The Elephant in the Room: Is HIV/AIDS a Present National Security Threat and What Needs to be Done to Combat this Issue?

Author(s):  
Nolan McConville
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-61
Author(s):  
Jennifer Logan Coyle

This annotated bibliography explores the ethical implications of the U.S. Government's reframing of HIV/AIDS in Africa from a public health to a national security threat in the late 1990s. It emphasizes the advantages and disadvantages from a utilitarian viewpoint of likely increased national agenda and funding priority in the United States and the offsetting potential distrust of developing countries about the long history of U.S. exploitation and colonialism. The annotated selections are drawn primarily from U.S. Government documents and news reports during 1999–2000 when this transition was occurring.


2022 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Nettles ◽  
Cameron Ford ◽  
Paola A. Prada-Tiedemann

The early detection and location of firearm threats is critical to the success of any law enforcement operation to prevent a mass shooting event or illegal transport of weapons. Prevention tactics such as firearm detection canines have been at the front line of security tools to combat this national security threat. Firearm detection canines go through rigorous training regimens to achieve reliability in the detection of firearms as their target odor source. Currently, there is no scientific foundation as to the chemical odor signature emitted from the actual firearm device that could aid in increased and more efficient canine training and performance protocols or a better understanding of the chemistry of firearm-related odorants for better source identification. This study provides a novel method application of solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) as a rapid system for the evaluation of odor profiles from firearm devices (loaded and unloaded). Samples included magazines (n = 30) and firearms (n = 15) acquired from the local law enforcement shooting range. Headspace analysis depicted five frequently occurring compounds across sample matrices including aldehydes such as nonanal, decanal, octanal and hydrocarbons tetradecane and tridecane. Statistical analysis via principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted a preliminary clustering differentiating unloaded firearms from both loaded/unloaded magazines and loaded firearm devices. These results highlight potential odor signature differences associated with different firearm components. The understanding of key odorants above a firearm will have an impact on national security efforts, thereby enhancing training regimens to better prepare canine teams for current threats in our communities.


Author(s):  
Liz Campbell

This article problematizes the growing tendency to characterize organized crime as a national security threat, referring primarily to the situation in the United Kingdom but also drawing on international and comparative examples. Three distinct arguments are presented contesting this comparison. First, it is questionable whether either concept is sufficiently clear in a definitional sense for the comparison to be meaningful analytically. The second empirical argument suggests that organized crime, as it is defined and encountered usually in the United Kingdom, does not yet constitute such a threat. Third, and regardless of the validity of the preceding arguments, it is argued in a normative sense that such a comparison should be resisted to the greatest extent possible, given the extraordinary legal consequences it entails. These claims indicate how caution must be exercized in making such a connection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burak Bilgehan Özpek

Disappearance of the established security paradigm of Kemalist state has not helped to create strong institutions and legal-bureaucratic structures that are supposed to prevent a certain political elite to dominate the political system and criminalize its adversaries by security reasons. Instead, survival concerns and political will of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has become replacement of the established paradigm. This has created a systemic crisis. On the one hand, the AKP has played the role of a regular political party, which is supposed to have equal rights and privileges with other players in the game. On the other hand, the AKP has been the tutelary actor that determines what national security is and who threatens national security. As a result of this picture, the AKP has exploited its monopoly over securitization to eliminate the criticisms of the opposition groups. Therefore, any political party or political group has not been viewed as a national security threat only if it has not threatened the political survival of the AKP. Such a crisis has also affected the AKP’s approach toward the Kurdish question. Unlike the established paradigm’s allergy toward the political demands of Kurds due to its commitment to nation-state principle, the AKP’s fluctuated policy toward the Kurds resembles to a political party’s survival strategy rather than a policy stemming from a consistent national security paradigm.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Ieva Karpavičiūtė

Abstract The paper addresses the security threat perception and securitization of existential threats in Lithuania. It focuses upon the securitization theory and its ability to explain the change of national security agendas as affected by the changes in national identity and existential security threats. It takes into account the internal and external factors that are shaping the objective and subjective national threat perception. The paper applies O. Waever’s securitization theory with an aim to explain how the national security threats are being addressed and perceived in Lithuania. Moreover, the paper is developed against the backdrop of the most recent developments in securitization theory and evolution of its theoretical perceptions of identity, existential threats, and legitimacy. It also discusses the possibility of inclusion of hybrid security threats into an analysis of securitization. The empirical part of the article assesses the most recent security challenges, provides evaluation of changes in national security perception, and portrays the dynamics of national security threats as defined in the National Security Strategies and the Military Doctrine. The paper focuses upon the most recent dynamics in security policy of Lithuania. It also takes into account the hybrid nature of security threats and the reaction to hybrid security elements such as: cyber security, information security, and international terrorism.


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