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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB) is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) into security and defense studies curricula at Serbian universities, focusing on public and private institutions. As climate change accelerates and natural disasters become more frequent, addressing these risks is critical for national security and sustainable development. This research evaluates the extent of DRR incorporation in curricula and the use of emerging technologies in DRR education. A qualitative analysis of programs at institutions such as the Faculty of Security Studies at the University of Belgrade, the Military Academy, the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies, and private universities like Singidunum and Educons University reveals that public institutions have made significant progress. However, private universities still need comprehensive DRR-focused courses and technological integration. This study recommends fostering collaboration between public and private universities, expanding access to the National Simulation Center, and incorporating modern technologies and active learning strategies across curricula to bridge existing gaps. These steps equip future security professionals with the practical skills and interdisciplinary knowledge necessary for effective disaster management in an increasingly complex risk environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the BBC television drama Vigil (2021) as a significant site for the construction of public knowledge about nuclear weapons. In doing so, it extends beyond discourse-oriented approaches to explore how nuclear discourses manifest in visual communication, everyday encounters, and popular imagination. In a close reading of Vigil , this article questions concepts of security, peace, and deterrence, revealing how the series (occasionally) challenges conventional discourses while reproducing gendered and racialised representations of nuclear weapons politics. The exploration asks questions of responsibility for nuclear decision-making, the portrayal of anti-nuclear activists, and the depiction of nuclear weapons as agents of both peace and destruction. While the BBC series reproduces existing (and problematic) discourses, it also provides a 'thinking space' for critical engagement. Amid the current geopolitical landscape, this article emphasises the urgency of studying contemporary representations of nuclear weapons and the need for scholarship that challenges traditional Cold War perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue explores Latin America's recent wave of militarism across countries, the militarization of the rule of law, and its consequences on everyday life. It draws on the region's recent history of giving militarized responses to seemingly intractable social, political, and economical problems. We argue that the presence of military values, beliefs, and mentalities have permeated processes in which nations absorb and aspire to military practices, modes of organization, and martial discourses that require greater scholarly attention. The articles address a series of issues including various forms of militarism and the militarization of family, culture and education, diplomacy, policing, and public security in urban and rural settings. The contributions engage systematically with the roots of militarism and give evidence of militarization at the individual, national, and international levels, including a variety of case studies from across the Western Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While far from ideal, civil-military relations in Mexico in the second half of the twentieth century stood apart from the Latin American trend towards military government and dictatorship. Over the course of the last three decades, however, drug-trafficking, organised crime and high levels of violence and insecurity have deeply transformed this historical pattern with Mexico experiencing a clearcut process of militarization and becoming part of a broad Latin American trend. This article investigates the forces behind and the features of the remarkable political and ideological turnaround with respect to Mexico's military and militarization. To provide proper context, it first examines the evolution of civil-military relations in Mexico during the era of PRI dominance (ca. 1945-ca. 1985) and the subsequent challenges of a democratic recasting of civil-military relations. It then studies how from the 1990s onwards drug trafficking (and its mutation into organised crime) and an escalating security crisis affected civil-military relations. The last section critically examines the unprecedented promotion of military roles and prerogatives during the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). The conclusion argues that the shifting relations between civilians and soldiers in Mexico are likely to weaken civilian control over the military and hence risk democratic backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico's public security has suffered a militarization process for at least two decades. Although there is consensus on this trend at the national level in the specialized literature, little research has been conducted on its subnational impact. To amend this gap, this article inquires the way in which militarization has permeated the structure and operation of subnational security forces beyond the local autocratic dynamics that reinforce militarization. Specifically, this article focuses on police reconfiguration regarding interaction with military in the six most violent states in Mexico: Jalisco, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas. The qualitative analysis presented is based on 15 interviews and 18 focus groups with police offices and public security officials of these states. We argue that military presence on the streets and the arrival of the military-to-executive positions in public security institutions contributed to the adoption of military operating modes by the state police during Felipe Calderón (Dec. 2006–Nov. 2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential terms (Dec. 2012–Nov. 2018). Additionally, this article aims to explain how the military has permeated the state's public security institutions at different levels and dynamics (management, training, and operation) that promote the adoption of formal or informal military features that enable state police institutions to behave alike and resemble the army in their everyday activities. From a theoretical and methodological perspective, this article calls for the construction of a research agenda that focuses on the local and subnational processes of the militarization of public security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the political landscape of Latin American and the Caribbean region is changing, intelligence democratization remains a constant challenge. The majority of the countries in the region have not achieved a tradeoff between operational effectiveness and democratic transparency and accountability. Militarism and militarization policies and practices—along with weak and ineffective institutions and corrupt, apathetic, and inexpert leaders—greatly contribute to this constant challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mukaddime Journal is the property of Mukaddime Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Akademik Hassasiyetler is the property of Huzeyfe Suleyman Arslan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The special issue on Scripts of Security proposes to advance interdisciplinary exchanges between Science and Technology Studies and Critical Security Studies. While performativity, enactment, and intra-action have opened important questions about the messiness of security practices and the contingency of their effects, there has been less attention to the obduracy of institutionalized agency and how continuities and asymmetries of power are reproduced, challenged, and maintained. This Special Issue proposes to revisit and rework the notion of script and the related analytical toolkit to make sense of both contingency and obduracy in the technopolitics of security. The contributions gathered here make three interventions in order to account for contemporary challenges posed by the increasing securitization of diverse sociotechnical practices. Firstly, they update, integrate, and reconfigure the notion of script and its associated toolbox to account for the specificities of security practices. Secondly, the articles revisit critical analyses of security in light of the notion of script. Finally, they show how such an updated notion of script can hold together accounts of contingency and obduracy and not jettison one at the expense of the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the digital age, images have pervaded almost all spheres of public life and politics. International relations are no exception. The visual dimension of world politics attracts increasing attention which resulted in the emergence of the so-called visual turn in the theory of international relations. It gained particular prominence within the framework of constructivism and particularly within one of the central and most widespread constructivist theories, i.e. the securitization theory. The first section of the paper examines the concept of ‘visual turn’. The second section considers the current state of art of the securitization theory. The third section outlines key features and possible implications of ‘visual securitization’ to the study of international relations. To this end, the authors refer to a resonant case of a Syrian migrant boy Aylan Kurdi, who died in 2015 while trying to immigrate to Europe. The fourth section examines some limitations of the ‘visual securitization’ theory. The authors conclude that the ‘visual turn’ has led to a certain democratization of securitization practices by opening up new opportunities for the ‘bottom-up securitization’, or ‘people’s securitization’. Thus, it questions the traditional monopoly of political elites on the molding of a security narrative. At the same time, the ‘visual turn’ extends the list of possible reference objects of securitization, which comes to include not only domestic audiences, but also other communities. As a result, ‘visual securitization’ raises a number of new issues. In contrast to a traditional ‘speech act’, an image can be open to various interpretations and as such would make the process of interaction with the audience too complicated and inconsistent. The possibility of incorrect interpretation places increased demands on the communicative context and hinders the use of an image as an independent securitization tool. The authors argue that the key to addressing these issues lies in a more active use of artificial intelligence technologies and social networks.

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences Research / Sosyal Bilimler Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of ODU Journal of Social Sciences Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While some social scientists see multi-method research (MMR) as a promising strategy for strong causal inference, others argue that it does little to strengthen the validity of research. This paper offers a systematic review of how MMR has been used in mainstream International Relations (IR) and specifically in security studies. Using the TRIP Journal Article Database and Web of Science citation data, I examine whether MMR has reached its full potential. MMR has grown in prominence since the 2000s. Scholars use it most often to examine domestic rather than interstate issues. They cite MMR articles less than they cite quantitative single-method articles and about as often as they cite qualitative single-method research. This suggests that MMR is not more influential, nor perceived as more persuasive. However, this gap has decreased in recent years. The study provides insights into IR at the research design and disciplinary levels, the utility of MMR, and knowledge accumulation in social science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Saudi students at the Saudi Electronic University regarding the impacts of social networks on countering violent extremism and their relationship with variables such as gender, academic year, and type of college. The sample for this study comprised 110 male and female students at the Saudi Electronic University. To collect data, a cross-sectional questionnaire was used and distributed to the research participants. Descriptive statistics, an independent sample t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were employed to analyze the data. This research revealed that social networks, including platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others, encompass thoughts and beliefs that highlight positive impacts on countering violent extremism. However, they also include misleading thoughts and beliefs that emphasize negative impacts, promoting violent extremism. This implies the efficient role social networks play in the life of individuals. Moreover, the findings revealed that there were no statistically significant differences among Saudi Electronic University students in their perceptions of the impact of social networks on countering violent extremism, based on the variables of academic year, type of college, and gender. Given the rapid growth of technology as well as the acceleration of online activities, the study recommends increasing community awareness on how to Seleguard gaist in Social networks.

Objectives The aim of the article is to determine the directions of research conducted in the field of security, and realized by the most frequently cited (according to popular bibliometric databases) scholars. On this basis, the frequency of selection of research areas of Polish scientists dealing with issues in the field of security was determined. Material and methods The text presents the author's conclusions from a cross-sectional analysis of Scopus and Google Scholar databases of the most frequently cited authors. The selection of sources was based on several citation indices. Foreign publications were selected in the field of social science on the basis of citations from the internationally recognized and prestigious Scopus database . The analysis refers to the years 2015-2020, as this is the period in which the scientific discipline took shape. Results Polish research, despite raising often important from the point of view of world security problems, is not very noticed in the world. There are several reasons for this. First of all, until recently, it was published mainly in Polish. Secondly, local scientific periodicals or multi-author monographs were usually chosen as the place of publication. Conclusions The Polish literature is dominated by topics related to internal security, such as: public and general security (crisis management), social security, cultural security, etc. Another theme is terrorism (along with its varieties), which is replaced by other problems, such as: the aging of society, the relationship between security and development, or the problems of migration. They mostly refer to regional or even local problems.

Objectives Rapid evolution and progress in computer sciences present new determinants for informational technologies. The universal knowledge based on Mathematics and Computer science exploring processes in information dissemination, should be persistently analyzed. Its focus on practical applicability presents various problems and new possibilities for the field of Security Studies, adding new categories to its research interests, that should be constantly defined and redefined. And what is the objective of the article. Material and methods The descriptive methodology used in the article is limited to a presentation of philosophical categories, as it allows for defining of chosen problems that correspond, upon analysis, to asymmetric threats mounting from IT evolution. Results The predicaments of technological evolution in view o the categories arising through philosophical focus, presented here by authors and as applied in Security studies, point to definitions and associated categories of potential dangers that IT progress may entail. Hence, the presentation of three categories analyzed – information, communication, asymmetric threat, and the following analysis of categories of threats with asymmetric values, as a potential nuisance and danger to state security, related to those categories. Conclusions And as is concluded, the new developments, as discussed in the article, present challenges for state security and are presently evolving. Hence, those should be constantly categorized and associated with security predicaments – active and potential.