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China's defense white papers have long been dismissed as lacking substance and offering little useful information on China's real strategic intentions and military capabilities. Nevertheless, since 1998 Beijing has continued to issue defense white papers on a regular two-year frequency. Indeed, in recent years it has accorded greater importance to these documents. This paper argues that China's defense white papers warrant more attention than they have received so far. An examination of the making of the white papers, the functions designated for these documents and their evolving content and structure reveals not only the different nature and purpose of the Chinese white papers compared with their counterparts in Western countries, but also important changes and continuities in China's strategic outlook and its evolving perceptions of the role of the use of force in the context of the country's re-emergence as a major player in international affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long understood as the key document in Britain's Cold War history, the Duncan Sandys Defence White Paper of 1957 nevertheless has a largely forgotten context: home defence. This article argues that understanding this context allows important new conclusions to be drawn concerning the drafting, presentation and the reception of the document and the deterrent strategy it expounded. It argues that the Paper failed to establish a new doctrine for civil defence which reconciled the policy with the wider deterrent strategy. In doing this, the Paper presented a muddled policy to the public: one which failed to justify the reductions in civil defence provision but which stressed the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons. This had the effect of encouraging the critics of the government's nuclear strategy to flag up the absence of adequate civil defence measures and highlight the 'admission' that there was no defence against the hydrogen bomb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligence in defence organizations is widely seen as an under-researched topic. This paper assesses this claim and, by means of a metareview, systematically analyses the body of literature that has focused on intelligence in defence organizations between 2009 and 2018. The review includes 13 key journals on intelligence studies (e.g., Intelligence and National Security), military studies (e.g., Small Wars and Insurgencies) and conflict and peace studies (e.g., Journal of Strategic Studies). The analysis provides insight on the focus areas, the timeframes and conflicts that are addressed as well as the authors involved. Based on this, the paper provides suggestions for further research into intelligence within defence organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on Australia's Defense White Paper entitled "Defending Australia in the Asia-Pacific Century: Force 2030," which was released in May 2009. It is suggested that Australia's new defense policy was created in response to the rapid speed of globalization and increasing economic interdependence, as well as the declining power of the U.S. The author also argues that the policy document is beset with contradictions and there are no details of immediate challenges.

This article was written at the request of the Secretary of Defense Task Force on DoD Nuclear Weapons Management. While this analysis suggests that certain types of terrorists can be deterred from certain types of attacks, it is less optimistic about the use of nuclear weapons in a terrorist deterrent strategy. A broad approach to deterrence may be effective against certain types of terrorist groups and attacks, making it crucially important to disaggregate the terrorist threat when setting policy. The article goes on to address two types of terrorist groups with a “global reach” that pose a serious threat to the United States: non-state actors driven by doctrines permitting catastrophic attacks and state-sponsored groups capable of carrying out catastrophic attacks. The analysis reveals a number of previously unappreciated tradeoffs and paradoxes associated with the deterrence of terrorists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of national security threats on a nation's economic growth and fiscal policy based on a case study of the Korean peninsula. I construct four measures of provocations using a newly-assembled list of North Korean provocative events going back to 1960. The results show that the overall impact of North Korean provocations on South Korea's short-run economic growth is negligible. Since inter-Korean relations have gone through four phases, this paper also estimates the impact of provocations over each subperiod. Provocations had a significant impact on South Korea's economic growth during 1960-1970 and 1992-1997 when inter-Korean tensions were high, but the effects took on different signs. While provocations decreased South Korea's economic growth during 1992-1997, it had a positive impact on South Korea's macroeconomy before 1970. This paper provides evidence that the effect of national security threats may vary with the responses from the government and political factors such as the relation between the targeted country and the country that inflicts the threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses and reviews two documents titled "Australia in the Asian Century: Australian Government's White Paper" and "Strong and Secure: A Strategy for Australia's National Security". It mentions that "Australia in the Asian Century: Australian Government's White Paper" describes the three assumptions regarding the future economic position of Asia in the global landscape and its reduction of interdependence on other nations leading to negligible conflict.

The article explores the political history of Canada during the administration of prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Emphasis is given to aspects of foreign policy such as procurement for the armed forces, Canada's commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and collective defense against the Soviet Union.

With the 1979 revolution, Iran's Security Assistance (SA) underwent a significant transformation, from fragmented and ideologically-driven support for Islamic movements in the early post-revolutionary stage to making SA the centrepiece of its national security strategy. This article explores Iran' model of SA by addressing the following key questions: How have perceptions of SA and its role in post-revolutionary Iran's strategic thinking changed? What constitutes key elements of the Iranian SA practice? Is there an 'Iranian way' of assisting local military partners, and to what extent does it overlap with other states' similar practices? The paper identifies a two-stage process of evolution, arguing that SA gradually evolved into a strategic tool to build a Tehran-led regional alliance model, boost Iran's deterrence capability, and counter the US-led collective security architecture. With a hybrid ideological and anti-imperialist rationale at its core, relying on human bonds and personal loyalties, mixing asymmetric operations with sustained force projection, and using a centralized command structure with minimum public exposure, Tehran has introduced a unique model of security assistance. The paper shows how Iran has moved beyond a technical view of SA to gradually shape a holistic model with interwoven messianic, economic, and strategic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are migrant communities policed in cities of the Global South where racially securitized discourses and colonial institutional legacies shape contemporary police practice? Critical criminologists advise that postcolonial perspectives offer valuable insights on imperial legacies, while allowing us to expand conceptual and empirical analyses of crime, policing, justice, and social order. Building on this agenda, this paper explores the intersection of postcolonial policing and immigration enforcement in the context of urban encounters between police officers and Afghan and Bengali migrants in urban Pakistan. It considers how the securitization of migration and migrants impacts their routine interactions with street-level enforcement officers. Based on ethnographic findings from Karachi, this paper argues that migrant encounters with urban policing can be captured by what I call the "postcolonial condition of policing" wherein prejudiced security policies enable expansions in police power without addressing structural inequalities within the police, facilitating reliance upon informal procedures and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to demonstrate characteristics of interaction between governmental efforts to maintain national security and the situation with freedom of religion in Ukraine. To answer the questions of how political decisions have influenced the religious sphere in Ukraine over the past five years including wartime and whether there is a balance between national interests and freedom of religion we apply event impact assessment comparing trends of transitions of parishes and people attitudes towards different Orthodox churches before and after political actions and governmental decisions during 2018–2023. The paper confirms that although religion was repeatedly brought into the political sphere religious pluralism persists in Ukraine on the territories that are under government control. We demonstrate that establishing the Orthodox church that was independent of Russia bolstered freedom of religion and full-scale Russia invasion caused a steep increase in many religious transfers from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP) to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Despite an increased role of the state and issues of national security due to Russian aggression, the religious sphere was quite autonomous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Most countries put significant amounts of time and effort in writing and issuing high-level policy documents. These are supposed to guide subsequent national defence efforts. But do they? And how do countries even try to ensure that they do? This paper reports on a benchmarking effort of how a few "best of breed" small- to medium-sized defence organisations (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) deal with these issues. We find that most countries fail to link goals to resources and pay limited attention to specific and rigorous ex-ante or post-hoc evaluation, even when compared to their own national government-wide provisions. We do, however, observe a (modest) trend towards putting more specific goals and metrics in these documents that can be - and in a few rare cases were - tracked. The paper identifies 42 concrete policy "nuggets" - both "do's and don'ts" - that should be of interest to most defence policy planning/analysis communities. It ends with two recommendations that are in line with recent broader (non-defence) scholarship on the policy formulation-policy implementation gap: to put more rigorous emphasis on implementation (especially on achieving desired policy effects), but to do so increasingly in more experiential ("design") ways, rather than in industrial-age bureaucratic ones ("PPBS"-systems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper provides an in-depth analysis of Japan’s evolving cyber defense capabilities and explores its future challenges. National security has transformed in the twenty first century, with cyberspace becoming a key conflict domain. Japan, like other nations, has adapted to these changes. In 2022, the Japanese government introduced its active cyber defense concept. The National Security Strategy of 2022 stated the government’s posture for active cyber defense, which pre-emptively neutralizes adversary computers. This marked a turning point in Japan’s security and defense. This strategic shift, which occurred notably between 2000 and 2022, exemplifies Japan’s transition in the cyber domain. The scope of protecting cyberspace has evolved from primarily safeguarding civilian infrastructure to adopting proactive measures. This evolution is analyzed in the paper, which contrasts Japan’s approach with Western nations’ military-driven cyber policies. Additionally, the multifaceted challenges and opportunities arising from this paradigm shift in cyber capability development are explored. The analysis encompasses key aspects, including the policy formation, international cooperation, budgetary allocations, and the progress of organizational structures regarding the cyber domain. Furthermore, the study explores Japan’s future trajectory in cyber defense, with a particular focus on its role within the ‘Multi-Domain Defense Force’ and the dynamics of the Japan-US alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks empirically at how the UK's policy of securitisation within education impacts on the meso-level space of cultural ethos and pedagogy within two majority non-white secondary schools and one majority non-white further education college. It does so primarily by documenting how British Values and Prevent policies enabled through the British Government's Counter-Terrorism and Security Act have impacted on institutional ethos both in terms of objective structures and staff subjectivities. It is argued here that the security-curriculum ensemble is a recognition of this meso-level space by central government and represents a development in moves made to restrict access and agency within this space, and even to circumscribe this space through symbolic violence. This paper concludes by urging school/college leaders to exercise their agency at the meso-level; to recognise this space as a place for democratisation and decolonisation as an equitable alternative to enforced cultural 'upgrading' and in(ex)clusion presented through securitisation policy that is in reality an instrument of symbolic domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To expedite the construction of barriers along the border with Mexico, U.S. Secretaries of Homeland Security have waived an extensive array of laws since 2005 when authority for such actions was first delegated to that position as part of the REAL ID Act. This paper contextualises the political origins of what is referred to as Section 102(c) waiver authority, shows how these waivers are used to dramatically expand border barrier construction, and reviews legal challenges. In doing so, it connects the use of waivers in governance as viewed through the study of law with the theoretical prominence of Agamben in the discipline of geography. By examining the specific ways in which these legal practices and their geographic expression have institutionalised a state of exception that pushes the boundary of legal acceptability, we arrive at a more transdisciplinary understanding of the role of states of exception as a tool of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the global interconnected economy, China-made information-collecting technologies such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras have become popular products for routine video-based surveillance. Hikvision and Dahua are the two largest global suppliers of CCTV cameras, with both companies supplying their products to over 200 countries. Despite their popularity, national security concerns are commonly cited when adopting these cameras, citing manufacturer links with the Communist Party of China (CPC), cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and sales recorded in the Xinjiang region, that has records of human rights violations. This paper is structured in three parts: first, we explore the predominance of China-made information-gathering technologies in Australia; second, we summarise common national security concerns usually associated with China-based technology manufacturers; and third, we propose regulatory measures to regulating China-made CCTV cameras in Australia. The paper suggests that while state and Federal decision-makers are free to remove Chinese CCTV surveillance cameras, they should avoid overt politisation. Overall, a stronger focus should be placed on evaluating cybersecurity risks of Internet of Things (IoT) information-collecting technologies and considering their timely and effective regulation from the perspective of individual and national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

False identity documents represent a serious threat through their production and use in organized crime and by terrorist organizations. The present-day fight against this criminal problem and threats to national security does not appropriately address the organized nature of this criminal activity, treating each fraudulent document on its own during investigation and the judicial process, which causes linkage blindness and restrains the analysis capacity. Given the drawbacks of this case-by-case approach, this article proposes an original model in which false identity documents are used to inform a systematic forensic intelligence process. The process aims to detect links, patterns, and tendencies among false identity documents in order to support strategic and tactical decision making, thus sustaining a proactive intelligence-led approach to fighting identity document fraud and the associated organized criminality. This article formalizes both the model and the process, using practical applications to illustrate its powerful capabilities. This model has a general application and can be transposed to other fields of forensic science facing similar difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research paper explores the nuanced perspectives of South Asian nations, primarily India and Pakistan, on the global efforts toward nuclear disarmament. Against a complex regional security landscape, historical conflicts, and evolving nuclear doctrines, this study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on document analysis and existing literature. The findings reveal divergent views between India and Pakistan, often shaped by intricate factors of security considerations, regional dynamics, and domestic political influences. The paper discusses the implications of South Asian stances on global disarmament efforts. It proposes potential pathways for fostering dialogue and cooperation in pursuing nuclear disarmament in the region. Through an in-depth examination of South Asian perspectives, this research contributes valuable insights to the broader discourse on nuclear disarmament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how climate change and the environment have been incorporated into Spain's security documents and policymaking. We have examined forty-plus documents issued by Spain's National Security Department to identify the evolution of the climate and environmental discourse. A keyword filter helped to single out the eleven most environmentally relevant documents, which have been qualitatively analysed to better understand the context in which environmental language is used. In our work we identify how both common practices of security analysts and policy-makers different level policies have been strongly influenced by environmental knowledge, and, therefore, incorporated new considerations into security policies as well as. Our findings suggest that climate is not the only challenge incorporated into security documents. Other environmental issues such as desertification, access to water, energy transition or loss of biodiversity are also included, which implies that they are part of a broader concept of national security more in line with the new challenges of the twentity-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a comparative study of Israel and Singapore to understand the national security policies of geographically smaller states. These states are militarily powerful, geographically small, and in close proximity with much larger potential adversaries. These states are also different in terms of their relationship with that much larger state as well as their independence narratives. Israel remains in a state of conflict with Iran through Syria and through terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel was created through war. On the other hand, Singapore has a complicated relationship with Malaysia based on suspicious cooperation. Malaysia also allowed Singapore independence given differences in the voting behavior of Singaporeans. Both states share a military strategy of preemption or prevention. Since these states are geographically small, striking first may offer Israel and Singapore a better chance at avoiding annihilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My goals in this paper are to elaborate further an approach to civil-military relations going beyond control to include effectiveness; and, to argue that outsourcing by the Department of Defense (DoD) results in opportunity costs making very difficult the implementation of the national security strategy of "great power competition." The current acquisition authority for outsourcing impedes DoD accessing cutting-edge technology generated by "startups." In an earlier era of strategic competition, the main US response was to create the National Aeronautics and Space Agency with a new acquisition authority – "other transaction authority" (OTA). In the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2018 Congress stipulated that OTAs should be the preference for DoD in science and technology and prototyping, and education in OTAs be provided. This education has not been implemented. Consequently, a key element of the US great power competition strategy, which is the acquisition of new technology, goes wanting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares immigration reforms across democratic and autocratic states. Mobilising two large-scale datasets, it first challenges the prevailing notion that political regime types inherently dictate immigration policy outputs. The analysis shows that although immigration is central to political debates worldwide, reforms are not that frequent and, when enacted, their restrictiveness does not consistently differ by regime type. Instead, restrictions focus on border controls and openings on entry and integration policies regardless of the political regime in place. The paper then mobilises case studies from around the globe to delve into the policy dynamics underpinning immigration reforms across regimes. It shows that while all migration states grapple with the multifaceted challenges that immigration raises, autocratic politics offers a broader toolkit to resolve the trade-offs between cultural, rights-based, economic and security issues. This creates unexpected opportunities for open immigration reforms under autocratic politics, a dynamic I call the 'illiberal paradox' as a counterpart to the 'liberal paradox' observed under democratic politics. To advance theory-building across the democracy/autocracy divide, the paper concludes by arguing that the liberal and illiberal paradox concepts are not exclusive to democratic or autocratic regimes, respectively, but are valuable analytical tools to understand immigration politics across the political regime spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political economy impacts and influences a state's military strategy. This article focuses on how the integration of the US political economy in the Indo-Pacific drives US Navy officers and the broader national security state to establish the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). Investigating the strategic thought of senior Naval officers shows that they think far beyond military threats and engage with the United States and the Indo-Pacific political economy. Even as the US Navy competes with China's military, its FOIP strategy benefits corporate elites in both China and the US, whose cooperation creates a mutually supportive economic relationship. This argument leads to the finding that the US hegemony in the region is a strategy that avoids a bipolar 'New Cold War' of an entirely de-coupled US and China. The FOIP supported by the US Navy continues to integrate China into regional and global economies, even as it attempts to push back against China by gathering allies and partners. The emphasis on international political economy highlights how the region is a network of 'patchwork' relations, where states rely on one another for economic prosperity. Through investigating speeches and strategic papers from US Naval officials, this paper demonstrates how the US competes and cooperates with China in the context of relations in the region that are in constant flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Sudan's decade-old defence policy is dated. In this article, Brian Adeba argues that a new defence policy which is tethered to a national security framework that accounts for evolving security challenges and addresses missed opportunities for professionalising the Sudan People's Liberation Army is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To deal with the pension crisis, many countries have established the 'Public Pension Reserve Funds (PPRFs)'. The Chinese government has also established the Chinese National Social Security Fund (NSSF), a typical PPRF to deal with the Chinese pension crisis. This paper focuses on the governance issues of the Chinese NSSF. More specifically, it focuses on the NSSF's board to determine its decision-making capabilities, during which I will talk about the expertise and representation issues in the NSSF. The paper found that, first, the NSSF's board may have more symbolic significance than substantive powers, which may be the result of the government's endorsement of the legitimacy of the NSSF. Second, we found that the representation and expertise tension that prevail in Western pension funds governance also exist in China's NSSF, and the analytical framework for this tension is also applicable to the discussion of Chinese cases. Third, through international comparison, we infer that an efficient board of directors might be a necessary condition for the pension funds' good performance, but not a sufficient condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the growth of the military capabilities of China. The author looks into the comprehensive force modernization program of China, as well as the possible implications of China's military capabilities to the national security and national interests of the U.S. He states that it is important for the U.S. to cooperate bilaterally with China, because China is an important factor in international relations. He also talks about the modernization of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Tensions between China and Taiwan have been heightened significantly lately. This paper is aimed at investigating the cross-Strait relations from Taiwan's perspective concerning, in particular, Taiwan's economic policy toward China. Indeed, China has long been Taiwan's largest trading partner; yet, political relationship between the two has fluctuated over time. On the one hand, China has been an attractive market for Taiwanese businesses, but one the other hand, there have also been economic and security concerns about Taiwan's dependence on China. This paper shows the connections between political and economic factors which jointly affect Taiwan's economic policy toward China. It argues that there may be a general equilibrium—a median voter—but it has often been distorted by the institutional constraints in Taiwan's political process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pervasive feature of populism is the use of rescue narratives to stimulate emotional adherence with audience predicated on evoking fear versus hope for salvation. This paper argues that restricting the rhetorical appeal of rescue narratives to the affective domain obscures the argumentative function that these narratives partake in constructing political arguments. It, thus, claims that rescue narratives can perform as arguments when used to provide reasons to justify political action. The paper examines the way(s) Donald Trump employs rescue narratives as arguments to justify military interventions in Iraq and Syria. The analytical framework supplements the argumentative strategies of the Discourse-Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Studies with pragma-dialectics' argumentation schemes. The analysis shows that the different elements of the narrative construct premises for argument schemes adduced to justify the rightness of claims. Conceptualizing Trump's rescue narratives as arguments prompts a reflection on the possibility of narrative discourse to be associated with the domain of reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper spotlights lessons for health security intelligence across the 'Five Eyes' countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent worldwide patterns related to climate change have highlighted the crucial supporting role intelligence analysis may play in comprehending, planning for, and responding to such global health threats. In addition to the human lives lost, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed serious national security concerns, notably for economic, societal, and in some cases, political stability. In response, a greater emphasis must be placed on intelligence. The paper has three goals. First, it outlines the major thematic areas where key 'Five Eyes' intelligence communities' (ICs) skills were tested in supporting the management of COVID-19: 1) the origins of SARS-CoV-2, 2) disinformation campaigns, and 3) early warning systems. The article then explores how such factors have impacted ICs' ability to provide decision-making support during COVID-19. Finally, the article discusses how 'Five Eyes' ICs may strengthen capacity in the three crucial areas. The 'Five Eyes' ICs must act swiftly but methodically to assess the security-based analytic lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to maximize preparation for the next inevitable pandemic, whether caused by a natural disaster, climate change, or state or non-state threat actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mexico-U.S. border is a space considered 'smart´ due to the amount of surveillance technology used for national security purposes. The technological ecology consists of integrated fixed towers, remote video surveillance systems, mobile video surveillance systems, Predator B surveillance drones, mobile X-ray units, automated license plate readers, cell phone tracking towers, implanted motion sensors, biometric data collection, and DNA sampling (Aizeki et al. 2021). Whilst these instruments are usually linked to irregular border crossers, transborder commuters, who physically cross the border every day, also experience the same surveillance regime. This paper discusses the technological 'self-defense' protocol I developed in 2019 when conducting transborder research for my doctoral thesis, which required intense border crossings across Mexico and the U.S. During the ten months of fieldwork, U.S. CBP had the capacity to search my personal device and belongings without a warrant, raising ethical concerns about data protection. As a result, the protocol developed to protect data and participants considered the 'smart' border as part of the methods designed that included encrypting information. In hyper-surveilled spaces, data protection represents a challenge for border researchers and the people involved in such a project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crop nitrogen (N) use efficiency has been recognized as a useful indicator to measure the overall progress of the country towards achieving the sustainable development goal. Moreover, national level N use efficiency indicators are essential for improved estimate of global N budget and environmental impact assessment. We made an attempt to calculate the indicators of N use efficiency for rice at national and regional level in India. We utilized the data from research papers (23 no) published in reputed scientific journals and theses (83 no) submitted to different state agricultural universities over a period of 46 years (between 1972 and 2018). The partial factor productivity of N for rice in India ranged from 39.8 to 68.0 kg kg−1 with a national average value of 52.8 kg kg−1. The national average agronomic N use efficiency and nitrogen recovery efficiency (REN) were 18 kg kg−1 and 42.6%, respectively. Conducive agro-climatic condition coupled with improved crop management resulted in higher REN (>50%) in northern zone states of India. Whereas, rain-fed eastern and central zone states have REN<40%. The partial N balance (PNB) in rice ranged from 0.72–1.42 in India. The states with lower PNB need to reconcile their N addition with crop N uptake by adopting N responsive varieties and advanced fertilizer management to prevent environment degradation and economic loss. The findings of this study have significant implications for N budget estimation and policy decisions on hunger, food security and environment at national and global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the onset of the year 2020 brought unprecedented suffering to humanity. Economic activities in virtually all nations across the globe were brought to a shuddering halt, with the third world suffering the worst effects on the economic front. The health security of nations across the globe was shaken, as nations came to terms with the surging health needs for the infected citizens. In order to grapple with the pandemic, nations took drastic measures, chief among them being the implementation of lockdowns, coupled with harsh restrictions. These measures, however, came at a cost. This paper explores the impacts of the restrictive measures that were implemented by the Zimbabwean government to combat COVID-19 pandemic. The paper interrogates these measures in the context of the national security discourse. In the analysis, the paper also makes reference to South Africa- a more developed nation and Zimbabwe's neighbour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights deficiencies in Uganda's national security civilian intelligence services' oversight systems and their implications for the democratic governance of the security sector. It argues that the intelligence sub-sector in Uganda still lags behind as far as adhering to democratic governance norms is concerned. The legislature and civil society organizations which are supposed to ensure that intelligence organizations operate within the rule of law find veritable challenges due to some legislative ambiguities. The paper recommends that the laws governing intelligence services should be amended to give more definite mandates to the legislature and other oversight bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeast Asia has gone through a remarkable transformation in recent decades and seen peaceful change since the end of the Cold War era despite great power interference and rivalry and ongoing territorial disputes including the South China Sea conflict. The region has transformed its image from the so-called Balkans of the East in the 1960s and 1970s to an economically competitive and peaceful region today. Despite these accomplishments, the record of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in maintaining regional peace and security has also been seriously challenged, particularly at the domestic and transnational level. The paper argues that the Southeast Asian experience of peaceful change calls for a different framework of analysis that goes beyond the traditional International Relations theories which do not provide a compelling answer to whether regional peace has prevailed. It reviews ASEAN's approaches to managing peace and security in Southeast Asia and brings close attention to domestic and international dynamics. The paper claims that the Southeast Asian states' approach to positive peace, reflected in the notion of comprehensive security and the building of national and regional resilience, is instructive in understanding peaceful transformations in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While human rights are an integral part of liberal democratic rule, the extent to which public opinion in democracies prioritises human rights in other countries relative to other competing foreign policy priorities is not clear. This is particularly the case when a country that systematically breaches human rights also poses a serious security threat and there are incentives to improve relations with the regime in power. To assess whether and how the public values human rights vis-à-vis national security in foreign affairs, this paper utilises survey questions that capture the public's relative preferences between the two in South Korean public opinion regarding relations with North Korea. It provides evidence that when a democratic government attempts to improve relations with a regime committing grave human rights violations, public opinion in the democracy deprioritises human rights in favour of reducing military tension. The findings shed light on the trade-off that exists in attempts to improve relations with a regime that is both a security threat and a systematic violator of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under conditions of intensifying strategic competition, great powers and less-than-great powers alike are reappraising their national-security strategies. Central to such reviews are assessments of power and strategic advantage – in an era of great-power competition, states need to know who is winning. This is the function of strategic net assessment, recently revived in the United Kingdom through the Secretary of State's Office for Net Assessment and Challenge. This paper sets out the conceptual challenges involved in making assessments of power, considers the main historical efforts to do so, and offers some practical guidance as to how strategic net assessment may be used to inform strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the strategic dimensions concept and content analysis of nine key defence white papers published between 1957 and 2010 to assess which factors most influence declaratory policy. The paper also notes that the development of defence policy has been accompanied by the “muddling through” vs. decisive choice debate which reflects the tensions within policy between the thesis of strategy and the antithesis of fiscal parsimony. The paper maintains that defence policy is ultimately contingent upon external threats and it is these, rather than the desire to economise, which are the key policy drivers. It concludes that this extrinsic factor will determine the outcome of the next SDSR and though this is not necessarily incongruent with the desire to economise, events may prove otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal's role in protecting fundamental rights under China's One Country Two Systems practice. It starts by giving an account of the constitutional and legal framework for Hong Kong's judicial protection of human rights. It examines the Court's efforts in obtaining constitutional jurisdiction, employing generous interpretation approach to rights guarantees, reforming standards such as proportionality and reasonableness for scrutinising rights restrictions, and broadening reference inputs by comparative approach and amicus curiae for interpretation of rights provisions. It indicates that through these ways the CFA has developed freedom-friendly common law constitutionalism and formed judicial preferences in favour of personal liberty. It advocates that the so-called conservative performance of the CFA on rights issues in national security cases may be its efforts to secure judicial independence and the common law system in a changing political climate. The article posits that due to the CFA's strong foundation in judicial protection of human rights, and its recent efforts to incorporate national security law into common law, it is well-positioned to play a crucial role in preserving the way of life for Hong Kong residents as China's Hong Kong policy enters a new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic debate on the interplay between politics and intelligence is dominated by the U.S. experience. Our research, based on interviews with over sixty individuals in the Canadian intelligence and national security community and including political staffers, provides a new case study: that of Canada, a middle power with considerable access to intelligence through the Five Eyes partnership. We found that cases of hard politicization of intelligence analysis are virtually non-existent in Canada. The most important factor explaining this finding is Canada's structural position in the world, or how its geography shapes the broader context of interactions between intelligence and politics. Beyond this, six more specific factors at the domestic level also matter: the relative unimportance of foreign and security policy as political issues, few opportunities, a lack of political benefits, low intelligence literacy generally among policy makers, poor transparency in national security decision making, and a tradition of non-partisanship in the civil service. The paper concludes by reflecting on this assessment: while hard politicization remains a rarity in Canada, the shields that have prevented the emergence of politicization will likely be increasingly tested in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are industrial policies having an impact on countries' cybersecurity capacity across the globe? When analysing the securitisation of countries' cyberspace, the empirical assessment of industrial policies is still rather unexplored. In parallel, scholars in the field of development have already raised their concerns regarding the risk for developing countries falling further behind vis-à-vis developed countries as a consequence of the disruptive dynamics brought forth by new technologies. Still, empirical studies that contrast the dynamics that new technologies are posing among developed and developing countries are rather scant. This paper looks to contribute to the empirical literature by assessing the role of industrial policy in cyber-related challenges through a cross-country OLS estimation model. Results show that industrial policies are having a significant impact across countries' cyber capacities and that, moreover, there is an interactive relationship between countries' cybersecurity capacities and R&D efforts once development values are controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theories of international regimes and game theoretical approaches this article analyzes the level of overlap in national security strategies, seeking to explore the potential of convergence in security and defense cooperation in Europe post Brexit. It investigates two research questions: 1. What is the potential for future security cooperation in the Euro-Atlantic space post-Brexit? and 2. What areas are more prone to collaboration? The paper applies cluster analysis and a comparative design, using national security strategies as units of study. It finds that there is potential for future convergence between EU27 and the UK at the industrial level, in internal security matters and EU missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing North Korea is essential for examining international relations in East Asia as a whole, but North Korea's tight control over information makes this difficult. Another factor complicating analysis of North Korea is its "special relationship" with China. The aim of this paper is to examine four factors contributing to the "special relationship" between China and North Korea, how that relationship came about, and how it functions within the context of international politics today. This paper is a structural analysis of China–North Korea relations that describes four factors behind their "special relationship." It continues by analyzing China–North Korea relations under Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un up to the deployment of THAAD in South Korea. The "special relationship" between China and North Korea is based on four factors. What is distinctive about these factors is that they can bring the two sides together but also push them apart. In terms of national security issues, the force bringing them together has ultimately prevailed. Socialist ideology issues have surfaced much less frequently now and have lost their capacity to both bring the two together and push them apart. In the area of traditional ties, the two leaders are attempting to use their personal relationship to have closer relations, but this is not having much lasting effect. Where economic relations are concerned, Beijing and Pyongyang have become even more dependent on each other and this is a strong force pushing them closer together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes of [maritime] security issues have long focused on threats to the nation-state, thereby promulgating traditional state-centric security policies and practices. The preceding claim is valid for maritime security responses on the African continent, where piracy/armed robbery at sea has been met with robust regional and international interventions, and resulted in two UN resolutions and regional policies. Focusing primarily on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, this paper seeks to highlight the centrality of human security issues to national security by providing evidence of the cyclical relationship between the two; anything that undermines human security, explicitly threatens national security. Utilizing evidence from Nigeria, the paper critiques the tendency to ignore the individual as the referent object of security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their numerous benefits to humanity, social media platforms have brought new challenges on the national security landscape. Irresponsible use of social media has resulted in social vices such as violence, terrorism, child pornography and a myriad of other social ills. To counter the social media-induced threats, most nations have resorted to strict regulatory frameworks that criminalise and penalise some of the social media actions that are viewed as threats to national security. This paper, which is largely based on a literature and documentary survey, explores the threats posed by social media in Zimbabwe. The paper also evaluates the regulatory framework for control of the social media threats in Zimbabwe. The paper reveals that social media platforms have been used to instigate violent protests, to issue subversive statements and to spread fake news, causing fear and despondency amongst citizens. Social media platforms have also been used to facilitate other crimes such as human trafficking and distribution of pornographic material. While several existing statutes have been invoked in the face of these threats, the absence of a specific law to deal with social media threats militates against the current legal framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a re-examination of China's engagement with Africa. Rather than offering broad continental generalisations, or concentrating only on individual country case-studies, researchers and analysts would be better served by recognising and understanding the specific and varied regional contexts in which relations occur. Utilising Hettne's conception of regionalism and regionalisation processes, and over 100 field work interviews, the paper presents a broad continental overview of China's role in Africa followed by a more detailed case study of China's role in East Africa. The paper argues that the regional reality of African security dynamics enmeshes China into intra-regional geopolitics and complex local level security issues, and sees the relationship greatly affected by the varied behaviour and agency of the African leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principles and formalities of modern U.S. Defence planning stem from the 1960s and have largely served well. This paper, however, is about the special challenges that arise when major changes have been needed, some even transformational in character. It discusses how changing realities, independent studies and analysis, events, leaders, and political processes have led to changes not easily instigated within normal processes. Several examples are discussed for the period 1976-2016. Today, the United States and allies again face major challenges that require major military changes. Those have not yet been decided, much less accomplished. The paper draws on lessons from earlier periods to identify obstacles to and mechanisms for change. The last section focuses on defence analysis, which has sometimes been an obstacle but can be part of the solution. The paper urges a new ethic for analysis and the analysts who perform it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society has become an active player in the public reception and handling of the 'refugee crisis', especially through the use of social media. People willing to engage are able to connect in a low-threshold, local, and interactive way, while also keeping connected to similar movements in other EU countries. This process of connection and collaboration can be regarded as an instance of 'bottom-up' Europeanization processes, in which national and subnational actors work together transnationally to reach a common goal. Social media as fora for exchange allow efficient communication, present a possibility to directly lobby the decision makers (e.g. local politicians), and provide an apt tool for the planning of collective actions. The internet offers de-securitising forces a forum for presenting alternative discourses on migration, contributing to de-securitisation processes by moving away from the predominant framing of migration as a threat. The present paper therefore aims to look at 'bottom-up' Europeanization and new possibilities for collaboration through the internet as a transnational, de-securitising open forum for discussion. A group of civil society pro-refugee activists in South Tyrol (Northern Italy) and their transnational activities will serve as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of people across international borders has long been an area of concern for the UK and was a key issue in the public debate surrounding Brexit. This paper examines this preoccupation with the movement of people in the context of the coordination of security and development in UK government policy. The UK responded to the migration crisis of 2015 by announcing the diversion of significant development funding to prevent the movement of people. This paper examines the UK development policy discourse of the past 2 decades through an analysis of key policy documents from the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) and traces the changing ways in which the issue of migration has been framed in DfID's policy. It argues that in UK development policy, whereas migration used to be discussed in terms of how it impacts on poorer countries, migration is now framed as a risk to UK national security. Development aid is now framed as a solution to the problem of migration. This paper argues that this is consistent with a broader shift in the merging of security and development in UK policy where development aid is expected to address potential risks to UK national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]