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This article draws on primary focus group research to explore the differing ways in which UK publics conceptualise and discuss security. The article begins by situating our research within two relevant contemporary scholarly literatures: The first concerns efforts to centre the ‘ordinary’ human as security’s referent; the second, constructivist explorations of security’s discursive (re)production. A second section then introduces six distinct understandings of security that emerged in our empirical research. These organised the term around notions of survival, belonging, hospitality, equality, freedom and insecurity. The article concludes by exploring this heterogeneity and its significance for the study of security more broadly, outlining a number of potential future research avenues in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Security issues in international relations, particularly during the era of the Cold War, were and had been dominated by the realist paradigm which saw the preservation of the state from external threat. Such a conception of security provided a very myopic and narrow understanding of the security problem of states, particularly smaller states. During the past decade, attempts are being made to broaden the security agenda to include not only military but also other sectors: political, economic, societal and ecological. Furthermore, with globalisation and the opening up of the economy has provided scope for cross-border migration and also illicit trade, especially narcotics, terrorism and a dangerous mix of both: narco-terrorism. This article will throw a light on the non-traditional security threats problem and issues of illicit drug trafficking and narco-terrorism in North-east India particularly in the case of Manipur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the authors examine two set of issues that constrain contemporary peace support operations (PSOs): one centered on the kinds of knowledge prevalent in PSOs and the second involving the organizational structures that characterize them. The authors' aim is to show the deep discursive and structural limitations and contradictions that continue to characterize the actions of armed forces and the dominance of militaristic thinking within PSOs. This article centers on multidimensional peacekeeping marked by emphasizing two main points in regard to the complex nature of such peacekeeping. First, Western military thinking is still dominant in the professional discourse of peacekeeping despite the fact that in many cases it is less relevant to the arenas where it is applied (in weakened or failed states). Second, forces in second-generation peacekeeping missions are by definition a form of hybrid organizations, and therefore conceptual changes in regard to PSOs not only involve the realm of knowledge but also entail practical consequences for the very organizational means used to achieve their aims. The authors' analysis demonstrates the blending, hybridization, and linkages that are an essential part of PSOs as processes that carry both advantages and disadvantages for organizational action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses the problem of global norm diffusion in international relations with particular reference to the implementation of ‘the responsibility to protect’ (R2P) in East Asia. Exposing the limits of previous work on norm localization, we develop the framework of the norm diffusion loop. Rather than understanding norm diffusion as a linear top-down process, we demonstrate that the reception of R2P has evolved in a far more dynamic way that can best be described as a feedback loop. We first look into the processes and causal mechanisms that helped to construct R2P as an emerging transnational soft norm; then we analyse the challenges of diffusing R2P from the global to the regional and domestic levels; and, finally, we examine the variation of norm effects within the same region across states, investigating in particular how R2P has shaped Chinese and Japanese policy responses respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the UN promulgation of the concept of human security in the early 1990s, one of the countries most enthusiastic about the new paradigm has been South Africa. That country has endeavored to reflect human security values in virtually all state activities. This article examines how South Africa has applied the concept to its armed forces. It argues that the military "operationalization" is evident in two key respects: first, in the country's support for Africa's emerging security architecture; and second, in an increasing willingness to commit military forces to external peace operations. However, this application has largely occurred at the national strategic level. It was much less clear in 2007 that any human security ethos was forming within the South African armed forces themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]