialism, and the military sector appeared to be unrelated to that. By stressing the militarization, one risked being viewed as a Cold War monger. The conflict identified in this book between the incentives of academia and the demands of policy makers (to say nothing of accurate analysis) has broad relevance for national security uses of social science.

National Security and Public Anxiety: Our Changing Perceptions

2010 ◽  
pp. 32-40
Author(s):  
Sir Richard Dearlove
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Private Citizens ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
Full Force ◽  
The Cold War

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.

scholarly journals Spinifex People as Cold War Moderns

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Greg Castillo
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Nuclear Testing ◽  
Atomic Age ◽  
Native Title ◽  
Global Modernity ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Government

Aboriginal Australian contemporary artists create works that express indigenous traditions as well as the unprecedented conditions of global modernity. This is especially true for the founders of the Spinifex Arts Project, a collective established in 1997 to create so-called “government paintings”: the large-scale canvases produced as documents of land tenure used in negotiations with the government of Western Australia to reclaim expropriated desert homelands. British and Australian nuclear testing in the 1950s displaced the Anangu juta pila nguru, now known to us as the Spinifex people, from their nomadic lifeworld. Exodus and the subsequent struggle to regain lost homelands through paintings created as corroborating evidence for native title claims make Spinifex canvases not simply expressions of Tjukurpa, or “Dreamings,” but also artifacts of the atomic age and its impact on a culture seemingly far from the front lines of cold war conflict.

Cold War diplomacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Communist China ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Foreign Ministries

From the early 1970s, the US-China relationship was central to diplomatic reporting, with National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s visit to Peking in October 1971, President Nixon’s historic visit in February 1972, and the establishment the following year of small liaison offices in Peking and Washington. Following each of Kissinger’s further visits in 1973 and 1974, senior diplomats virtually queued up at the liaison office to find out what progress, if any, had been made towards the normalization of US-China relations. Peking’s diplomats, like some of their colleagues elsewhere in the world, did not always see eye-to-eye with their foreign ministries. There was little chance of their becoming overly attached to Communist China, as the Japanologists and Arabists were sometimes accused of doing for Japan and Arab countries. At the same time, living and breathing the PRC led some diplomats to regard Chinese Communism as being rather more nuanced—and the government somewhat less belligerent—than the Cold War images portrayed in the West, particularly the United States.

How Dominant Narratives Rise and Fall: Military Conflict, Politics, and the Cold War Consensus

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald R. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cold War Consensus

AbstractContemporaries and historians often blame the errors and tragedies of US policy during the Cold War on a dominant narrative of national security: the “Cold War consensus.” Its usual periodization, according to which it came together in the late 1940s and persisted until the late 1960s when it unraveled amidst the trauma of the Vietnam War, fits well with a common theory of change in ideas and discourse. That theory expects stasis until a substantial unexpected failure (in this domain, military defeat) discredits dominant ideas and unsettles dominant coalitions. However, systematic data reveal the standard history of this important case to be wrong. Based on a large-scale content analysis of newspaper editorials on foreign affairs, this article shows that the Cold War narrative was narrower than conventional accounts suggest, that it did not coalesce until well into the 1950s, and that it began to erode even before the Vietnam War's Americanization in 1965. To make sense of this puzzle, I develop an alternative theory of the rise and fall of the narratives that underpin and structure debate over national security. Rooted in the dynamics of public narrative and the domestic politics of the battlefield, the theory argues that military failure impedes change in the narrative in whose terms government officials had legitimated the mission, whereas victory creates the opportunity for departures from the dominant narrative. Process-tracing reveals causal dynamics consistent with the theory: failure in the Korean War, which might have undermined Cold War globalism, instead facilitated the Cold War narrative's rise to dominance (or consensus); and the triumph of the Cuban Missile Crisis made possible that dominant narrative's breakdown before the upheaval of Vietnam. This hard and important case suggests the need to rethink the relationship between success, failure, and change in dominant narratives of national security—and perhaps in other policy domains as well.

scholarly journals Sosialisasi Penggunaan Pembersih Tangan (Handsanitizer) yang Efektif dalam Upaya Memenuhi Standar WHO dan Protokol Kesehatan Sesuai dengan UU No. 6 Tahun 2018 tentang Karantina Kesehatan di Muhammadiyah Kramat Jati, Jakarta Timur

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Marjan Miharja ◽  
Erwin Syahruddin ◽  
Bionda Johan Anggara ◽  
Johan Johan ◽  
Gugus Atmoko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Government Regulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Hand Sanitizer ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The Government ◽  
Spreading Disease

WHO determined COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 9, 2020, which is the strongest push for this community service program to be carried out. WHO has published guidance on adjusting the MFIs while managing the risk of a spike in case numbers. WHO publishes guidance on adapting to LKMS, while still managing the risk of a re-increase in the number of cases. A series of measures was developed to help provide guidance to countries in adapting public health measures to various contexts and this provides consideration for decision makers. In connection with the policy of controlling infectious disease outbreaks, Indonesia has Law Number 4 of 1984 concerning Communicable Disease Outbreaks, Government Regulation Number 40 of 1991 concerning Management of Contagious Disease Outbreaks, and Regulation of the Minister of Health Number 1501 / Menkes / Per / X / 2010 concerning Certain Types of Infectious Diseases That Can Cause Outbreaks and Countermeasures. Including various policies to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic issued by the government. One of them is the Large-Scale Social Restrictions or PSBB at the end of March. Citing Article 1 paragraph 11 of Law (UU) Number 6 of 2018 concerning Health Quarantine, PSBB is a limitation of certain activities of residents in an area suspected of being infected with a disease and / or contamination in such a way as to prevent the possibility of spreading disease or contamination. The policy covers at least school and work vacations, restrictions on religious activities and restrictions on activities in public places or facilities, including the socialization of washing hands using hand sanitizer which can be done in certain situations where soap and clean water are not available. For the results to be effective, the hand sanitizer used should contain at least 60% alcohol. This step is a necessity in order to prevent Covid-19 from becoming more widespread. The goal to be achieved from the socialization of good and correct hand washing is to understand the procedures, and be able to practice how to wash hands properly and correctly. It is hoped that in this socialization there will be a change in behavior in the community in washing hands as often as possible properly and correctly.

scholarly journals Deploying Ecological Countermeasures as a Biosecurity Imperative

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Reaser ◽  
Gary M. Tabor ◽  
Rohit A. Chitale ◽  
Peter Hudson ◽  
Raina Plowright
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
National Security ◽  
Department Of Defense ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Health Security ◽  
The Us

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought biosecurity to the forefront of national security policy. Land use change is a fundamental driver of zoonotic disease outbreaks, yet substantial study is yet required to unravel the mechanisms by which land use-induced spillover operates. Ecological degradation may be the 21st Century’s most overlooked security threat. Within the biosecurity context, we introduce ecological countermeasures as highly targeted, landscape-based interventions aimed at arresting one or more of the components of land use-induced spillover, the chain of biological events that facilitate large-scale outbreaks of diseases transmitted between wildlife and people. We provide case studies of ecological countermeasures of particular interest to the US Department of Defense, broadly discuss countermeasures in the defense and health sectors, and provide an overview of recent US policy decisions related to health security in order to underscore the need for greater attention to ecological resilience as our best defense against future pandemics.

Germany

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Kraft
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Leadership Position ◽  
Euro Crisis ◽  
German Armed Forces ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter provides an analysis of the changes that German defence has undergone since 1990. Two developments shaped German defence after the end of the cold war: First, the German armed forces changed owing to a radical downsizing, the end of conscription, and the modernization of equipment. Secondly, the style of German defence policy changed from reactive and norm-based in the 1990s to assertive, interest-based, and executive in the 2010s. The culture of military restraint—for decades a characteristic trait of German defence—waned. German military deployments abroad became more frequent and more serious. The leadership position Germany had taken in Europe during the Euro crisis and during the Ukraine conflict, as well as a domestic window of opportunity stemming from a favourable majority for the government parties in the parliament, serve as explanations for a more assured formulation of national security interests.

Exploring Policy Issues on the Trafficking of Women in Southern Africa with Reference to Zimbabwe

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-87
Author(s):  
Tawanda Ray Bvirindi ◽  
Nigel Mxolisi Landa
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
The Government ◽  
Palermo Protocol ◽  
Universal Protocol

Following the socio-economic and political problems that ensued after the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe, instances of human trafficking previously unseen on a large scale have sparked a newfound interest among policy makers and researchers. This article examines the flawed system provided by the Zimbabwean Trafficking in Persons Act No. 4 of 2014 for the protection of victims of human trafficking. It argues that the “Palermo Protocol”—the international instrument against all trafficking in persons is well-equipped to assume greater responsibility in ensuring the protection of victims. Although the Palermo Protocol is a universal protocol; which should be contextualised to suit various scenarios in which trafficking occurs across the globe, it may still be reasonably interpreted as providing the core principles which are vital to the protection of vulnerable populations from trafficking. Over the long haul, a new Zimbabwean Act, re-aligned with the Palermo Protocol, yet flexible, anti-trafficking partnerships between the government, Non-governmental Organisations and Civil Society remain the most viable solutions to addressing this predicament.

Japan's Parliamentary Confrontation on the Post-Cold War National Security Policies

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMOHITO SHINODA
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Security Policies ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Legislative Proposals ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Government

AbstractIn the fall 2007 Diet session, the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) showed strong opposition against the government's proposal to continue the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) refueling operations to support maritime inspections in the Indian Ocean. In order to evaluate this parliamentary confrontation, the article compares the handling of this issue with the six past major post-Cold War national security policies. The DPJ constantly presented its own legislative proposals in order to participate in Diet deliberation. DPJ's counter proposals, however, were not always cooperative with the government. This different attitude by the DPJ could not be explained by the public and media opinions or the position of the supporting organization but by DPJ's political calculation.

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