Comparisons in Global Security Politics


Book Description

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Comparative practices are integral to global security politics. The balance of power politics, status competitions and global security governance would not be possible without them. Yet, they are rarely treated as the main object of study. Exploring the varied uses of comparisons, this book addresses three key questions: • How is comparative knowledge produced? • How does it become politically relevant? • How do comparative practices shape security politics? This book takes a bold new step in uniting disparate streams of research to show how comparative practices order governance processes and modulate competitive dynamics in world politics.




Security and Development in Global Politics


Book Description

Security and development matter: they often involve issues of life and death and they determine the allocation of truly staggering amounts of the world’s resources. Particularly since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been momentum in policy circles to merge the issues of security and development to attempt to end conflicts, create durable peace, strengthen failing states, and promote the conditions necessary for people to lead healthier and more prosperous lives. In many ways this blending of security and development agendas seems admirable and designed to produce positive outcomes all around. However, it is often the case that the two concepts in combination do not receive equal weight, with security issues getting priority over development concerns. This is not desirable and actually undermines security in the longer term. Moreover, there are major challenges in practice when security practitioners and development practitioners are asked to agree on priorities and work together. Security and Development in Global Politics illuminates the common points of interest but also the significant differences between security and development agendas and approaches to problem solving. With insightful chapter pairings—each written by a development expert and a security analyst—the book explores seven core international issues: aid, humanitarian assistance, governance, health, poverty, trade and resources, and demography. Using this comparative structure, the book effectively assesses the extent to which there really is a nexus between security and development and, most importantly, whether the link should be encouraged or resisted.




International Security


Book Description

From war, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, through environmental and economic crises, to epidemics, cyber-war and piracy, the twenty-first century world seems beset by a daunting range of international security problems. At the same time, the academic study of security has become more fragmented and contested than ever before as new actors, issues and theories increasingly challenge traditional concepts and approaches. This innovative new text focuses on the politics of international security: how and why issues are interpreted as threats to international security and how such threats are managed. After a brief introduction to the field and its major theories and approaches, the core chapters systematically analyze the major issues on the contemporary international security agenda. Each is examined according to a common framework that brings out the nature of the threat and the responses open to policy makers.




Regulating Global Security


Book Description

​This edited collection presents an innovative approach to global security regimes. Employing both conceptual and empirical studies, the volume examines three empirically-oriented sets of cases: weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian disarmament and unconventional threats. The book combines interrogations of the most prominent prohibition/regulatory regimes while covering WMDs, humanitarian issues and other agendas such as drugs, endangered species and cyber security. It will be of interest to academics and researchers in International Relations and Security Studies.




The Politics of Space Security


Book Description

The past five decades have witnessed often fierce international rivalry in space, but also surprising military restraint. Now, with an increasing number of countries capable of harming U.S. space assets, experts and officials have renewed a long-standing debate over the best route to space security. Some argue that space defenses will be needed to protect critical military and civilian satellites. Others argue that space should be a "sanctuary" from deployed weapons and military conflict, particularly given the worsening threat posed by orbital space debris. Moltz puts this debate into historical context by explaining the main trends in military space developments since Sputnik, their underlying causes, and the factors that are likely to influence their future course. This new edition provides analysis of the Obama administration's space policy and the rise of new actors, including China, India, and Iran. His conclusion offers a unique perspective on the mutual risks militaries face in space and the need for all countries to commit to interdependent, environmentally focused space security.







Security Beyond the State


Book Description

Across the globe, from mega-cities to isolated resource enclaves, the provision and governance of security takes place within assemblages that are de-territorialized in terms of actors, technologies, norms and discourses. They are embedded in a complex transnational architecture, defying conventional distinctions between public and private, global and local. Drawing on theories of globalization and late modernity, along with insights from criminology, political science and sociology, Security Beyond the State maps the emergence of the global private security sector and develops a novel analytical framework for understanding these global security assemblages. Through in-depth examinations of four African countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa – it demonstrates how global security assemblages affect the distribution of social power, the dynamics of state stability, and the operations of the international political economy, with significant implications for who gets secured and how in a global era.




Regions and Powers


Book Description

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.




Comparative Homeland Security


Book Description

Introduces the reader to a variety of overseas Homeland Security strategies, policies, and practices in order to present approaches to addressing homeland security challenges and inform students and practitioners This book educates those studying or involved in American Homeland Security on the policies and procedures set by other countries so that they can learn from foreign experiences and determine which overseas approaches may be applicable to improving US Homeland Security policy. The book is broken down into topical categories reflecting some of the major areas within the field of Homeland Security. Each chapter comprises a discussion of strategic policies followed by a set of countries in the context of the subset of Homeland Security addressed in that particular chapter. The book also delves into cybersecurity policy issues, an area that has been growing exponentially but was not touched on in the first edition. The new edition of Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons updates foreign laws, strategies, and policies while expanding the depth and range of the discussion to include additional overseas policies. Based on eleven countries procedures and nine homeland security dimensions, it covers: Counterterrorism Strategies, Laws and Institutions; Law Enforcement Institutions and Strategies; Immigration and Counter-Radicalization; The Role of the Military in Security and Support for Civil Authorities; Border Security, Naturalization, and Asylum Policies; Security Facilities, Cyber Networks, and Transportation; Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Response and Management and Crisis Communications; and Public Health Strategies and Institutions. New edition updates foreign strategies and policies and extends the scope of discussion of these topics Expanded approach for a wider range of students and practitioners exploring the homeland security policies of other countries Covers strategies and tactics to combat terrorism from a number of the world's democracies including: Great Britain, Israel, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia Chapters are organized topically rather than by country, thus allowing students and practitioners to easily compare policies and integrate the concepts presented into practice Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons, Second Edition is an excellent book for all scholars, students, and practitioners interested or involved in homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, criminal justice, counter-terrorism, public health, transportation security, border security, and cybersecurity.




The Evolution of International Security Studies


Book Description

International Security Studies (ISS) has changed and diversified in many ways since 1945. This book provides the first intellectual history of the development of the subject in that period. It explains how ISS evolved from an initial concern with the strategic consequences of superpower rivalry and nuclear weapons, to its current diversity in which environmental, economic, human and other securities sit alongside military security, and in which approaches ranging from traditional Realist analysis to Feminism and Post-colonialism are in play. It sets out the driving forces that shaped debates in ISS, shows what makes ISS a single conversation across its diversity, and gives an authoritative account of debates on all the main topics within ISS. This is an unparalleled survey of the literature and institutions of ISS that will be an invaluable guide for all students and scholars of ISS, whether traditionalist, 'new agenda' or critical.