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The European Union as an Actor in Energy Relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The final phase of the nuclear negotiations with Iran has coincided with a profound crisis in the EU-Russia relations. Due to the crisis in Ukraine, the uncertainty about European energy security has increased significantly. Against this background, Iran, with its vast natural gas resources,...
What is the Threat Perception of the Slovak Republic?
Issue:
2016 - Volume 10, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This work examines security threats as perceived by the independent Slovak Republic based on the analysis of official state security documents and offers a reflection of the evolution of the security environment and how the Slovak Republic has confronted these. The conducted research led to...
Criminal Governance and Insurgency: The Rio de Janeiro Experience
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The issue of governance by non-state armed groups has been gaining increasing attention from a range of social scientists. This study considers the territorial governance and authority of armed gangs in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, applying a notion of insurgency as competition for the support...
The Limits, Dilemmas and Challenges of European Security in Uncertain Times
Issue:
2016 - Volume 10, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article assesses the current state of European security and its future prospects against the backdrop of several key processes: the rising political and economic power of non-western actors, US and European economic problems, the dynamic of the changing security environment and threats—especially...
Constraining or Encouraging? US and EU Responses to China’s rise in East Asia
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: China’s consolidation of power in East Asia has been reshaping regional security dynamics. This has challenged US regional leadership and confronted Asian states with a new strategic dilemma of major power rivalry. Similarly, China’s rise has confronted the EU with challenges to its strategy...
The Nature of Separatism and Its Weak Reverberations in the Americas
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Secessionism opens up a myriad of interesting debates related to the very ontology of borders and states and the nature of the international system. The main aim of this study is to shed light on the under-scrutinised phenomenon of separatism by problematising and theorising on it. To this...
A Place with None and a number of Frontiers: Changes and Continuities in Interethnic and Power Relations in 19th Century South-Western Amazon
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This study presents a range of research into interethnic and power relations in the upper Madeira area in the southwest Amazon over the course of the 19th century. After providing a preliminary evaluation of the impact of both international treaties and internal political changes at the end...
Operation MANUEL: Prague as a Transit Hub of International Terrorism
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work examines several aspects of the cooperation between the Cuban and Czechoslovak secret services in the 1960s. The Cuban Revolution caused a fundamental redefinition of ideological boundaries, which, among other things, brought geographically remote areas closer to each other. The island...
Conceptualising Borders of Authentic Healing of Gambling Addiction among Western Apaches
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This study examines the process of identity formation in a present-day Western Apache reservation community. It explores how member identities have been shaped by various postcolonial social and political boundaries and how these translate into concepts of mental health—specifically in the...
The Body as Border? Arizona’s SB1070 as a Case Study for Re-Thinking the Spatiality of the US-Mexico Border
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Arizona’s SB1070, or the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighbourhoods Act, is a piece of US immigration legislation which was passed in 2010, making it one of the first of a number of state-level immigration bills in the US in recent years. The cornerstone of SB1070 is the requirement...
Rethinking the Borders inside Latin America and the Clash of Social Imaginaries: The Role of Intercultural Universities in Ecuador and Mexico
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: In order to speak about “borders” in Latin America, it is necessary to take an approach that reflects the specific interethnic realities of this region where autonomy is a key emerging issue. The concept of autonomy is often mistakenly linked to forced political and administrative changes that...
On Border and On Murder: Juárez Femi(ni)cides
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Employing critical methods of postcolonial literary studies and feminist theories, this paper investigates Juárez femi(ni)cides arguing that they are not just a massive heinous crime but a result of a socio-economic system of structural inequalities pertaining to cultural and social constructions...
Emigration and displacement in Ciudad Juárez, México
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work presents the emigration phenomenon of Ciudad Juárez which rose sharply between 2007 to 2012 because of an increase in public insecurity and unemployment in the city. The work discusses the emigration flows to El Paso Texas, and some municipalities of Veracruz, México. Analysis focuses...
So Far from God, So Close to the United States: Current Dynamics of Mexican Migration to the United States
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work examines the development of US immigration policy with a focus on border enforcement, migrant removals and the effects on human security at the US-Mexican border. My research considers three stages in the journey of the unauthorised migrant: clandestine crossing, detention in the...
From Imagined Communities to Bordered Societies? Bordering Processes in the Americas in the late 20th and early 21st Century
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This study explores the meaning of borders in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the Americas. It argues that borders can best be understood as the result of bordering practices which are socially defined and constructed. Following the theoretical framework proposed by Popescu, I analyse...
Incremental Escalation as a Cost-Avoidance Instrument in International Conflicts
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: How do states involved in international conflict decide on the quality and quantity of force to use? Traditional understandings of military threats and force in international relations emphasise its quality as an instrument for achieving victory in a dyadic dispute. However, changes in the...
Afghanistan and the Privatisation of Security in the Czech Republic
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The Czech Republic has its own, specific, experience with the privatisation of security. The Czech private security market and available private security services has typically been limited to domestic sectors. This article explores the potential Czech private security actors have abroad and...
Pirates of Aden: A Threat beyond Somalia’s Shores?
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This study focuses on trends in maritime piracy in the Aden Gulf in the period 2009-2012. My research examines core actors and their activities and the corresponding responses of local and international authorities. This work is based on analytical monitoring conducted over the same period.
Keywords: maritime...
Transnational Threats and Reformulating Security in the UN
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Over the past two decades, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has increasingly dealt with new thematic issues and, particularly, with so-called “transnational security challenges.” What implications does this trend have? Focusing on conceptual dimensions, this article analyses whether,...
Small but Substantial: What Drives Ghana’s Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Missions?
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Ghana is among the largest military contributors to UN Peacekeeping Missions (PKM). Irrespective of Ghana’s considerably smaller population size, armed forces capabilities and state budget than other contributing states such as India and Nigeria, Ghana has been substantially involved in most...
Distant Shores? Evaluating Spain’s Immigration Policy
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Over the past few decades, Spain has transformed from a net emigration country into a hub of international immigrants. Over the past five years, the number of foreigners living in Spain has increased four times implying a flow of some three million new people streaming into Spain at a time...
The Europeanisation of Czech Parties’ Election Manifestos Reviewing the 2013 Chamber of Deputies Elections
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work contributes to the debate on the Europeanisation of political parties and particularly the Europeanisation of party election manifestos. This contribution investigates the extent of programmatic Europeanisation of relevant political parties before the 2013 Chamber of Deputies elections...
Unpacking Bangladesh’s 2014 Elections: A Clash of the “Warring Begums”
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work analyses events in the political life of Bangladesh after military rule. It focuses on the rise of the leaders of two influential parties – the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party – and the reasons for their animosity towards one another. I argue that both these political...
Environmental Cooperation and Conflict Transformation
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work is concerned with the tactic of using environmental cooperation as a conflict transformation instrument. This is an optimistic approach which suggests that environmental cooperation is an independent variable that may positively influence politics due to it retaining strong peacebuilding...
Libya, Resolution 1973 and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article sheds light on the intervention in Libya through the lens of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This, together with the deployment of Just War theory, will help explain some of the nuances surrounding the legitimacy of the Libyan intervention in 2011. The work is based on providing...
From Peacekeeping to Peace Enforcement and Back to Peacebuilding Dilemmas: Is there A Growing Insecurity of International Security?
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: Since its creation in 1945, the UN has steadily increased the ambition and the scale of its peace and security agenda in conflict-affected countries. The development of peacekeeping is seen as a global means to achieve its aspirations of international peace and security. Yet, there are problems...
Security, Inc.: Privatising Internal Security in Post-Communist Poland
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT:The question of how and when authority diminishes in states has been a persistent feature of international relations and the political sciences for several decades. The issue is often referred to as ‘governance without a government’ and tries to understand systems of thick and thin sovereignty....
Private Prisons and the Emerging Immigrant Market: Implications for Security Governance
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this work is to examine the role and involvement of the two largest private prisons corporations in the US, Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc., in the immigration policymaking arena. Recent news reported the role of private prison industry in sponsoring...
PMSCs and the Regulatory Environment in Iraq Post-2011
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article explores the security demands and regulatory changes in Iraq since 2011 that have required the private security industry to adapt its corporate strategy. Drawing from cutting-edge primary research, including interviews with contractors and with multinational clients in Iraq and...
Rethinking U.S. Policy Toward Iran's Nuclear Programme
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: A period of Western support for Iran’s nuclear programme gave way to opposition by the same world powers, when it was realised that alongside civilian use, the Islamic Republic was also pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. Driven by Tehran’s policy of aggression, in the Middle East and elsewhere,...