Global Security Entanglement and the Mobility Paradox

The world today is profoundly interconnected, but also characterized by ongoing national competition and intra-state conflict. At the nexus of these dynamics is the question of cross-border mobility, which cuts through and connects myriad, disparate areas of “entangled” security—from pandemics to climate change, to conflict and military engagement, to challenges to democracies in the form of internal polarization and external threats. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a striking illustration of this “global security entanglement” in action. This essay presents the concept of security entanglement, illustrates how it operates, and explores some of its theoretical and practical implications.

Abu Dhabi will pivot to ‘soft power’ security policies

Significance UAE military engagement abroad since the 1990s has earned it the nickname ‘Little Sparta’. Its activities included a lengthy mission alongside NATO forces in Afghanistan and special forces-led interventions in Libya and Yemen. Impacts Increased COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy could be an important component of the Emirati soft power approach. UAE purchases of expensive weapons and maintenance of Red Sea basing options will focus on the Iran threat. Defence industrial ties will strengthen with the United States and Israel.

Clausewitz, Die Politik, and the Political Purpose of Strategy

Clausewitz’s writings stand in two traditions. On the one hand, with his own very narrow definition of strategy, “Strategy is the use of the [military] engagement for the purpose of the war,” he continued a tradition that goes back to Paul-Gédéon Joly de Maizeroy and beyond him to Byzantine Emperor Leo VI. It is not least because of Clausewitz’s espousal of this tradition that this narrow definition still dominated Soviet thinking. On the other hand, Clausewitz stood in a new tradition reflecting on the relationship between a political purpose of the war itself. This goes back to Guibert, Kant, Rühle von Lilienstern but also a long-forgotten anonymous work probably written by Zanthier. This dwelt on the bureaucratic process of strategy-making in the interface between (politically dominated) foreign policy and (hardware- and means-dominated) military policy. It is ultimately to the latter tradition that we owe his reflections on the domination of political considerations captured in his famous line about war being the continuation of politics by other means. This in turn is the foundation on which most other reflections on grand strategy have been built.

Civil-Military Engagement During Public Health Emergencies: A Comparative Analysis of Domestic Responses to COVID-19

Background Despite the central role that domestic militaries regularly play in supporting civilian disease outbreak responses, the dynamics of domestic civil-military engagement (CME) during major health emergencies remain largely under-explored in public health, humanitarian, and security literatures. Previous research has found, furthermore, that existing international and domestic civil-military guidelines hold limited relevance during public health emergencies, including epidemics and pandemics, currently evidenced by the observable lack of coherence and high variance in both international and domestic military approaches to supporting COVID-19 responses worldwide. Methods This article presents a comparative analysis of three of these approaches—in China, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines—and maps these countries’ military contributions to the COVID-19 response across a number of domains. Results Analysis of these case studies provides important insights into the ways that CME exists in unacknowledged contexts and forms; how militaries, particularly domestic forces acting as first responders, play an important role in major health crisis contexts; the confusion surrounding how to understand various non-military armed and security actors; and how pandemics, in particular—and other types of largescale health emergencies more broadly—represent a unique domain for CME that tests both the international system and international norms. Conclusion This paper concludes with policy, guidance development, and research recommendations for improved practice for localised CME during public health emergencies.

Rethinking the Carter Doctrine and its Geopolitical Implications

This article combines insights from constructivism with historical analysis to argue that the US military engagement in the Gulf, beginning in the 1980s, was primarily driven by the changed roles of two actors: Iran after the Islamic Revolution and the United States attempting to regain its role as a global superpower following the Vietnam War. It argues that the year 1979 constitutes what constructivists deem a “critical juncture,” in which America’s response to three events—the Iranian Revolution/hostage crisis; the siege of Mecca’s Grand Mosque; and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan—helped to redefine the Gulf’s security architecture and made the region more insecure. It ends with a close examination of US participation in the Iran–Iraq War and the long-term implications of the Carter Doctrine’s changing logic.

Whole of (coalition) government: Comparing Swedish and German experiences in Afghanistan

Whole-of-government (WOG) approaches have emerged as a blueprint for contemporary peace and state-building operations. Countries contributing civilian and military personnel to multinational interventions are persistently urged to improve coherence and enhance coordination between the ministries that form part of the national contingent. Despite a heated debate about what WOG should look like and how to achieve it, the causal mechanisms of WOG variance remains under-theorised. Based on 47 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study compares Swedish and German WOG approaches in the context of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). I argue that coalition bargaining drove the fluctuation in the Swedish and German WOG models. Strategic culture was an antecedent condition. In both cases, COIN and the war on terror clashed with foundational elements of the Swedish and German strategic cultures, paving the way for a non-debate on WOG on the political arena. Finally, bureaucratic politics was an intervening condition that obstructed or enabled coherence, depending on the ambition of the incumbent coalition government to progress WOG. Overall, the results suggest that coalitions face limitations in implementing a WOG framework when the nature of the military engagement is highly disputed in national parliaments.

Contradictions will compromise London’s China policy

Significance Superpower competition and new types of national security threat place increasing stress on London’s approach, which attempts to balance military and ideological competition with the pursuit of economic gains and cooperation on global challenges. Impacts The United Kingdom will make greater investments in language training and area expertise across government departments. UK freedom of navigation operations are more likely to face retaliation or friction than those of France or Germany. China will be excluded from a widening range of economic exchanges with the United Kingdom. China’s regional rivals, particularly India and Japan, will welcome greater UK economic and military engagement.