Political Geography: America / Topic: Security

1. America Inc? Innovation and Enterprise in the National Security State, Linda Weiss

Author:: Mark Zachary Taylor
Publication Date:: 01-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Political Science Quarterly
Institution:: Academy of Political Science
Abstract:: This dense, powerful volume offers profound insights into the U.S. innovation system and its driving forces. The driving forces are Americans' twin desires for technology-based military supremacy (which demands government action) and small government (which militates against it). These twin forces have produced a highly successful, ever-evolving, and unique set of federal institutions and policies, which Linda Weiss calls the “national security state” (NSS). The NSS is the secret to American innovation. Since World War II, it has dominated high-risk innovation, revolutionary technological change, and the formation of new S industries. Weiss's book also reveals that the NSS is not static, but changes in response to changes in perceived geopolitical threats and to shifts in popular anti-statist sentiments. The book explains why the NSS came about, how it works, and glimpses its future. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19346#sthash.kIPIPtW6.dpuf
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: United States and America

2. European Defense Trends: Briefing Update

Author:: David J. Berteau, Gregory Sanders, T.J. Cipoletti, Meaghan Doherty, and Abby Fanlo
Publication Date:: 01-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: The European defense market, though impacted by lethargic economic growth and painful fiscal austerity measures, continues to be a driver in global defense. Five of the fifteen biggest military spenders worldwide in 2013 were European countries, and Europe remains a major market for international arms production and sales. Surges in military spending by Russia, China, and various Middle Eastern countries in recent years has augmented the defense landscape, especially as European countries in aggregate continue to spend less on defense and the United States embarks on a series of deep-striking budget cuts. This report analyzes overall trends in defense spending, troop numbers, collaboration, and the European defense and security industrial base across 37 countries. To remain consistent with previous reports, this briefing utilizes functional NATO categories (Equipment, Personnel, Operations and Maintenance, Infrastructure, and Research and Development) and reports figures in constant 2013 euros unless otherwise noted. Many of the trends identified within the 2012 CSIS European Defense Trends report continued into 2013, namely reductions in topline defense spending, further cuts to R spending, and steadily declining troop numbers. Though total European defense spending decreased from 2001-2013, with an accelerated decline between 2008 and 2010, select countries increased spending2 between 2011 and 2013. Collaboration among European countries has decreased in the R category; however, it has increased in the equipment category – indicating increased investment in collaborative procurement. Defense expenditure as a percentage of total government expenditure has decreased across Europe from 2001-2013 with the exceptions of Albania and Estonia. An updated CSIS European Security, Defense, and Space (ESDS) Index is included within this report and exhibits a shift in geographic revenue origin for leading European defense firms away from North America and Europe and towards other major markets between 2008 and 2013. Finally, a brief analysis of Russian defense spending is included in the final section of this report in order to comprehend more fully the size and scope of the European defense market within the global framework. In 2013, Russia replaced the United Kingdom as the third largest global defense spender, devoting 11.2 percent of total government expenditures to defense. This briefing report concludes with summarized observations concerning trends in European defense from 2001 to 2013. CSIS will continue to follow and evaluate themes in European defense, which will appear in subsequent briefings.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Military Affairs, and Budget
Political Geography:: Russia, China, United Kingdom, America, and Europe

3. David Martin Jones, Nicholas Khoo and MLR Smith, Asian Security and the Rise of China: International Relations in an Age of Volatility

Author:: Dylan Kissane
Publication Date:: 02-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:: Central European University
Abstract:: If there is one issue in contemporary international relations that continues to provoke interest in academic and policy making circles alike it is how states, regions and the world should react to a rising China. While the influence of the People's Republic is being felt from Africa and the Global South through to the developed economies of North America and Europe, it is in East Asia where a re-emerging China has most focused the minds of diplomats and strategists, leaders and scholars and, indeed, the military men and women who must navigate this increasingly precarious great power polity. Within this East Asian context this new volume by David Martin Jones, Nicholas Khoo and MLR Smith delivers thoughtful and attentive analysis to the problem of responding to China's rise. The book is neither a historical account of the rise of China, though it does offer sufficient historical contextualisation for the reader, or another collection of prescriptive policy suggestions, though there are clear conclusions made about which regional and state strategies have best dealt with the rise of the Sinic superpower. Instead, this book is a theoretically informed, consistently argued and well written account of how states in a broadly defined East Asia have and continue to react to the changing security environment that confronts them in the first decades of the twenty-first century.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:: Africa, China, America, and Asia

4. Table of Contents

Publication Date:: 02-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Ethics International Affairs is pleased to announce the publication of its winter 2014 issue. This issue includes an essay by Jacinta O'Hagan and Miwa Hirono on "cultures of humanitarianism" in East Asia; articles by Christopher Kutz on torture, American security policy, and norm death, and Ruben Reike on an international crimes approach to preventing mass atrocities; a book symposium on Mathias Risse's On Global Justice, featuring contributions from Richard Arneson, Helena de Bres, Anna Stilz, and Risse; and a review essay by Nancy Birdsall on Thomas Piketty's Capital.
Topic:: Security and Culture
Political Geography:: America and East Asia

5. Chinese Scholarship on Iran and the Middle East

Author:: Nadia Helmy
Publication Date:: 03-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:: In the past three decades, Chinese Iranian and Middle East Studies have become more and more systematic, which is reflected not only in the great volume of publication, but also in the varied research methodologies and the increase in Iranian and Middle East academic journals. The development of Chinese Middle East studies have accelerated in particular after Arab Spring revolutions and the political changes in the Middle East (2000- 2013). Research institutes evolved from state-controlled propaganda offices into multi-dimensional academic and non-academic entities, including universities, research institutes, military institutions, government offices, overseas embassies and mass media. At the same time, publications evolved from providing an introduction and overview of Iran and Middle Eastern states to in-depth studies of Middle East politics and economics in three stages: beginnings (1949- 1978), growth (1979- 1999), and dealing with energy, religion, culture, society and security. The Middle East-related research programs' funding provided by provincial, ministerial and national authorities have increased and the quality of research has greatly improved. And finally, China has established, as well as joined, various academic institutions and NGOs, such as the Chinese Middle East Studies Association (CMESA), the Asian Middle East Studies Association (AMESA) and the Arabic Literature Studies Association (ALSA). However, Chinese Middle East Studies remain underdeveloped, both in comparison with China's American, European, and Japanese studies at home, and with Middle East studies in the West.
Topic:: Security, Energy Policy, Government, Politics, Religion, Culture, and Authoritarianism
Political Geography:: Japan, China, America, Europe, Iran, Middle East, and Arabia

6. Facing West, Facing North: Canada and Australia in East Asia

Author:: Leonard Edwards and Peter Jennings
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:: Canada and Australia have shared interests in bolstering economic prosperity and security cooperation across East Asia. The focus of the world economy has shifted to Asia; Canada should follow the path Australia has taken for decades and orient itself — in economic and security terms — toward the emerging economies of East Asia. The risk of regional instability is growing, however, due to China's re-emergence, continued speculation about US strategic engagement in Asia and increased competition over disputed maritime boundaries. These developments provide opportunities for collaboration between countries like Canada and Australia. Non-traditional security threats, including natural disasters, climate change, food security and cyber security, point to a range of areas where the two countries can work more closely together.
Topic:: Security, Diplomacy, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Bilateral Relations, and Governance
Political Geography:: America, Canada, and Australia

7. North America Time for a New Focus

Author:: Shannon K. O'Neil
Publication Date:: 10-2014
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: North America was once called the New World. The people, their ideas, and the resources of the continent shaped the histories of the Old World—East and West. Today, North America is home to almost five hundred million people living in three vibrant democracies. If the three North American countries deepen their integration and cooperation, they have the potential to again shape world affairs for gen-erations to come.
Topic:: Security, Economics, Energy Policy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States and America

8. Afghanistan's Legacy: Emerging Lessons of an Ongoing War

Author:: Stephen Biddle
Publication Date:: 06-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Washington Quarterly
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: In an important sense, emerging debates on the war's lessons are premature. The war in Afghanistan is not over; nor is it ending anytime soon. Nevertheless, before conventional wisdom consolidates, two observations on counterinsurgency are worth considering now: whether it can work and how to approach governance reform.
Topic:: Security, War, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:: Afghanistan and America

9. How to Protect Refugees and Prevent Abuse at the Border

Publication Date:: 06-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Human Rights First
Abstract:: Over the last few years there has been a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers detained in “expedited removal” along the U.S. southern border who have expressed a fear of return to their home countries. The overwhelming majority of these people are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. A rise in murders, rape, violence against women, kidnappings, extortion, and other brutality in these countries, which varies due to the particular conditions in each country—fueled by political instability, economic insecurity, breakdown of the rule of law, and the dominance of local and transnational gangs—is prompting many people to flee their homes.
Topic:: Security, Political Violence, Crime, and Immigration
Political Geography:: United States, America, and North America

10. US-Guatemalan Relations: Continuing the Partnership

Author:: Arnold A. Chacon
Publication Date:: 04-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:: From the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Organization of American States (OAS) to regional law enforcement and counternarcotics cooperation, Guatemala is emerging as a key actor. It is a willing partner with the United States in six US presidential priority initiatives: improving food security, preventing HIV/AIDS, mitigating the impact of climate change, and promoting health, citizen security, and educational exchanges.
Topic:: Security, Climate Change, and Health
Political Geography:: United States and America

11. The Civil-Military Challenge to National Security Spending

Author:: Anthony H. Cordesman
Publication Date:: 10-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: Perhaps the worst part of the debate that has led to the shut down of the federal government is its almost total irrelevance. It threaten both the US economy and US national security, but it does even begin to touch upon the forces that shape the rise in entitlements spending or their underlying causes.The Congressional debate does not address the forces that have led to a form of sequestration that focuses on defense as if it were the key cause of the deficit and pressures on the debt ceiling. It does not address the irony that much of defense spending has direct benefits to the US economy and that the spending on foreign wars–the so-called OCO account–dropped from $158.8 billion in FY2011 to some $88.5 billion in FY2013, and is projected to drop to around $37 billion in FY2015. Much of the debate focuses on the Affordable Care Act or "Obama Care"–a program whose balance between federal expenditures and revenues is sufficiently uncertain so the Congressional Budget office can only make limited forecasts, but whose net impact cannot come close to the cost pressures that an aging America and rising national medical costs have put on Federal entitlements in the worst case NDS May actually have a positive impact in the best case.The following briefing provides a range of estimates that addresses the real issues that are shaping the overall pressures that poverty, an aging America, and rising medical costs are putting on the US economy and federal spending. It draws on a range of sources to show how different estimates affect key trends, but focuses on data provide by a neutral arm of the same Congress that has paralyzed the US government and whose action threaten the funding on a viable national security strategy.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, Economics, and Governance
Political Geography:: United States and America

12. The Economy-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia

Author:: Motoshi Suzuki
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:: Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:: The Northeast Asian region has attracted at least two types of international relations analyses. A first type focuses primarily on military and hard security and investigates changes in states' power and the politics of coercion, balance of power, and alliances. A second type is interested in cross-border economic activities, regional interdependence, and institutionalization and then examines the states' policies of development, trade, money, and technology, as well as the politics of institutional building and reform. T.J. Pempel's edited volume synthesizes the two approaches by viewing the mutually shaping interactions between economics and security as a major feature of regional politics. The book is a fruit of collaborative efforts by American, Japanese, South Korean, and Chinese scholars who provide in-depth analyses of recent developments in the region.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Reform
Political Geography:: Japan, China, America, Asia, South Korea, and London

13. Europe: spread (not lost) in space

Author:: Lucia Marta
Publication Date:: 06-2013
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: Since the launch of its two 'flagship programmes' in the late 1990s, the European Union (EU) has been increasingly involved in space activities. The earth observation programme GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, recently renamed Copernicus) and Galileo (positioning and navigation, just like the American GPS) will soon be operational and will support a whole spectrum of European policies, from environment and transport to security and defence.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Economics, Science and Technology, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:: America and Europe

14. Defending America in Cyberspace

Author:: Keith B. Alexander, Emily Goldman, and Michael Warner
Publication Date:: 11-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has identified cybersecurity threats as among the most serious challenges facing our nation. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel noted in April that cyberattacks "have grown into a defining security challenge." And former secretary of defense Leon Panetta told an audience in 2012 that distributed denial-of-service attacks have already hit U.S. financial institutions. Describing this as "a pre-9/11 moment," he explained that "the threat we face is already here." The president and two defense secretaries have thus acknowledged publicly that we as a society are extraordinarily vulnerable. We rely on highly interdependent networks that are insecure, sensitive to interruption and lacking in resiliency. Our nation's government, military, scientific, commercial and entertainment sectors all operate on the same networks as our adversaries. America is continually under siege in cyberspace, and the volume, complexity and potential impact of these assaults are steadily increasing.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: United States and America

15. Europe: Strategic Drifter

Author:: Jakub Grygiel
Publication Date:: 08-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: THE EUROPEAN Union's unfolding crisis tends to be seen as purely economic in nature and consequence. The EU is a common market, with a common currency adopted by most of its members and with fiscal problems of one kind or another facing almost all of its capitals. Most analyses of the euro crisis focus, therefore, on the economic and financial impact of whatever “euro exit” may occur or of a European fiscal centralization. In the worst case, they project a full-fledged breakup of the common currency and perhaps even the EU itself. Not much can be added to this sea of analysis except a pinch of skepticism: nobody really knows the full economic impact, positive or negative, of such potential developments. In fact, not even European leaders seem to have a clear idea of how to mitigate the economic and political morass of the Continent. While it is certain that the EU of the future will be different, it isn't clear just how. If we look at the current situation of the EU from a security perspective, however, it becomes much more difficult to foresee any long-term positive outcome. That's because the euro troubles of today will have powerful negative effects on the security of the region, resulting in challenges that will preoccupy Europeans as well as Americans in the years to come.
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: America and Europe

16. When Camelot Went to Japan

Author:: Jennifer Lind
Publication Date:: 08-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: THE UNITED States has security partnerships with numerous countries whose people detest America. The United States and Pakistan wrangled for seven months over a U.S. apology for the NATO air strikes that killed twenty-four Pakistani soldiers in 2011. The accompanying protests that roiled Islamabad, Karachi and other cities are a staple of the two countries' fraught relationship. Similarly, American relations with Afghanistan repeatedly descended into turmoil last year as Afghans expressed outrage at Koran burnings by U.S. personnel through riots and killings. “Green on blue” attacks—Afghan killings of U.S. soldiers—plague the alliance. In many Islamic countries, polls reflect little warmth toward Americans. Washington's strategy of aligning with governments, rather than peoples, blew up in Egypt and could blow up in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen. America's alliances in the Middle East and Persian Gulf are fraught with distrust, dislike and frequent crisis. Is there any hope for them? Turns out, there is. Fifty years ago, a different alliance was rocked by crisis and heading toward demise. Like many contemporary U.S. alliances, it had been created as a marriage of convenience between Washington and a narrow segment of elites, and it was viewed with distrust by the peoples of both countries. Yet a half century later, that pairing is one of the strongest security partnerships in the world—the alliance between the United States and Japan.
Topic:: Security and Islam
Political Geography:: Pakistan, United States, Japan, America, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

17. Central America's Northern Triangle: A Time for Turmoil and Transitions

Author:: Douglas Farah
Publication Date:: 09-2013
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: PRISM
Institution:: Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University
Abstract:: Over the past decade the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) has earned the unenviable position as one of the world's most violent and lawless regions.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: America and Mexico

18. Is Anyone Listening? Does US Foreign Assistance Target People's Top Priorities?

Author:: Benjamin Leo
Publication Date:: 12-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Global Development
Abstract:: The United States government has made repeated declarations over the last decade to align its assistance programs behind developing countries' priorities. By utilizing public attitude surveys for 42 African and Latin American countries, this paper examines how well the US has implemented this guiding principle. Building upon the Quality of Official Development Assistance Assessment (QuODA) approach, I identify what people cite most frequently as the 'most pressing problems' facing their nations and then measure the percentage of US assistance commitments that are directed towards addressing them. By focusing on public surveys over time, this analysis attempts to provide a more nuanced and targeted examination of whether US portfolios are addressing what people care the most about. As reference points, I compare US alignment trends with the two regional multilateral development banks (MDBs) – the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Overall, this analysis suggests that US assistance may be only modestly aligned with what people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America cite as their nation's most pressing problems. By comparison, the African Development Bank – which is majority-led by regional member nations – performs significantly better than the United States. Like the United States, however, the Inter-American Development Bank demonstrates a low relative level of support for people's top concerns.
Topic:: Security, Crime, Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, America, and Latin America

19. Collective Self-Defense and US-Japan Security Cooperation

Author:: Ian E. Rinehart
Publication Date:: 10-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: If Japan decides to exercise its right of collective self-defense (CSD), it would have complex effects on US-Japan security cooperation. The tangible short-term outcomes would likely be rather modest, and mid-term outcomes are dependent on changes in complementary policies, laws, and attitudes. American observers who expect that a revised interpretation of Japan's Constitution will provide an immediate boost to the alliance are likely to be disappointed. There are institutional and legal limitations on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) that will constrain its activities in the near-term, no matter what policy course leaders choose. Japanese public opinion is also highly circumspect about the use of force to resolve international problems and will likely not support missions that do not directly address the security of Japan. However, due to the powerful symbolism of CSD, the long-term effects could be quite significant.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, America, and Israel

20. Illicit Americas: Historical Dynamics of Smuggling in U.S. Relations with Its Neighbors

Author:: Peter Andreas
Publication Date:: 09-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
Abstract:: The proliferation of illicit cross-border flows in the Americas—ranging from unauthorized migrant workers and psychoactive substances to arms and dirty money—is often portrayed as an alarming and unprecedented challenge to borders and government authority in the region.1 Policing such border flows has also become an increasingly prominent (and sometimes highly divisive) issue in U.S. relations with its neighbors, as Washington has pushed for tighter border controls and more intensive crackdowns on smuggling.
Topic:: Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Crime, Migration, Narcotics Trafficking, and Border Control
Political Geography:: United States, America, Washington, Latin America, and North America

21. The Strategic National Stockpile: Vital to Maintain, Critical to Improve

Author:: Tevi Troy
Publication Date:: 09-2013
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Hudson Institute
Abstract:: Since 2000, the United States has been faced with an unprecedented series of natural and man-made disasters and threats that have generated concerns about the government's ability to respond to future emergencies. As Nate Silver, one of America's most prominent prognosticators, observed in his book The Signal and the Noise, “the first twelve years of the new millennium have been rough, with one unpredicted disaster after another.”As bad as the first decade of the twenty-first century was, with the terror attacks of 9/11, the anthrax scare, and deadly hurricanes, there are troubling indications that things are on track to be even worse in the 2010s. Wall Street Journal “Numbers Guy” Carl Bialik recently wrote, referring to events such as Hurricane Sandy and the 2012 derecho, among others, that “the current decade is on pace to outrank the prior three in cost from inflation-adjusted climate catastrophes costing at least $1 billion in 2013 dollars.”And emergencies related to severe weather events are just one of the many types of crisis we could face. To deal with the potential problems of the future, including bioterror attacks as well as natural disasters, the U.S. government needs to maintain a robust toolkit.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, Disaster Relief, and Natural Disasters
Political Geography:: United States and America

22. It is Time to Start Talking about Mitt: Mitt Romney and the Issue of Missile Defence

Author:: Dr. Matthew Trudgen
Publication Date:: 10-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: In the weeks since he has secured the Republican Presidential Nomination, Mitt Romney has gone from being a long shot challenger for the presidency to being a legitimate contender. The result is that it is now time to discuss what a Romney presidency could mean for the Canada, and one issue that could surface as flash point in the bilateral relationship is ballistic missile defence (BMD). Consequently, it is important to ask the question of what level of interest will a President Romney have in this issue. This article argues that Romney will be a strong supporter of expanding America's missile defences for a number of reasons.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Canada

23. The Obama and Securitization of Iran's Nuclear Energy Program

Author:: Hossein Pour-Ahmadi and Sajad Mohseni
Publication Date:: 08-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Iranian Review of Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Center for Strategic Research (CSR)
Abstract:: Developments relating to the Islamic Awakening in the Middle East, especially in 2011, influenced and intensified, more than ever, the efforts made by the Obama Administration to securitize nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, these activities have always been one of the major preoccupations for the foreign policy the USA. Obama followed up seriously on what George Bush did, especially during his second term. The approach of both US presidents, predicated on considering the Iranian nuclear energy programme as a threat against the US and its interests, has its root in the security-oriented approach, and its adverse consequences, towards the Iran. Therefore, a major part of Iran's foreign policy has been influenced by nuclear activities. This paper proposes to consider the process of securitizing Iran's nuclear file, especially under Obama's administration, on the basis of the conceptual pattern provided by the Copenhagen School and from speech act and action perspectives. This paper seeks also to answer the question as to what methods Obama has used to securitize Iran's nuclear file. It presupposes that the attempts to isolate Iran have been made through speech act and actions.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Islam
Political Geography:: America, Iran, and Middle East

24. Ceding the Next Battlefield

Author:: Eric R. Sterner
Publication Date:: 12-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:: Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:: Space is increasingly critical to our security and prosperity. Yet America still needs a strategy to compete there.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: America

25. Turkey Between Environmental Protection and Energy Security : A Regional Perspective

Author:: Çiğdem Üstün
Publication Date:: 04-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The debate on the future of the Turkish-American partnership has puzzled scholars in recent years due to its constant fluctuations. In the first year of the Obama administration, the parties tried to heal relations with high level exchanges and a new conceptual framework to define the relationship. However, in 2010 the discord between the US and Turkey on major policy issues, including Iran and relations with Israel, once again strained bilateral relations. With the Arab Spring, the pendulum swung once again. Since the eruption of the people's movement in different parts of the Middle East, Turkey and the US have acted in coordination, and taken similar positions in debates in international forums. The Obama administration announced a new Asia- Pacific strategy, which will entail the concentration of its diplomatic, military, and economic resources to build partnerships and curb emerging threats in this region. This new doctrine may have a major impact on US relations with Turkey by opening up new opportunities for cooperation and new necessities to deepen the partnership.
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: United States, America, Turkey, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific

26. The Status and Future of International Law after the Libya Intervention

Author:: Pierre Thielbörger
Publication Date:: 06-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:: The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:: This article uses the case of the Libya intervention to address three general claims about international law. Firstly, it examines whether the reliance of the intervention on the mechanisms of collective security under the UN Charter suggests that international law relating to peace and security has finally overcome its post-9/11 crisis. It concludes that the resolution's vague wording – which makes the distinction between what is “legal” under the resolution, and what is not, hard to draw – undermines such an assumption. Secondly, it explores whether the Libya intervention has put new emphasis on what has been termed the “emerging right of democratic governance”. In spite of the underlying democracy-enhancing spirit of the execution of the intervention, Resolution 1973 was exclusively written in the language of human rights. It did little to indicate a changed attitude of States towards a norm of democratic governance. Finally, the article examines whether the case of Libya shows a renewed international attitude towards States which violate the most fundamental human rights of their citizens. The article concludes by suggesting that, in this third respect, a more muscular liberalism is indeed on the rise again in international law, challenging the formerly almighty concept of State sovereignty. In contributing to this subtle transformation, the Libyan case has made a genuine contribution to the development of the international legal order.
Topic:: Security, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:: America, Libya, and United Nations

27. The Freedom Savings Credit: A Practical Step to Build Americans' Household Balance Sheets

Author:: Lisa Mensah, Raymond O'Mara III, Colby Farber, and Robert Weinberger
Publication Date:: 02-2012
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Aspen Institute
Abstract:: The imbalance of too much debt and not enough assets fuels financial insecurity in many American households. Building Americans' household balance sheets should start with making savings and asset-building incentives more efficient and equitable. Although millions of working Americans currently receive little or no tax incentive to save, modest reforms to our tax code have the potential to dramatically improve their financial futures. The Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS) proposes the Freedom Savings Credit to create a more equitable and economically efficient savings system that will benefit millions of American households and the nation as a whole.
Topic:: Security, Debt, Economics, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: United States and America

28. Assessing the Asia Pivot

Author:: Walter Lohman
Publication Date:: 06-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Journal of International Security Affairs
Institution:: Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Abstract:: In the course of two months in the fall of 2011, the President and his administration—particularly the Secretary of State—conducted a political and diplomatic offensive to prove American staying power in Asia. It marked a 180-degree turn from where the White House had begun three years earlier. The fall offensive began with the long-awaited passage of the Korea-U.S. FTA (KORUS), an agreement of major economic importance. After years of accumulated opportunity costs, in October, the administration finally pushed the agreement forward and arranged for South Korean President Lee Myun-bak to be in Washington for the occasion of its passage. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton framed the new approach in her November “America's Pacific Century” speech, wherein she declared the Administration's “Asia Pivot.”1 President Obama gave the approach authority and economic substance at APEC, where the U.S. secured a game-changing commitment from Japan to join the Transpacific Partnership trade pact (TPP). The President then embarked on his third visit to the Asia Pacific. In Australia, he announced new training rotations of up to 2,500 U.S. Marines through Australia's northern shore, a move with obvious implications for the security of our allies and sea lanes, and in Indonesia, he became the first American president to participate in the East Asian Summit (EAS). At the EAS meeting of 18 regional leaders, President Obama raised the importance of maritime security and freedom of navigation and “expressed strong opposition to the threat or use of force by any party to advance its territorial or maritime claims or interfere in legitimate economic activity”—thereby tying American interests to regional concerns about China. For her part, Secretary Clinton headed to Manila to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)—and then on to America's other treaty ally in Southeast Asia, Thailand. In Manila Bay, she signed a reaffirmation of the U.S.-Philippines MDT on the deck of a U.S. Navy destroyer and essentially declared America ready to “fight” for the Philippines. She also announced the dispatch to Manila of the second (of what will likely be four) refurbished coast guard cutters. En route to Indonesia, President Obama phoned long-suffering Burmese human rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi to get her blessing for a Burma visit from Secretary Clinton. Clinton arrived in Burma by the end of November, meeting Suu Kyi and the Burmese president and beginning a careful, “action for action” process of normalization that could have major implications for the U.S. strategic position in the region. The Chinese have long taken advantage of Burma's isolation from the U.S. If Burmese political reform proves to be real, it will offer an opportunity for the U.S. to reassert itself there. It will also remove a roadblock in America's relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with which it has long disagreed on Burma. A democratic Burma would tip the scales in ASEAN—a hodgepodge of governing systems—in favor of democracy, a state of play that improves the sustainability of American engagement.
Topic:: Security, Economics, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Japan, America, Washington, Asia, Australia, and Korea

29. The Dream Deferred

Author:: Marcelo M. SuÃ¡rez-Orozco
Publication Date:: 05-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Americas Quarterly
Institution:: Council of the Americas
Abstract:: Children are the unwitting victims of exclusionary policies toward immigrants. (video interview available)
Topic:: Security, Economics, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:: America and Georgia

30. The 'New Turkey' and American-Turkish Relations

Author:: F. Stephen Larrabee
Publication Date:: 02-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The United States has to deal with a very different Turkey today than the Turkey during the Cold War. The disappearance of the Soviet threat has reduced Turkey's dependence on the United States for its security and deprived the U.S.-Turkish security partnership of a clear unifying purpose. At the same time, Turkey's geographic role and interests have expanded. Turkey now has interests and stakes in various regions it did not have two decades ago. It is thus less willing to automatically follow the U.S.'s lead on many issues, especially when U.S. policy conflicts with Turkey's own interests. This does not mean that Turkey is turning its back on the West or the United States. Turkey still wants—and needs—strong ties with the United States. But the terms of engagement have changed. Ankara is a rising regional power and is no longer content to play the role of junior partner.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Turkey

31. Muslims in America

Author:: Jessica Stern
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: The threat of domestic Islamic terrorism grows. But the origin of the problem is neither mosques nor the Muslim community writ large—it is jihad cool.
Topic:: Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:: America

32. Are U.S. Borders Secure?

Author:: Edward Alden and Bryan Roberts
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: In response to record numbers of illegal border crossings and the security fears triggered by the 9/11 attacks, over the past two decades the United States has steadily increased its efforts to secure its borders against illegal immigration. The number of U.S. Border Patrol agents has risen from fewer than 3,000 to more than 20,700; nearly 700 miles of fencing have been built along the southern border with Mexico; and surveillance systems, including pilotless drones, now monitor much of the rest of the border. In a speech in El Paso, Texas, in May, U.S. President Barack Obama claimed that the United States had "strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible." Yet according to spring 2011 Rasmussen poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans think the border is no more, or even less, secure than it was five years ago. Some administration critics claim that the United States' frontiers have never been more porous. This contradiction stems in part from the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never clearly defined what border control means in practice. A secure border cannot mean one with no illegal crossings -- that would be unrealistic for almost any country, especially one as big and as open as the United States. On the other hand, the borders cannot be considered secure if many of those attempting to enter illegally succeed. Defining a sensible middle ground, where border enforcement and other programs discourage many illegal crossings and most of those who try to cross illegally are apprehended, is the challenge. Unfortunately, the U.S. government has failed to develop good measures for fixing goals and determining progress toward them. Since 2005, the DHS has reported how many miles of the country's land borders are under its "operational control," but it has done so without having clearly defined what that standard means and without providing hard data to back it up. The lack of sound measurement has left the administration touting its efforts rather than their results: during a press conference in 2010, Obama noted, "We have more of everything: ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], Border Patrol, surveillance, you name it. So we take border security seriously."
Topic:: Security and Border Control
Political Geography:: United States and America

33. Asia's century and the problem of Japan's centrality

Author:: Brendan Taylor
Publication Date:: 07-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: Japan has long been regarded as a central component of America's grand strategyin Asia. Scholars and practitioners assume this situation will persist in the face of China's rise and, indeed, that a more 'normal' Japan can and should take on anincreasingly central role in US-led strategies to manage this power transition. Thisarticle challenges those assumptions by arguing that they are, paradoxically, beingmade at a time when Japan's economic and strategic weight in Asian security isgradually diminishing. The article documents Japan's economic and demographicchallenges and their strategic ramifications. It considers what role Japan mightplay in an evolving security order where China and the US emerge as Asia's twodominant powers by a significant margin. Whether the US-China relationshipis ultimately one of strategic competition or accommodation, it is argued thatJapan's continued centrality in America's Asian grand strategy threatens to becomeincreasingly problematic. It is posited that the best hope for circumventing thisproblem and its potentially destabilizing consequences lies in the nurturing of anascent 'shadow condominium' comprising the US and China, with Japan as a'marginal weight' on the US side of that arrangement.
Topic:: Security and Economics
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, China, and America

34. Leaving Afghanistan to the Afghans

Author:: David M. Rodriguez
Publication Date:: 09-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: In the summer of 2011, I visited the Afghan army's Regional Military Training Center in Helmand Province. The recruits had been there for two weeks, and they looked as strong as any group of U.S. soldiers in basic training. The Afghan drill instructors were as competent, and had the same cocky swagger, as American ones. "Sir, look at all of our volunteers," one drill sergeant proudly said to me. "They're great. We have already won. . . . We just don't know it yet." To comprehend the United States' progress in Afghanistan, it is important to understand how and where we have focused our resources and what work lies ahead. To be sure, the United States and its coalition partners still have plenty of challenges left to tackle in Afghanistan. However, there are indisputable gains everywhere we have focused our efforts. In 2009, General Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, with the help of David Petraeus, then the commander of the U.S. Central Command, worked hard to design a comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign for Afghanistan that would "get the inputs right," as Petraues often said. The upshot was more resources, troops, and civilian support and better command coherence. There are now more Afghan and coalition soldiers in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces alone than there were in all of Regional Command East, the formation responsible for security in Afghanistan's 14 eastern provinces, when I commanded the latter from 2007 to 2008. As 33,000 U.S. troops begin the drawdown, returning to the United States by next summer, 352,000 Afghan soldiers and police will be in place to continue their work. There are clear signs of progress in Afghanistan, and coalition forces have regained the initiative. The strategy has worked because it sought to match the coalition's goals with available resources. It involved four major concepts. First, use a bottom-up approach founded on good governance, capable security forces, and engagement with local communities. If towns had good leaders and security providers, populations would find local solutions to their local problems, with just a little help from Kabul. Insurgents could no longer exploit popular grievances about security, justice, and a lack of basic services.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, and America

35. The True Costs of Humanitarian Intervention

Author:: Benjamin A. Valentino
Publication Date:: 11-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: As forces fighting Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi consolidated control of Tripoli in the last days of August 2011, many pundits began speaking of a victory not just for the rebels but also for the idea of humanitarian intervention. In Libya, advocates of intervention argued, U.S. President Barack Obama had found the formula for success: broad regional and international support, genuine burden sharing with allies, and a capable local fighting force to wage the war on the ground. Some even heralded the intervention as a sign of an emerging Obama doctrine. It is clearly too soon for this kind of triumphalism, since the final balance of the Libyan intervention has yet to be tallied. The country could still fall into civil war, and the new Libyan government could turn out to be little better than the last. As of this writing, troubling signs of infighting among the rebel ranks had begun to emerge, along with credible reports of serious human rights abuses by rebel forces. Yet even if the intervention does ultimately give birth to a stable and prosperous democracy, this outcome will not prove that intervention was the right choice in Libya or that similar interventions should be attempted elsewhere. To establish that requires comparing the full costs of intervention with its benefits and asking whether those benefits could be achieved at a lower cost. The evidence from the last two decades is not promising on this score. Although humanitarian intervention has undoubtedly saved lives, Americans have seriously underappreciated the moral, political, and economic price involved. This does not mean that the United States should stop trying to promote its values abroad, even when its national security is not at risk. It just needs a different strategy. Washington should replace its focus on military intervention with a humanitarian foreign policy centered on saving lives by funding public health programs in the developing world, aiding victims of natural disasters, and assisting refugees fleeing violent conflict. Abandoning humanitarian intervention in most cases would not mean leaving victims of genocide and repression to their fate. Indeed, such a strategy could actually save far more people, at a far lower price.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Human Rights
Political Geography:: America, Washington, and Libya

36. Muslims in America: A Profile

Author:: Karam Dana
Publication Date:: 10-2011
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:: The perception of Muslims living in the United States has deteriorated dramatically since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. U.S.-Muslims, a group that had already faced discrimination prior to the attacks, became even more visible to the public. Non-Muslim Americans began questioning American Muslim loyalties to the United States as well as their commitment to being “good” citizens. Such doubt extended to the political arena as well, prompting intrusive inquiries into Muslim-affiliated civic and political organizations and their members. Even non-Muslims with Muslim affiliations or Muslim- sounding names or appearances have been subject to public scrutiny. For example, despite identifying as a Christian, President Barack Obama's religious affiliation has been continually doubted by some due to his Kenyan Muslim heritage and his middle name, Hussein. Though a decade has passed since the events of September 11th, the role of American Muslims, and whether they can at all be trusted, remains a popular concern and a topic of household conversation.
Topic:: Security, Human Rights, Human Welfare, Islam, Religion, Terrorism, and Sectarianism
Political Geography:: United States and America

37. U.S. Missile Defence Site in Europe as an Aliance Security Dilemma

Author:: Lukáš KANTOR
Publication Date:: 12-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The main aim of this article is to provide a more solid theoretical anchor for numerous past and present debates about the various versions of American missile defence in Europe. The author claims that the neo-realism's concept of alliance security dilemma is the most appropriate framework for Czech, Polish, Romanian, and EU-wide experts'reflections and political decisions regarding the possible accepting of elements of American or NATO missile defence. Under appreciated explanatory power of the concept of the alliance's security dilemma is illustrated in the text on the case of the original Bush's plan of the so-called third pillar in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Topic:: Security and NATO
Political Geography:: United States, America, Europe, Poland, Rome, and Czech Republic

38. U.S.-Mexico Homeland Defense: A Compatible Interface

Author:: Victor E. Renuart, Jr. and Biff Baker
Publication Date:: 02-2010
Content Type:: Working Paper
Abstract:: The United States and Mexico share a common history shaped by military incursions during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The bond between the American and Mexican people, however, has continued to grow closer over time despite occasional negative rhetoric from politicians in Washington, DC, and Mexico City. At local and state levels, relations solidified through the closely knit fabric of our border towns, intermarriage between families on each side of the border, and the development of infrastructure (to include water, wastewater, and gas and electricity utilities) that serves communities to the north and south. At the national level, our relationship became closer due to economic growth resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which now accounts for almost $1 billion (U.S. dollars) in trade per day between the two countries.
Topic:: Security, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:: United States, America, Washington, Latin America, North America, and Mexico

39. Staying Power: The U.S. Mission in Afghanistan beyond 2011

Author:: Michael O'Hanlon
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Foreign Affairs
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: Nine years ago, the United States worked with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban government in Kabul. The world was united, the cause for war was clear, and U.S. President George W. Bush enjoyed the support of roughly 90 percent of Americans. That was a long time ago. Today, the war in Afghanistan is a controversial conflict: fewer than half of Americans support the ongoing effort, even as roughly 100,000 U.S. troops are in harm's way. Troops from more than 40 countries still make up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), but fewer than ten of those countries take substantial risks with their forces in the turbulent south and east of the country. And as the Netherlands prepares to depart Afghanistan this year and Canada remains committed to doing so in 2011, two of these coalition partners will likely soon be gone. Meanwhile, support for the coalition among Afghans has declined to less than 50 percent from highs of 80-90 percent early in the decade. Over the years, the U.S. mission has lost much of its clarity of purpose. Although voters and policymakers in the United States and elsewhere remain dedicated to denying al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan, they have begun debating whether a Taliban takeover would necessarily mean al Qaeda's return; whether al Qaeda really still seeks an Afghan sanctuary, as it did a decade ago; and whether U.S. forces could contain any future al Qaeda presence through the kinds of drone strikes now commonly employed in Pakistan. The most pressing question is whether the current strategy can work -- in particular, whether a NATO-led military presence of nearly 150,000 troops is consistent with Afghan mores and whether the government of President Hamid Karzai is up to the challenge of governing and keeping order in such a diverse, fractious land.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, America, Taliban, Netherlands, and Kabul

40. The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days

Author:: Petra Bartosiewicz
Publication Date:: 03-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: The lesson of the first 100 days of Guantanamo is not one of how truth and justice triumphed, but of how efficiently a bureaucratic machine on a war footing circumvented ethical norms and suppressed dissent, writes reviewer Petra Bartosiewicz.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, New York, America, and Washington

41. The Republicans' Opportunity to Restore America . . . and Their Obstacle

Author:: Craig Biddle
Publication Date:: 12-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Objective Standard
Institution:: The Objective Standard
Abstract:: Considers the Republicans' alternatives following their victories in the 2010 midterm elections, and identifies a moral conflict, which, if unresolved, will preclude them from saving the land of liberty
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: America

42. Ambiguous universalism: theorising race/nation/class in international relations

Author:: Nicola Short and Helen Kambouri
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: Although in the past decades the study of international relations (IR) has become much more sensitive to questions of culture, identity and movement, racism has remained an under-theorised area. The marginalisation of race in IR has become much more striking in the 1990s because of the renewed interest in migration and other intercultural exchanges as 'security threats', as well as the emergence of nationalism and putatively 'ethnic' conflict as a central basis of strife in the post-Cold War era. This article is an attempt to discuss new forms of racism in international relations with particular reference to American policy responses to September 11. Drawing from the work of Etienne Balibar, we argue that a contemporary neo-racism, a kind of 'racism without races', grounded in ambiguity and contradiction, is present in international relations simultaneously as a problem of knowledge and as a problem of political practise. Our aim is to contribute to the strategic movement of international relations theory from a conception of race as a marginal category in IR to one that is more fully theorised, including its history and present role in constituting the discipline and its relationship to power, hierarchy and inequality.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Cold War
Political Geography:: America

43. Barack Obama and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:: Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:: This section is intended to give readers an overview of President-elect Barack Obama's positions on the Middle East peace process as he begins his tenure. The baseline for gauging Obama's views may be his failed 2000 race for Congress. At that time he made statements viewed as pro-Palestinian because they urged the United States to take an "even-handed approach" toward Israeli-Palestinian peace-making. As an Illinois state senator, Obama had cultivated ties with Chicago's Arab American community, which was partly concentrated in his state senate district. He won a U.S. Senate seat in 2004 with significant support from Chicago's Lakeside liberals, who included leading Chicago Jewish Democrats. His position on the Arab-Israeli conflict remained an issue during the 2008 presidential race, however, and Obama made a point of laying out his positions at several points during the campaign, in contrast to his Republican challenger Sen. John McCain, who did not detail his positions.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: United States, America, Middle East, Arabia, and Chicago

44. After the 2008 Russia-Georgia War: Implications for the Wider Caucasus and Prospects for Western Involvement in Conflict Resolution

Author:: Nona Mikhelidze
Publication Date:: 02-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Following the war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 and the ensuing Russian recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Caucasus has risen again on the Euro-Atlantic security agenda. First, the war highlighted that the “frozen” nature of the South Caucasus conflicts was a chimera, even if the war may have entrenched further the frozen nature of peace processes in the region. Second, the crisis generated new sources of instability for the entire post-Soviet space, not only because it highlighted a new form of Russian revisionism but also because it brought to the fore the limits of Western policies in what Kremlin views as its sphere of influence. The war brought to the forefront the colliding foreign policy agendas of the major external actors in the region. Not only in the run-up to the war, but also in the months and years preceding it, the American and European responses to Russia have been firm in rhetoric but compromising in reality. Russia made it clear that it has it own claims over the South Caucasus, it demonstrated its readiness to embark on military confrontation in order to achieve its goals, and through the war it wished to make crystal clear to the international community that Moscow is the only game in town. Third and related, the war exposed the inability of the West to prevent Russia from moving aggressively to restore its primacy over the former Soviet Union's territory. Thus the August war posed new implications and challenges not only for Georgia, but also for the wider Caucasus and beyond. This new context has induced the West to react and redefine its strategy towards the region and its relations with Russia, it has raised the urgency to engage in conflict resolution issues, and it has highlighted further the need for energy diversification.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, and War
Political Geography:: Russia, America, Europe, Moscow, and Abkhazia

45. Whither The Bush Doctrine? Out of sync: Bush's expanded national security state and the war on terror

Author:: Robert G Patman
Publication Date:: 03-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: The US national security state was fashioned at the beginning of the Cold War to contain the global threat of the rival superpower, the Soviet Union. However, this security framework did not wither away with the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the USSR. The events of September 11 starkly exposed the limitations of a state-centric approach to international security in a globalizing world. But the Bush administration falsely assumed that the traumatic events of 9/11 came out of a clear blue sky, and that a rejuvenated national security state would eventually overwhelm the 'new' threat of terrorism. The dangers of persisting in this direction were shown by the US-led invasion of Iraq. Far from closing the gap between the US approach to security and the operation environment of a post-Cold War world, Bush's war on terror undermined the international reputation of the US and presented the American taxpayer with a huge and probably unsustainable burden. All this highlighted the need for a more multilateral direction in US security policy in the post-Bush era. Such an approach would not only correspond better to the realities of today's interconnected world, but also serve as a buffer against the extension of the power of government that had been witnessed in America during the Bush years.
Topic:: Security, Cold War, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, America, and Soviet Union

46. The North–South divide and security in the Western Hemisphere: United States–South American relations after September 11 and the Iraq war

Author:: Mario E Carranza
Publication Date:: 03-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Politics
Institution:: Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:: This paper examines the economics-security nexus in US policy toward South America, and the implications for South America of the 'securitization' of US foreign economic policy during the Bush administration. There has always been a tight linkage between the US foreign economic and security agendas but the real issue is the degree of 'tightness' at a given point in time. After the Alliance for Progress lost its way the United States tended to pursue its economic and security interests in South America in separate tracks, even if preventing Soviet intrusions in the region remained in the background. Yet after the collapse of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations in 2004 a US strategy of 'divide and conquer' through bilateral trade deals has been accompanied by a 'securitization' discourse and there are some indications that it may 'securitize' as a new threat the social movements and neopopulist regimes that oppose neoliberal economic policies. The paper discusses the limits of the securitization thesis. The conclusion examines the future of US-South American relations and argues that the United States needs to renew its commitment to genuine multilateralism and re-engage the region to establish an effective and lasting partnership for dealing with common economic and security challenges in the twenty-first century.
Topic:: Security and War
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, America, and South America

47. U.S. Immigration Policy

Author:: Jeb Bush and Thomas McLarty
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: The United States, a country shaped by generations of immigrants and their descendants, is badly mishandling its immigration policy, with serious consequences for its standing in the world. The urgency of this issue has led the Council on Foreign Relations to convene an Independent Task Force to deal with what is ordinarily regarded as a domestic policy matter. America's openness to and respect for immigrants has long been a foundation of its economic and military strength, and a vital tool in its diplomatic arsenal. With trade, technology, and travel continuing to shrink the world, the manner in which the United States handles immigration will be increasingly important to American foreign policy in the future. The Task Force believes that the continued failure to devise and implement a sound and sustainable immigration policy threatens to weaken America's economy, to jeopardize its diplomacy, and to imperil its national security.
Topic:: Security, Economics, and Immigration
Political Geography:: United States and America

48. U.S.-EU Counterterrorism Responses Post 9/11: Time for Strategic Cooperation

Author:: Bryan Groves
Publication Date:: 01-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:: The lead up to the Iraq War and its conduct has highlighted significant differences in traditional perspectives, capabilities, and methods. While terrorism has been America's central fixation since 9/11, Europe still sees terrorism as one of several important threats today, with proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, failed states, regional conflicts, and organized crime among other top tier threats. The U.S. possesses a comparative advantage in intelligence gathering and kinetic strike cabability. This military strength has enabled the U.S. to favor it as its top tool in waging its global war on terrorism (GWOT). On the other hand, Europe's tendency toward employment of troops for nation-building and peacekeeping missions is in line with its strengths and its preferences. Europe countries also favour an extensive consensus building period of diplomatic maneuvering to establish a widely accepted multilateral response to threats, America under the current administration, however, has insisted on remaining.
Topic:: Security, Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and International Security
Political Geography:: Iraq, America, Europe, and Middle East

49. Republican Reckoning

Author:: Jacob Heilbrunn
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: THE REPUBLICAN Party is not in trouble. It is in peril. In 2006 it lost control of Congress. In 2008 it lost the presidency. And in 2010 it may lose again unless the party changes course, particularly in foreign policy, where it has, by and large, enjoyed a commanding lead over Democrats for decades.
Topic:: Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: United States and America

50. Battlefield: El Paso

Author:: Douglas S. Massey
Publication Date:: 07-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The National Interest
Abstract:: IT IS commonly accepted that the United States was "invaded" by an unprecedented wave of illegal immigrants beginning in the 1980s. According to the Department of Homeland Security, by 2008 there were 11.6 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, 61 percent from Mexico. The next-closest source was El Salvador, at just 5 percent. Hence the "invasion" was framed as a Mexican issue, with pundits from Lou Dobbs to Patrick Buchanan warning of dire consequences for America if it was not checked, by force if necessary.
Topic:: Security and Government
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Mexico

51. Turkey's Emerging Role as a Mediator on Iran's Nuclear Activities

Author:: Rahman G. Bonab
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The international community is worried about the security implications of Iran's nuclear activities. Although it has been argued that Iran is very close to make a nuclear bomb, the results of the latest official reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and some American intelligence institutions demonstrate that Iran is not reluctant to consider the concerns of the international community in its decisions. One of the main policies of great powers is to cooperate with regional actors, like Turkey, to persuade Iran to be more flexible in its nuclear policy and particularly in its uranium enrichment activity. The historical mistrust between Iran and the great powers reinforces the necessity of having other regional actors act as mediators and countries like Turkey can play an important role in this context. The governing AKP's mediation policy in the regional level is a catalyst to Turkey's attempts to mediate between Iran and the 5+1 Group, although mediation can have its own difficulties.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: America, Iran, and Turkey

52. The Army's Professional Military Ethic in an Era of Persistent Conflict

Author:: Don M. Snider, Major Paul Oh, and Kevin Toner.
Publication Date:: 10-2009
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:: The purpose of the Army's Ethic is stated clearly in Field Manual (FM) 1, The Army . It is “to maintain [the Army's] effectiveness.” The implication is as clear as it is true—without such an ethic, the Army cannot be effective at what it does. As is well-documented in the literature of professions, their ethics provide the primary means of social direction and control over their members as they perform their expert duties, often under chaotic conditions. For the Army profession, its evolving expert knowledge in the moral-ethical domain is what enables the profession to develop individual professionals—Soldiers and their leaders—to fight battles and campaigns “effectively and rightly,” as expected by the client the profession serves. Without such good, right, and just application of its expertise, the Army will lose its lifeblood—the trust of the American people.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and War
Political Geography:: United States and America

53. Key Points from "Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership"

Author:: Madeleine Albright
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:: America's next president will face an array of problems more daunting than any since the Vietnam era and will be constrained to do so with US assets—military, economic and political—under severe strain. Our new leader must therefore arrive in the Oval Office equipped not only with the right programs, but also the right temperament to handle the world's most challenging job. Qualifications include analytical skill, an understanding of global strategy, a willingness to recognize and correct mistakes, and a gift for persuading others to do—and even more important to want—what we want.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Development, Diplomacy, and War
Political Geography:: America and Vietnam

54. The Foundations of American National Security

Author:: Francesco N. Moro
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Review of: Creating the national security state : a history of the law that transformed America, Douglas T. Stuart, Princeton University Press, 2008
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: America

55. In Search of the Right War

Author:: Roberto Menotti
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Review of: Winning the right war : the path to security for America and the world, Philip H. Gordon, Times Books, 2007
Topic:: Security and War
Political Geography:: America

56. Russian–American Security Relations After Georgia

Author:: Rose Gottemoeller
Publication Date:: 10-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Washington and Moscow's failure to develop a working relationship could lead to a dangerous crisis—perhaps even a nuclear one. There is an immediate need to grab onto the superstructure of the relationship through the STA RT and CFE treaties, both of which require urgent action. A new architecture should follow that to broaden the relationship, including the creation of a new future for security in Europe. Both capitals need to devise a strategy as well as a mechanism to manage the relationship and prevent future crises. A commission of past presidents—U.S. and Russian—would have the authority to confront these monumental tasks.
Topic:: International Relations and Security
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, America, Europe, Washington, Eastern Europe, Moscow, and Georgia

57. Defense Monitor, Vol. XXXVII, No. 1 -January/February 2008

Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Defense Information
Abstract:: Until Dec. 27, the "success" of U.S. President George Bush's defiant rejection of the American public's repudiation of his Iraq and Afghanistan war policies – evidenced by the November 2006 congressional election – looked to be the most significant aspect of major armed conflicts around the world during 2007.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Defense Policy, and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and America

58. Building Counter-Terrorism Capacity Across Borders: Lessons from the Defeat of "Revolutionary Organization November 17th"

Author:: Christos Floros and Bruce Newsome
Publication Date:: 07-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Security Sector Management
Institution:: Centre for Security Sector Management
Abstract:: Since 2001, governments have made more resources available for building counter-terrorist capacity abroad, but performance has not matched the rhetoric. Lessons from the defeat of the November 17th terrorist organization in Greece suggest that political or material commitments are necessary but insufficient conditions of international counter-terrorist capacity-building. More important, but less acknowledged, are the organizational conditions. Governments should encourage more cooperative, less self-reliant cultures in their agencies, develop multi-laterally beneficial objectives, and prohibit activities unauthorised by the host country. Some of the lessons, such as adherence to the same rules of law by all stakeholders, confirm norms in security sector reform. Others, such as increased security sector powers, run counter to those norms.
Topic:: Security, Government, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: America and Greece

59. People without Borders for Borders without People: Land, Demography, and Peacemaking under Security Council Resolution 242

Author:: Jamil Dakwar
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:: Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:: UN Security Council Resolution 242, drafted to deal with the consequences of the 1967 war, left the outstanding issues of 1948 unresolved. For the first time, new Israeli conflict-resolution proposals that are in principle based on 242 directly involve Palestinian citizens of Israel. This essay explores these proposals, which reflect Israel's preoccupation with maintaining a significant Jewish majority and center on population and territorial exchanges between Israeli settlements in the West Bank and heavily populated Arab areas inside the green line. After tracing the genesis of the proposals, the essay assesses them from the standpoint of international law.
Topic:: Security and International Law
Political Geography:: New York, America, Middle East, and Israel

60. Will Georgia Go North? On Democracy and Regional Security in the Caucasus

Author:: Lasha Tchantouridze
Publication Date:: 10-2007
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Insight Turkey
Institution:: SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:: The results of the January 5 2008 presidential elections in Georgia will have a long-lasting effect on this emerging democracy, as well as its foreign policy orientation, and on overall stability in the Caucasus. The winner, Mikheil Saakashvili, widely seen as a pro-American and pro-Western politician very keen on the issues of joining NATO and the EU, has in fact done nothing during his first four years in power to secure his country's political independence from Russia or to weaken Moscow's position in the Caucasus. If Saakashvilis's deeds, rather than his words, are examined more carefully, he appears to be more pro-Russian in his foreign orientation rather than pro-Western. It is not entirely unlikely that President Putin of Russia and his Georgian counterpart Saakashvili are staging the hate game between themselves for the benefit of Western observers and their respective domestic audiences. Saakashvili has just managed to secure his second term in office on the anti-Russian ticket, with all the legal and illegal means at his disposal. This will keep his political opposition, whatever is left of the independent news media, and the majority of Georgians actively opposed to him for years to come. If pressured hard by the West, Saakashvili may be forced to make a turn in his foreign policy orientation, and openly choose Moscow as his political overlord. Such a turn of events would have long reaching consequences for the overall stability and security of the Caucasus, as well as for extra-regional links and energy cooperation.
Topic:: Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: America, Caucasus, Moscow, and Georgia

61. East Asian Security: Two Views

Author:: Gilbert Rozman and Chu Shulong
Publication Date:: 11-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:: In the post-Cold War era and in the early 21st century, the region of Northeast Asia remains one of the most unstable areas in Asia and in the world compared with other regions of Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Southern Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. And it could become a harsh strategic confrontational area between major powers in Asia and in the world in the future, if those major powers like the United States, China, Japan, and Russia do not manage their relationships well. It can also become a place of hot war or new Cold War in the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, if the two Koreas and two sides of the Taiwan Strait problem cannot manage the unresolved issues in their relations. Northeast Asia is also on track to become another center of the global economy, science and technology, military, and international politics. Opportunities as well as challenges to Asia and the world come from the “rising” China and Asia.
Topic:: Security, Globalization, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Africa, United States, America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia

62. The Emerging Pattern of Geopolitics

Author:: Peter W. Rodman
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:: The theme of this conference is especially important. Iraq and Afghanistan, important as they are, do not exhaust the strategic landscape. There is a global strategic environment, which presents many challenges in many different regions of the world that bear close attention in their own right. In fact, that global environment forms the context in which we should be thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the reasons it is so important how well we do in Iraq and Afghanistan is its impact on American credibility—a precious commodity that will affect our success in these other theaters.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Climate Change, Islam, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, and America

63. US public diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific: Opportunities and challenges in a time of transition

Author:: Sarah Ellen Graham
Publication Date:: 12-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:: Two key themes stand out within current US government reports and foreign policy commentaries on American public diplomacy. These are: firstly, that US efforts to attract 'hearts and minds' in the Middle East were inadequate before and immediately after the 11 September 2001 attacks on America and must be improved, and secondly that the administration of public diplomacy has required major reform in order to meet the challenge of engaging Arab and Muslim audiences into the future. This paper assesses US public diplomacy in a regional context that has not been subject to significant scrutiny within the post-11 September debates on US public diplomacy: the Asia–Pacific. This oversight is lamentable, given Washington's significant security and economic interests in the Asia–Pacific, and because the Asia–Pacific is a region undergoing significant economic, diplomatic and political shifts that are likely to complicate Washington's ability to bring about desired outcomes in the future. This paper demonstrates, furthermore, that the Asia–Pacific represents an important case study from which to reflect on the administrative and substantive questions raised in recent critiques of US public diplomacy at a general level.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, Development, Diplomacy, and Government
Political Geography:: America, Middle East, and Australia/Pacific

64. Pakistan—Conflicted Ally in the War on Terror

Author:: Ashley Tellis
Publication Date:: 12-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Many Americans have blamed the resurgence of al-Qaeda and the Taliban on Pakistan's lackluster performance in the war on terror. Islamabad has indeed been ambivalent, but the convulsive political deterioration in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan, Islamabad's military ineptitude in counterterrorism operations, and the political failures of the Karzai government in Afghanistan have all exacerbated the problem. Making U.S. aid conditional on Pakistan's performance in the war or undertaking unilateral strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan would inflate suspicion of Washington's motives, and risk casting Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, as an American adversary. U.S. policy must instead convince Pakistani elites that defeating terrorist groups serves their own interest, while emphasizing that a terrorist attack emanating from Pakistan would push Washington to adopt more painful tactics.
Topic:: Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, America, Washington, Asia, and Taliban

65. Punching the U.S. Military's “Soft Ribs”: China's Antisatellite Weapon Test in Strategic Perspective

Author:: Ashley Tellis
Publication Date:: 06-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:: Although it is often argued that China's recent antisatellite weapon test was a protest against U.S. space policies, Beijing's counterspace programs are actually part of a considered strategy designed to counter the overall military capability of the United States. In preparing to cope with America's overwhelming conventional might, China has taken aim at its Achilles heel: its space-based capabilities and their related ground installations. Thus, China will continue to invest in space-denial technology rather than be a party to any space-control agreement that eliminates its best chance of asymmetrically defeating U.S. military power. With its dominance of space now at risk, the United States must run and win this offense/defense space race if it is to uphold its security obligations and deter increased Chinese counterspace efforts.
Topic:: Security and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:: United States, China, America, Beijing, and Asia

66. Energy Alarmism: The Myths That Make Americans Worry about Oil

Author:: Daryl Press
Publication Date:: 04-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Many Americans have lost confidence in their country's “energy security” over the past several years. Because the United States is a net oil importer, and a substantial one at that, concerns about energy security naturally raise foreign policy questions. Some foreign policy analysts fear that dwindling global oil reserves are increasingly concentrated in politically unstable regions, and they call for increased U.S. efforts to stabilize—or, alter-natively, democratize—the politically tumultuous oil-producing regions. Others allege that China is pursuing a strategy to “lock up” the world's remaining oil supplies through long-term purchase agreements and aggressive diplomacy, so they counsel that the United States outmaneuver Beijing in the “geopolitics of oil.” Finally, many analysts suggest that even the “normal” political disruptions that occasionally occur in oil-producing regions (e.g., occasional wars and revolutions) hurt Americans by disrupting supply and creating price spikes. U.S. military forces, those analysts claim, are needed to enhance peace and stability in crucial oil-producing regions, particularly the Persian Gulf.
Topic:: Security, Oil, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: United States and America

67. Escaping the Trap: Why the United States Must Leave Iraq

Author:: Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:: 02-2007
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: The U.S. military occupation of Iraq has now lasted longer than U.S. involvement in World War II. Yet there is no end in sight to the mission. Staying in Iraq is a fatally flawed policy that has already cost more than 3,000 American lives and consumed more than $350 billion. The security situation in that country grows increasingly chaotic and bloody as evidence mounts that Iraq has descended into a sectarian civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. Approximately 120 Iraqis per day are perishing in political violence. That bloodshed is occurring in a country of barely 26 million people. A comparable rate of carnage in the United States would produce more than 1,400 fatalities per day.
Topic:: Security and War
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, America, and Middle East

68. Seven Months Into the Surge: What Does it Mean For Iraqis?

Author:: Rend Al-Rahim Francke
Publication Date:: 09-2007
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: People who live in the red zone have mixed experiences of the security situation. Residents of some “hot” neighborhoods of Baghdad say that the presence of Americans has a deterrent effect on militias, gangs and snipers—and thus gives comfort to citizens- - whereas Iraqi forces, including the police, army units, or pesh merga sent down from Kurdistan, do little to confront trouble-makers. For example, some neighborhoods within the larger Amiriya district have benefited from U.S. intervention, while others, such as Furat and Jihad, are still in conflict because U.S. forces have not intervened and Iraqi police and army do a poor job of stopping violence and intimidation. The higher U.S. profile is also credited for a decline in the number of suicide bombings and a decrease in mass sectarian killings and kidnappings in the city. Another factor contributing to a sense of greater safety in Baghdad is the success of U.S.-Iraqi force in the area south of Baghdad (the so-called Triangle of Death), where Sunni tribes have recently cooperated with U.S. forces. Residents of some neighborhoods said that for the first time in over a year they have been able to shop in their area in relative peace and stay out after dark.
Topic:: Conflict Resolution, Security, Foreign Policy, and Government
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, America, Middle East, and Baghdad

69. Australia, America and Asia

Author:: Mohan Malik
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: University of British Columbia
Abstract:: This article examines the changing nature of Australian-American relations in the aftermath of the Iraq imbroglio and China's rise. While many observers see differences in Australian and US approaches toward China as a reflection of different interests, it is the contention of this paper that these different Australian-US perspectives on China are, in fact, premised more on some highly skewed assumptions and fallacious beliefs, misconceptions and myths that have lately come to underlie Australia's China policy than on divergent Australian-US interests. This article looks at the proposition that China's rise has the potential to divide Australia and America but concludes that Beijing is unlikely to succeed in driving a wedge between Washington and Canberra. The shared values and shared strategic interests ensure broad support for the Australia-US alliance in Australia which has now expanded into a global partnership encompassing the transnational security issues as well as the traditional geopolitical issues of managing the rise of new powers.
Topic:: Security
Political Geography:: China, America, Beijing, Asia, and Australia

70. Pyrrhus on the Potomac: How America's post-9/11 wars have undermined US national security

Author:: Carl Conetta
Publication Date:: 09-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Project on Defense Alternatives
Abstract:: America's unique position of power in the post-Cold War era has often inspired comparisons to that of Rome during the rule of Augustus. But the security policy adopted by the United States, especially since the 9/11 attacks, calls to mind a different ancient place and personage: Pyrrhus (318 - 272 B.C.E.), king of Epirus, a Hellenistic realm that comprised what is now northwestern Greece and southern Albania. Plutarch memorializes Pyrrhus as a “great man of war” – but also a fool. Although he waged successful campaigns against Macedonia, the Romans, and others, Pyrrhus was unable to preserve his gains, which came at great cost. In the end, his martial ambitions won him and his kingdom nothing but ruin and disapprobation. He is remembered today in the phrase “Pyrrhic victory”– meaning any victory not worth its cost.
Topic:: Security, Cold War, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, America, Greece, Albania, and Rome

71. Budgets to Make America Safer

Author:: Cindy Williams
Publication Date:: 06-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: Since September 2001, federal budgets for national security have climbed more than 50 percent in real terms. Unfortunately, much of the added money reflects “business as usual” rather than programs aimed at making the nation safer from today's threats. Compared with past decades, national security spending makes up a relatively small share of the U.S. economy. Nevertheless, with the federal debt growing rapidly and as large numbers of baby boomers approach retirement age, many observers expect future federal budgets to be tight. Thus it is critically important to ensure that national security funds go to projects that make the nation more secure. This article examines broad changes in national security budgets since September 2001. It first reviews the three categories of federal spending for national security. It then examines how budgets in those categories have changed since September 2001. It ends with a look at alternatives that seem more relevant in an era of international mass-casualty terrorism.
Topic:: Security, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:: America and North America

72. Suicide Terrorism and Democracy: What We've Learned Since 9/11

Author:: Robert A. Pape
Publication Date:: 11-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Over the past two decades, terrorist organizations have increasingly relied on suicide attacks to achieve political objectives. The specific goal sought in almost all suicide terrorist campaigns in modern history is the same: to compel a democratic state to withdraw combat forces from territory prized by the terrorists. This holds true for al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization of greatest concern to most Americans. Al-Qaeda's efforts to mobilize people to kill Americans are driven principally by a simple strategic goal: to drive the United States and its Western allies from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim countries.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, America, Arabia, and Arabian Peninsula

73. Iran's Nuclear Program: America's Policy Options

Author:: Ted Galen Carpenter
Publication Date:: 09-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Although it is possible that negotiations between the leading powers in the international community and Iran may produce a settlement to the vexing issue of Iran's nuclear program, it is more likely that those negotiations will fail. If that happens, U.S. policymakers face a set of highly imperfect options.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:: United States, America, Iran, and Middle East

74. Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus: The EU's Role

Publication Date:: 03-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Crisis Group
Abstract:: Instability in the South Caucasus is a threat to European Union (EU) security. Geographic proximity, energy resources, pipelines and the challenges of international crime and trafficking make stability in the region a clear EU interest. Yet, the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazian and South Ossetian conflicts have the potential to ignite into full-fledged wars in Europe's neighbourhood. To guarantee its own security, the EU should become more engaged in efforts to resolve the three disputes. It can do so by strengthening the conflict resolution dimension of the instruments it applies. As the EU is unlikely to offer membership to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan even in the medium term, it must identify innovative means to impose conditionality on its aid and demonstrate influence. This is a challenge that Brussels has only begun to address.
Topic:: Security and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: America, Europe, Azerbaijan, Georgia, South Caucasus, and Brussels

75. Remembering George Kennan: Lessons for Today?

Author:: Melvyn Leffler
Publication Date:: 12-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:: Kennan's thinking and policy prescriptions evolved quickly from the time he wrote the “Long Telegram” in February 1946 until the time he delivered the Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago in 1950. His initial emphasis was on the assessment of the Soviet threat. With new documents from the Soviet archives, we can see that the “Long Telegram” and the “Mr. X” article contained both brilliant insights and glaring omissions. After he was appointed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall to head the newly formed Policy Planning Staff, Kennan's thinking evolved from a focus on threat assessment to an emphasis on interests. Believing that the Soviet threat was political and ideological, and not military, Kennan stressed the importance of reconstructing Western Europe and rebuilding western Germany and Japan. The key task was to prevent the Kremlin from gaining a preponderance of power in Eurasia. Kennan always believed that containment was a prelude to rollback and that the Soviet Union could be maneuvered back to its prewar borders. Eventually, the behavior of the Kremlin would mellow and its attitudes toward international relations would change. The United States needed to negotiate from strength, but the object of strength was, in fact, to negotiate—and compromise. It was important for the United States to avoid overweening commitments. American insecurity stemmed from a mistaken emphasis on legalism and moralism. The United States could not transform the world and should not seek to do so. Goals needed to be modest, linked to interests, and pursued systematically. Kennan would have nothing but disdain for a policy based on notions of a “democratic peace.” But the empirical evidence of social scientists cannot be ignored. Should the pursuit of democracy no longer be seen as a value, but conceived of as an interest?
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Japan, America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, Soviet Union, Germany, and Chicago

76. Prosecuting Terrorists: A Look at the American and Israeli Experiences

Author:: Christopher Hamilton and Dvorah Chen
Publication Date:: 11-2006
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: Israel's summer war with Hizballah has again raised legal questions about the imprisonment of terrorists in Israel. From its founding, the state of Israel has been forced to confront belligerent activities by hostile states and organizations seeking to destroy it. The struggle against Palestinian terrorism has taken an enormous toll over the course of the second intifada, during which time more than one thousand Israelis have been killed and thousands more wounded. Enemy combatants are imprisoned in order to prevent them from causing further destruction. Therefore, terrorist detentions play a central role in the struggle to prevent terrorist activities, and the legal issues surrounding these detentions pose crucial concerns for the entire international community. There are two major processes for the prosecution of terrorist detainees in Israel: (1) through the normal civilian criminal track based on penal legislation, and (2) through special administrative measures under the minister of defense.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: America, Middle East, and Israel

77. Foreign Investment and National Security: Getting the Balance Right

Author:: David M. Marchick and Alan P. Larson
Publication Date:: 07-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:: Despite the significant benefits that foreign investment brings to the U.S. economy, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 53 percent of Americans believe foreign ownership of U.S. companies is “bad for America,” a sentiment that reached a boiling point with the proposed acquisition of the U.S. port operations of P Steam Navigation Company by Dubai Ports World (DPW). The DPW case brought to the public's attention the little-known executive committee charged with reviewing the security risks of foreign investment—the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—and ignited a flurry of congressional activity to change its mandate and operations under the Exon-Florio Amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950.
Topic:: Security, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Dubai

78. American Strategic, Tactical, and Other Mistakes in Iraq: A Litany of Errors

Author:: Anthony H. Cordesman
Publication Date:: 04-2006
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:: Wartime is scarcely the easiest time for demanding self criticism, but the recent exchanges between the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense over the mistakes the US did or did not make in Iraq have highlighted the fact that the US must both admit its mistakes and learn from them to win in Iraq and successfully engage in the “long war.” The full chronology of what happened in US planning and operations before, during, and immediately after the fight to drive Saddam Hussein from power is still far from clear. It is now much easier to accuse given US leaders than it is to understand what really happened or assign responsibility with credibility.
Topic:: Security, Defense Policy, and Development
Political Geography:: Iraq, America, and Middle East

79. The Iraq War: Do Civilian Casualties Matter?

Author:: Les Roberts
Publication Date:: 07-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: A disturbing thing happened to me in Afghanistan last May while working on a project to install wells in villages. After a delightful month of working in a rural province, filled with welcoming leaders and offers of tea at every house, the mood suddenly changed. A young man walked up to my 42-year-old female American colleague and bashed her in the face. As we collected our interviewers and headed back to the vehicles, children from the village pelted us with stones. This violence against anything foreign played out in hundreds of locations across Afghanistan that day.
Topic:: Security, Civil Society, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, Iraq, and America

80. Why U.S. National Security Requires Mideast Peace

Author:: Stephen W. Van Evera
Publication Date:: 04-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: Two myths have important, distorting effects on the Bush administration's policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First is the optimistic belief that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only a minor obstacle to American foreign policy—a modest hindrance that will not prevent the United States from achieving its main foreign policy goals. Second is the pessimistic belief that a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians is infeasible, so a forceful U.S. push for peace will only waste effort on a fool's errand. These two assumptions have led the administration to adopt a passive policy toward the conflict, declining to offer firm U.S. leadership toward peace.
Topic:: Security and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:: United States, America, Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

81. Travel Advisory: Military Personnel and British Courts

Author:: Simon Henderson
Publication Date:: 09-2005
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: On September 11, retired Israeli maj. gen. Doron Almog declined to disembark from an arriving Israel El Al airliner at London's Heathrow airport and flew back to Israel, thereby avoiding British police waiting with a warrant for his arrest. The warrant, instigated in part by pro-Palestinian groups, alleged that Almog had committed war crimes while head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Southern Command operating in the Gaza Strip in 2002. The airport incident has serious implications, the full extent of which will only become clear in time, for visitors to Britain from Israel and possibly America (due to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq). Israelis, Americans, and, indeed, British citizens could be vulnerable when visiting other countries as well. London's role in the Middle East peace process could also be constrained.
Topic:: International Relations and Security
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United Kingdom, America, Europe, Middle East, London, and Palestine

82. Latin America and Caribbean Security Network Symposium

Author:: Chris Ferguson
Publication Date:: 04-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:: The Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) has a single strategy for Latin America and the Caribbean with the goal of strengthening civil society networks in and between the two regions. We hope to help civil society and its representative organisations foster a more informed and holistic approach to human security. This goal includes building improved channels of communication between civil society networks and regional policy makers, such as the Organisation of American States (OAS) and Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to help incorporate greater input from civil society into their agendas.
Topic:: International Relations and Security
Political Geography:: America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

83. From America's protégé to constructive European. Polish security policy in the twenty-first century

Author:: Marcin Zaborowski
Publication Date:: 12-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: European Union Institute for Security Studies
Abstract:: Following the events of 11 September 2001, Poland emerged as one of the United States's key allies, arguably its protégé, in Central and Eastern Europe. The close affinity of interests on security matters between the United States and Poland became particularly apparent in Iraq, where Warsaw proved to be a strong and highly vocal supporter of Washington. However, at the same time, Poland has been progressively drawn into the internal workings of the EU, and as a consequence its perspectives on European security have evolved towards a more 'EU-positive' attitude. This, coupled with disappointment over the war in Iraq, has meant that Poland's Atlanticism is increasingly questioned, with calls for a more pro-European attitude growing. This paper will reflect upon these debates and argue that Poland's Atlanticism is indeed changing. Focusing on the Iraq conflict and perspectives towards the EU's security ambitions, this paper will show that Warsaw has strived to reconcile its Atlanticism with a concomitant engagement in the European Union's CSFP and ESDP. The paper concludes that Poland's Atlanticism is likely to be toned down in the future as Poland becomes more focused on developing its policies in an EU context and in cooperation with individual member states.
Topic:: Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States, America, Europe, Washington, and Poland

84. In Liberty's Shadow: US Detention of Asylum Seekers in the Era of Homeland Security

Publication Date:: 01-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Human Rights First
Abstract:: When I set foot on American soil, I had finally reached the land of liberty, the land of peace, and I had a strong feeling of gratitude toward the Most High who had allowed me to escape death and to reach a life of freedom…. After completing my statement [at the airport]…[an] officer arrived with handcuffs. Then he handcuffed my wrists, but I sincerely thought this was a case of mistaken identity. Later on he explained to me that this was the established procedure. We left for [a county] prison. They put me in a cell where it was really cold, and I had no blanket with me. The idea of a land of liberty was beginning to be cast into serious doubt in my mind.
Topic:: Security, Government, Human Rights, and Terrorism
Political Geography:: United States and America

85. US-Japan Security Treaties: Formation, Evolution and Consequences

Author:: Hakan Gönen
Publication Date:: 12-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This study examines the formation, evolution and consequences of the US-Japan post-war security relations. Since the end of World War II, the close US-Japan security relationship has benefited both nations. Japan relies on the US for protection from outside attacks by either conventional or nuclear forces. In turn, under the terms of the security treaty, Tokyo lends military bases on Japanese soil to American forces. In this context, Japan has been able to concentrate on rebuilding its economy with relatively little concern for its own defense. But both Tokyo and Washington have begun to reassess their security requirements in view of changing global threats in the post-cold war era.
Topic:: Security and Cold War
Political Geography:: United States, Japan, and America

86. Banning Hizballah TV in America

Author:: Matthew Levitt and Avi Jorisch
Publication Date:: 12-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: Seeking to prevent terror propaganda and incitement to terror in America, the U.S. government added al-Manar (Arabic for "the beacon"), the official television mouthpiece of Hizballah, or the Lebanese Party of God, to the Terrorism Exclusion List (TEL). By designating the network as a terrorist organization the government will effectively take Hizballah television off the air in the United States by denying entry to its employees and to anyone who supports the network.
Topic:: Security and Religion
Political Geography:: United States, America, Middle East, and Arab Countries

87. Carrots for Iran? Lessons from Libya

Author:: Patrick Clawson
Publication Date:: 12-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: As European and Iranian officials began negotiations December 14 on whether to make permanent Iran's temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, eight former Western foreign ministers issued a joint statement calling on Washington to support the European efforts by engaging with Iran. There is a growing chorus claiming that Iran will keep its nuclear program suspended only if offered significant incentives by the United States, such as security guarantees, an end to hostility, or at least normal relations.
Topic:: Security and Religion
Political Geography:: United States, America, Europe, Iran, Middle East, Libya, and Arab Countries

88. Establishing a National Intelligence Director: Directing U.S. Intelligence Efforts in the Post-September 11 Era

Author:: Michael Jacobson
Publication Date:: 11-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: After an extended absence from public view, Osama bin Laden reappeared in video excerpts aired on al-Jazeera several days before the November 2 election, issuing warnings to the U.S. public about al-Qaeda's intention to continue striking the United States. The incident raises new questions about the extent to which bin Laden is directing terrorist operatives and operations. In recent months, many experts have opined that he is no longer in complete control, and that the groups affiliated with al-Qaeda are operating more independently, with bin Laden's organization serving predominately as a source of inspiration.
Topic:: Security and Religion
Political Geography:: United States, America, Middle East, and Arab Countries

89. Blair's Visit to Washington: British Politics and the Peace Process

Author:: Simon Henderson
Publication Date:: 11-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: British prime minister Tony Blair arrives in Washington on November 11 -- the first foreign leader to visit following President George W. Bush's reelection. The visit confirms Britain's status as America's most supportive ally and Blair's status as the president's closest foreign confidant. But the British leader is likely to use the two days of talks to place distance between himself and Bush. Unless obscured by diplomatic platitudes, the public differences will be most acute over the pace and direction of the Middle East peace process.
Topic:: Security, Politics, and Religion
Political Geography:: America, Washington, Middle East, and Arab Countries

90. The Republican Party Platform and the Middle East

Author:: Ben Fishman
Publication Date:: 09-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: The 2004 Republican Party platform, "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America," devotes a third of its ninety pages to foreign policy under the heading "Winning the War on Terror." The platform represents a comprehensive summary of the Bush administration's accomplishments and details the philosophy and principles behind the party's foreign policy. Explaining why "the American people are safer" now than they were three years ago, the platform points to gains in combating terrorists and tyrants, curbing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), promoting democracy, improving homeland security, and strengthening relationships with key allies via counterterrorism efforts. According to the platform, the administration's approach is "marked by a determination to challenge new threats, not ignore them, or simply wait for future tragedy -- and by a renewed commitment to building a hopeful future in hopeless places, instead of allowing troubled regions to remain in despair and explode in violence."
Topic:: Security and Religion
Political Geography:: America, Middle East, and Arabia

91. The Democratic Party's Platform and the Middle East

Author:: Ben Fishman
Publication Date:: 07-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: The 2004 Democratic Party platform, "Strong at Home, Respected in the World," which will be formally adopted today at the party's convention in Boston, reflects the prominence of foreign policy in this year's election. Indeed, nearly half the document is devoted to strengthening American security policy after September 11 and U.S. Middle East policy writ large, including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), democracy promotion, Arab-Israeli peace, U.S. military readiness, homeland security, and energy independence. By comparison, only ten of the fifty pages in the 2000 platform were devoted to foreign policy, and the Middle East did not stand out as a region of particular concern.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Religion, and War
Political Geography:: America, Middle East, and Arab Countries

92. Michael Stein Address on U.S. Middle East Policy: Iraq—The Way Forward

Author:: Stephen Hadley
Publication Date:: 05-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: You have heard President Bush talk about a forward strategy for freedom in the Middle East. The president's vision of the future for the Middle East is predicated on one clear principle: that the advance of freedom and democracy leads to peace and progress for all. As the president has said, as long as the Middle East is a place of tyranny and despair and anger, it will produce men and movements that threaten the safety of Americans and our friends. We seek the advance of democracy for the most practical of reasons: because democracies do not support terrorists or threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction.
Topic:: Security and Religion
Political Geography:: Iraq, America, and Middle East

93. Relying on the Saudis: The Challenge for U.S. Oil Policy

Author:: Simon Henderson
Publication Date:: 05-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:: Over the past week, oil prices have exceeded $40 per barrel for the first time since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and gasoline prices in parts of the United States are now more $2 per gallon. Contributing to this increase were heightened concerns about supply, particularly in the wake of a May 1 terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter. Two Americans and three other Westerners were killed in the attack, and the body of one of the victims was dragged through the streets behind the terrorists' vehicle. Following the incident, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia urged Americans to leave the kingdom.
Topic:: Security, Oil, and Religion
Political Geography:: United States, America, Middle East, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia

94. Chechnya Weekly: American peace group condemns kadyrov killing.

Author:: Lawrence Uzzell
Publication Date:: 05-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:: The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) has condemned the May 9 assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov, calling on May 10 for a renewed commitment by both parties to end the war through peace negotiations.
Topic:: Security and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:: Russia, America, Europe, and Asia

95. An American Grand Strategy for the Middle East: A Report of the Aspen Strategy Group

Author:: Kurt M. Campbell
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Aspen Institute
Abstract:: Former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara was fond of saying that the Middle East was the graveyard of American diplomatic hopes and dreams, and this is a man who knows something about disappointment in global politics (as well as cemeteries). Now, the United States has embarked upon an ambitious mission to remake the Middle East – rebuilding war-ravaged and leader-abused countries in Afghanistan and Iraq, seeking to settle the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, blocking further nuclear proliferation, pushing the region to embrace political moderation and reform, and hopefully improving America's image in the region in the process. There are unintentional though unavoidable echoes of the “best and the brightest” in this campaign as the U.S. embarks upon a global crusade (call it what it is) to help re-direct the course of one of the world's dominant civilizations and the institutions that have served it so poorly. This uniquely American sense of mission and manifest destiny is apparent in a range of endeavors worldwide but it is in the Middle East where U.S. ambitions approach the point of audacity.
Topic:: International Relations, Security, and Democratization
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Middle East

96. The Paradox of Policy: American Interests in the Post-9/11 Caucasus

Author:: Peter K. Forster
Publication Date:: 02-2004
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:: For the decade preceding September 11, 2001, the Caucasus were a "C list" foreign policy priority for the United States. The region neither presented an imminent threat to the United States nor its security interests. American policy was focused on "securing the Cold War victory" whilst regional interests in the Caucasus were defined by economic considerations and a pseudo-policy of neo-containment of Russia. However, 9/11 changed American perspectives on its security interests. The sources of terrorism, the reality of the threat posed by failed states, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction became the new foreign policy dogma. Under these new circumstances, the Caucasus, arguably, migrated to a "B list" priority or one in which American interests were threatened.
Topic:: Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: United States, America, and Central Asia

97. The Defense Monitor, Keeping Presidents in the Nuclear Dark: The SIOP Option that Wasn't

Author:: Rachel Stohl, Winslow Wheeler, Theresa Hitchens, and Bruce.G Blair
Publication Date:: 04-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Defense Information
Abstract:: ONE OF THE MOST RAREFIED experiences of a newly installed president is his receiving of the “nuclear football” conferring the right to order the use of nuclear weapons in defense of the American national interest. Few, if any, presidents have had a firm grip on the “football” however, as all U.S. presidents receive a misleading briefing on their nuclear weapons rights and responsibilities, and options.
Topic:: Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:: United States and America

98. Workshop on Security Sector Governance in Africa

Author:: Anicia Lala and Riefqi Muna
Publication Date:: 11-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:: Security Sector Governance (SSG) in Africa was the theme of a workshop that took place from the 24-26 November, 2003, at Elmina, Ghana, under the auspices of Africa Dialogue and Security Research (ASDR), with the support of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) and jointly funded by the UK Government (Africa Conflict Prevention Pool) and the Special Initiative for Africa from the Ford Foundation. Participation and speakers included academics as well as practitioners from both NGOs and Government. Also in attendance were representatives of various security sector areas, namely defence, police and intelligence from a range of regions, including Southern, East and West Africa, Europe and North America. The agenda covered a multitude of subjects within the governance theme, rendering the programme valuable, instructive and enriching the debates. Among the subjects were International and Regional Perspectives on Security Sector Governance, Governance of Police and Policing, Governance of Intelligence and Governance of the Armed Forces.
Topic:: Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:: Africa, America, Europe, and Ghana

99. Survey of SSR Regional and Sub-Regional Networks

Publication Date:: 10-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
Abstract:: The enclosed survey was conducted in order to map all regional and sub regional networks working in the field of Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective of mapping SSR networks in these regions is multi-fold. Firstly it is imperative that at a time when security has taken a truly global dimension and span, academics and practitioners alike are aware of the state of SSR in different regions. Certain similarities and patterns emerge during the analysis that offer lessons and directions for actors wishing to become involved in SSR in a particular region, or searching for guidance in applying best practices and lessons learned to particular situations. Secondly, exchange of experience and ideas is especially important in supporting South-South dialogue, but the value of cooperation cannot be overemphasized given the often-unclear context in which SSR activities take place. The mapping exercise serves as an entry-point for practitioners to identify existing networks and their areas of expertise. Opportunities for collaboration are made possible by identifying other organisations that are pursuing similar goals. Additionally, the map of SSR networks serves to identify possible gaps in scope of activity and highlights entry points for other organisations and networks to further the objectives of security sector management and reform. Lastly, this exercise will serve as a vehicle for the GFN-SSR to develop ways to strengthen its activities. One way in which the GFN-SSR is already adding value is through the development of its website, which, inter alia, offers a newsletter in four languages, i.e., English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. An activity to reinforce the access to information for those in areas of poor connectivity is already being developed through the conception of a CD-ROM containing all the existing website information for distribution on a timely basis to interested organisations.
Topic:: Security, Development, and International Organization
Political Geography:: Africa, America, Europe, Asia, South America, Latin America, Central America, and Caribbean

100. On the Frontline of an Epidemic: The Need for Urgency in Russia's Fight Against AIDS

Author:: John E. Tedstrom
Publication Date:: 09-2003
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: EastWest Institute
Abstract:: AIDS is a global threat that affects us all. Its destructive reach extends far beyond the sphere of public health, threatening social stability, economic performance, and national security. The United States has struggled with HIV/AIDS for over 20 years. At least 440,000 Americans have died from AIDS -related conditions, many more than would have if American political leaders had acted early in the 1980s to confront the epidemic in its initial stages. Over time, however, the commitment of the U.S. government to prevent the spread of HIV and treat people living with HIV/AIDS produced remarkable results. New infections have dropped from 150,000 per year to 40,000 per year, and AIDS -related deaths have been cut in half.
Topic:: Security, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, America, Europe, and Asia

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS