The Security Dilemma in the U.S.-China Military Space Relationship

Asian Survey ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baohui Zhang

The U.S.-China military space relationship has been driven by the security dilemma in international relations. China pursues military space capabilities in part to counter perceived national security threats posed by the U.S. quest for space dominance and missile defense. However, the current strategic adjustment by the Obama administration and the altered situation at the Taiwan Strait have moderated the bilateral security dilemma, offering an opportunity for arms control in outer space.

Author(s):  
Matthew M. Aid

This article discusses the National Security Agency under the Obama Administration. Upon his inauguration on January 20, 2009, Obama inherited from the Bush administration an intelligence community embroiled in political controversies. Of the sixteen agencies of the intelligence community, the National Security Agency (NSA) faced the greatest scrutiny from the new Obama administration and the Congress. NSA was the largest and the most powerful member of the U.S. intelligence community. Since its formation in 1952, NSA has managed and directed all U.S. government signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection. It is the collector and processor of communications intelligence (COMINT) and the primary processor of foreign instrumentation signals intelligence (FISINT). And since 1958, NSA has been the coordinator of the U.S. government's national electronics intelligence (ELINT) program. It has also the task of overseeing the security of the U.S. government's communications and data processing systems, and since the 1980s, NSA has managed the U.S. government's national operation security (OPSEC) program. In this article, the focus is on the challenges faced by the NSA during the Bush administration; the role played by the NSA during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and the challenges faced by the Obama administration in confronting a series of thorny legal and policy issues relating to NSA's eavesdropping program.


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. 004711782110456
Author(s):  
Janis Grzybowski

Ontological security studies (OSS) in International Relations (IR) emphasize the role of identity, anxiety, and a sense of self in world politics. Yet suggesting that states act in certain ways because of ‘who they are’ also assumes that they are in fact states. In this article, I problematize the presupposition of state subjects in the context of separatist conflicts in which claims to statehood compete and overlap. Where unrecognized de facto states are pitted against their unyielding parent states, the two threaten each other’s very state personhood, thereby presenting a more radical challenge to their existence than traditional ‘physical’ and ‘ontological’ security threats. Separatist conflicts thus reveal a widely overlooked dimension of fundamental ontological security, provided by the constitution and recognition of states as such. Moreover, because of the exclusiveness of state subjects in the modern international order, any third parties attempting to resolve such conflicts inevitably face a meta-security dilemma whereby reassuring one side by confirming its claim to statehood simultaneously renders the other side radically insecure. Thus, rather than regarding particular state subjects as merely the starting point of quests for ontological security in international relations, they should also be understood as already their result.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Allen ◽  
Krishna Bista

The attacks of September 11, 2001, put terrorism at the forefront of the American political landscape. Donald Trump played into these fears of terrorism through his political rhetoric during his presidency, particularly targeting international students as “threats” to the nation. However, we argue that the labeling of international students as security threats was not started after 9/11 nor invented by Trump. Through historical records and accounts across decades of policies related to this issue, we seek to answer two questions: How has the U.S. government monitored visa policies and programs for international students? How have U.S. national policies evolved to view international students as national security threats? We find that mistrust of this population has been embedded throughout U.S. immigration history and that federal tracking policies emerged incrementally from long-held security concerns. We discuss why the entire population of international students should not be scapegoated due to fear.


Defendologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (43-44) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataša Marić

Consequences of migration flows have put international migrationat the top of international, regional and national security agenda. Migrationflows are not a new phenomenon in Europe however characteristics ofthe current European Migration Crisis lay firm ground for a unprecedentedcrisis. Migration divided Europe along geographical and cultural lines. Eventhought the Migration Crisis does not directly impact the five EU securitythreats, the mismanagement of the phenomenon and disagreement over thestrategies of resolution resulted into a self-induced humanitarian crisis that asa consequence poses threat to European Union Security. In order to eliminatepossible threats posed by the Migration Crisis, European Union will have tolook towards the source of migration flows. Failing to resolve the problem atsource could pose a greater threat to global security and imminently to the securityof the European Union and its periphery. Therefore migrations impactinternational, regional and national environments, however they representan indirect threat to security only if the process is not handled through adequatestrategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Indah Pangestu Amaritasari

AbstractThis article discusses global issues and its relation with national security. Global contemporary issues—drugs, migration, living environment, population, global economy challenges, liberal democracy crisis, fusion and division, small arms production—are issues that emerged as new security threats that transformed since the end of the Cold War. Security threats are no longer in form of “military attacks” that one country does to another, but are acts of crime that are performed by non-state actors and are aimed at state actors, individuals or citizens that ultimately threaten human security. Human security is a new term in response of threats from global contemporary issues. This article concludes that national security in the context of global contemporary issues in an international relations perspective is a complex issue. This is explained in the transnational theory in international relations. United Nations have reassessed the concept of national security which then noted about human security.Keywords: International relations, human security, national security AbstrakArtikel ini membahas tentang isu-isu global dan kaitannya dengan ancaman terhadap keamanan nasional. Isu-isu global kontemporer—obat-obatan (drugs), migrasi, lingkungan hidup, populasi, tantangan ekonomi global, krisis demokrasi liberal, fusi dan pembelahan, produksi senjata ringan—merupakan isu yang lahir sebagai bentuk baru ancaman keamanan yang mengalami transformasi sejak berakhirnya Perang Dingin. Ancaman dalam bentuk baru bukan lagi berupa “serangan militer” yang dilakukan oleh suatu negara terhadap negara lain, tetapi tindakan kejahatan yang dilakukan oleh aktor non-negara (non-state actor) dan ditujukan kepada negara (state actor), individu atau warga negara yang mengancam keamanan umat manusia (human security). Isu keamanan manusia (human security) merupakan istilah baru dalam merespon ancaman dari perkembangan isu global kontemporer. Dalam artikel ini disimpulkan bahwa keamanan nasional dalam konteks isu global kontemporer pada prespektif hubungan internasional adalah hal yang kompleks. Hal ini kemudian dijelaskan dalam teori transnasional dalam hubungan internasional. PBB kemudian memberikan tawaran untuk mengkonseptualisasi kembali pengertian keamanan nasional yang pada akhirnya memberikan masukan mengenai keamanan kemanusia (human security).Kata kunci: Hubungan Internasional, ancaman, human security, keamanan nasional


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 464-481
Author(s):  
Rodger A Payne

Abstract Dr. Strangelove continues to be viewed as one of the most acclaimed films of all-time. Likewise, international relations (IR) experts commonly list the film among the most essential IR-themed movies. The IR scholars who discuss Dr. Strangelove as a text or recommend it for courses generally claim that it can be used to explain nuclear deterrence, the security dilemma, mutually assured destruction, Cold War competition, and various other traditional serious concerns of the field. They also recognize that the satirical film is critical of nuclear strategy. This article considers Dr. Strangelove’s sexual subtext, involving important metaphors and symbols that IR scholars characteristically ignore. Yet, for decades, film critics and scholars from other disciplines have identified and emphasized the importance of the film's comedic “sexual framework” and concluding “wargasm.” Director Stanley Kubrick even acknowledged these key elements in private correspondence. The film suggests that the national security establishment's masculine view of the utility of nuclear weapons and deterrence are comparable to absurd male sexual fantasies. Feminist IR scholars frequently note that mainstream scholars largely ignore their critique of masculine views of the discipline and nuclear strategy. The article concludes that scholars in the field should both prioritize Dr. Strangelove’s sexual subtext and rely upon feminist contributions to help understand those elements.


Author(s):  
Rajesh Rajagopalan

India has been an unrelenting proponent of nuclear disarmament and an active participant in multilateral nuclear arms control negotiations, but paradoxically it is also deeply sceptical of and estranged from the global nuclear regime. This chapter examines India’s efforts in nuclear arms control and disarmament to suggest an explanation for this paradox, which is that India has used multilateralism as a way of avoiding difficult national security choices. Multilateralism thus became the option and this led to exaggerated expectations about its benefits. On the other hand, India, as a weak state had little control over the results of such multilateral exercises, which have invariably been unfavourable to India and unhelpful in resolving its security dilemma, which led to the estrangement and scepticism about such efforts.


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