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As the 'war on terror' expands across the African continent, multilateral institutions assume key roles in the deployment of newly militarized sociopolitical formations to physically and militarily occupy 'ungoverned' spaces. Focusing on the African Union Peacekeeping Operation in Somalia ( AMISOM), this article explores the everyday legitimating work required to operationalize the demand for reserve armies, offering insights into the relationship between transnational governance, political economy, and the making of security states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an introduction to a special issue of the Security & Defence Quarterly journal on navigating NATO dynamics and addressing challenges in the international security environment. It highlights the evolving role of NATO in response to changes in the international security landscape, particularly in relation to Russia's violation of international law and the war in Ukraine. The special issue covers a range of topics, including NATO's strategy on the eastern flank, bilateral relations between Greece and Turkey, economic resilience in the CEE and Black Sea countries, and the effectiveness of NATO in resolving critical situations. The articles provide valuable insights into NATO's strategic adaptations and offer practical implications for policymakers and military strategists. [Extracted from the article]

The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the recognition of the rising challenge from China have resulted in a closer alignment of American, British and French strategic interests. This policy paper explores how the strategic relationship between the United States, the United Kingdom and France has evolved amid this changed threat environment. The Russia–Ukraine war exposed the limitations of France's policy of 'strategic autonomy' and reasserted the importance of an American role in European security. The war has re-focused attention upon the Lancaster House framework in which the UK and France have the potential to enhance their contribution to European defence. The UK still regards its 'special relationship' with the US as being of critical importance to its foreign policy. But the UK's diminishing military power makes it a less valuable ally to the US whose attention is increasingly upon the Indo-Pacific region. The paper argues that the alignment between the three countries has been closer over the Russian war in Ukraine compared to attitudes towards China, where tensions between France and the 'Anglo-Saxons' persist. France has been unwilling to adopt the American approach towards China and has stuck to its vision of a multipolar world. The AUKUS deal arranged between the US, UK and Australia had the effect of alienating France. The policy paper contends that the temporary alignment between US, UK and French interests will erode as long-standing conflicts of interest re-emerge. In particular, the unpredictability of US leadership will damage the trilateral relationship if Donald Trump regains the presidency in November 2024. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many scholars find that security cooperation increases the foreign aid that allies receive from a major power, other studies show that an alliance also has negative effect and its terms can change over time. This article argues that a donor's security environment impacts its participation in security cooperation and, subsequently, foreign aid allocation to allies. When the security environment is competitive, a donor will concentrate its resources on strengthening its ties with allies. In contrast, when the environment is favorable to a donor, it can use security cooperation as leverage to obtain policy concessions from allies, thus reducing its own foreign aid expenditures. This paper analyzes the aid allocation of three major power donors as well as 72 formal defense pacts and 70 bilateral defense cooperation agreements, and it finds that a favorable security environment allows a donor to reduce its economic contribution to its allies by 19 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the European Union's activity as a security actor is closely linked to the need for global capacity for action in this domain, with a clearly "softer" role definition than NATO, which is derived from a collective security concept. The aim of this study is to identify how and under what circumstances the European Union's self-definition in the field of security and defense policy has evolved, how it has attempted to make the EU be present in the changing world order as an independent actor asserting its strategic autonomy with a specific voice. The paper looks back not only on the development of the EU security and defense policy, but also highlights the two decades of Hungarian operational involvement in it. Our central assumption is that the strengthening of the EU's strategic autonomy, in which CSDP is one of the core instruments, cannot be avoided amid the challenges of the modern era if the EU wants to preserve its competitiveness and adaptive responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevailing accounts of alliance formation emphasize either external threats or domestic politics, without an explicit consideration of how the two factors might interact. Instead, this paper theorizes about a specific type of interaction: coup-prevention strategies in nondemocratic regimes and external threats. Through quantitative analyses using the Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions (ATOP) and the State Security Forces (SSF) data, we find that "coup-proofing" reduces the probability of alliance formation when potential allies are under high external threat and that this effect is driven by the coup-proofing regime's reduced capability to defend their allies, rather than the regime's increased vulnerability to aggression. Furthermore, we find evidence for the interactive relationship at the negotiation stage of alliance formation. Upon entering an alliance, a coup-proofing regime facing a higher level of external threat offers more policy concessions to the ally, whereas an ally under higher threat could make fewer concessions to the coup-proofing regime. Our study highlights the way nondemocratic domestic political institutions can interact with external threat to shape states' alliance behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to much of the extant literature, the paper devises a composite security burden measure for the NATO alliance that accounts for three different contributions by allies to their collective security: namely, military expenditure (ME), foreign assistance, and UN peacekeeping spending. Generally, NATO defense burden sharing and free riding are judged solely based on ME even though foreign assistance and peacekeeping promote world prosperity, stabilize regimes, and quell conflicts that affect NATO's collective security. Our parametric tests for free riding apply a spatial-lag panel model, which addresses the interdependency issues, to a broader security-spending measure that accounts for allies' membership, contiguity, and inverse distance. In all spatial models, we uncover robust evidence of free riding where allies decrease their aggregate security spending in response to increases in the collective security spending of other allies. We apply a panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator to adjust for endogeneity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and the increasing interconnectivity of the international system has brought about changes in the nature of state relations and newer trends in security threats within the international system. Security threats that hitherto did not exist are now made manifest with the aid of globalization particularly as a result of advancement in information, communication and transportation technologies. Cyber-crime, transnational crimes, money laundry, human trafficking, terrorism financing, proliferation of small arms and light weapons amongst several other security threats now characterize the global system. This paper therefore attempts to interrogate globalization as a driver for insecurity. It is the position of this paper that national and international security dynamics have changes because of globalization. It is desk research and relies basically on secondary data. The paper therefore recommends the need for states to adopt security strategies that are in line with global trends so as to address security challenges. It also recommends the application of technology in addressing national security challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the current instability within the European security landscape, militaries are seeking new ways to grow and counter emergent threats. However, there is a rarity of armed forces addressing logistics growth within literature. Thus, this paper investigates growth concepts that can enable military forces develop, conduct, and grow logistics to achieve its operational objectives. The paper undertakes extant literature analysis of three relevant theories of growth as a means to review for comprehending organizational growth. The relationships between logistics and three growth theories as well as industry growth practices are analysed. Argues that the development of the concept of logistics growth in the military require support not just from established growth theories but also from long-standing industrial practice in order to fully develop the best strategic-fit growth concept for the military. Nine propositions reflecting antecedent relationships amongst theoretical variables for growth are developed. Study serves as a point of departure for further research on military growth in general and military logistics growth in particular and provides military leaders with disciplinary options for evaluating logistics growth strategies for achieving operational objectives and goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) approach which has been developed and implemented in NATO over the last 20 years. NATO's CD&E approach is explained as an organisational innovation and institutional response to external and internal pressures. Within the theoretical framing of institutional isomorphism, the paper analyses the adoption of CD&E in the European Union's (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The research hypothesis is that the EU will adopt and apply NATO's CD&E approach in the EU's defence planning and capability development process. The empirical findings from the analysis of the EU policy practice, however, show that CD&E has actually been adopted from NATO and applied by the EU to a very limited extent. The low degree of isomorphism between NATO and the EU with regard to applying CD&E is explained by a complex set of factors. The research results have broader implications, suggesting that under the current institutional settings it is highly unlikely CD&E to be adopted by other international organisations in the field of international security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses methods of historical and comparative analysis and studies the functioning of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since its establishment. It finds out, that the debate on the institutional performance is characterized by a consensus, i.e. the lack of reforms has led to the lack of its effectiveness. Nowadays, such a finding is even more evident, the aggressive war that one of the permanent members, Russia started against Ukraine, added new arguments of the same logic. The paper draws on secondary data to explore the weaknesses of the UNSC with a particular emphasis on the negative impact of the veto right. It highlights the limits of the UNSC and the attempts of state coalitions to overcome them. It elaborates on criteria for legitimate right to accede to UNSC permanent membership and justifies the relevance of four of them on the grounds of their current appropriateness. Further on, the paper introduces outcomes of a cross-country analysis of a G-4 (Germany, Japan, Brazil and India), the most influential state coalition for UNSC reform. The results of the comparison illustrate legitimate potential of states to become permanent members of the UNSC. The discussion includes policy recommendations for UNSC reforms: adopting criteria for legitimacy of permanent UNSC membership; change in the structure of the permanent UNSC membership; abolition of the veto right and introducing the method of qualified majority voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper debates the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the relationship between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). It argues that the invasion has dramatically changed Europe's security landscape, carrying major implications for both organizations and their relationship. After NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and persisting frictions between the US and its European allies about burden-sharing, the war instilled a new sense of purpose into the Alliance, placing renewed emphasis on its core functions of territorial defence and deterrence. However, the war was also a reality check for the EU, raising important questions about the future of the European security architecture, the Union's role within it, and its relationship with NATO (hereafter also referred to as the Alliance). The aim of this article is to try to answer some of these questions by providing an assessment of the impact of the war on the relationship between NATO and CSDP and to discuss potential avenues for strengthening the EU's role in transatlantic security. More specifically, the paper will try to answer the following questions: what are the implications of the conflict on NATO and CSDP How did the war impact the EU's aspiration to strategic autonomy? Will the conflict trigger more effective burdensharing within the Alliance as the US prepares for deepening systemic competition with China, or will it be another missed opportunity to strengthen the EU's role in transatlantic security? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In recent years, piracy has emerged as a growing problem in the gulf of guinea region (the region). The gulf has, in the past years, witnessed a sharp rise in pirate attacks. The aim of this paper is to assess the application and shortcomings of the current arrangements in addressing the problem of piracy in the region. In doing so, the paper presents the possible means of combating piracy in the region and provides an analysis of counter-piracy responses that have been employed in the region. Analysis includes an evaluation of the steps taken by the governments of the region and the effectiveness of the implemented strategies to counter the threat posed by piracy in the region. Identifying the barriers and challenges to combat piracy, a comprehensive arrangement based effective cooperation is proposed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN General Assembly is the central forum of world politics. While it formally allows the member states to delegate up to five representatives, the size of the national delegations is generally larger and significantly increases over time. In this paper, I explore the size of the national delegations to the General Assembly from 1993 to 2016. Generally, the major powers (USA, Russia) send the biggest delegations. Surprisingly, China sends significantly smaller delegations than it used to before 2008. Big delegations are also sent by some small (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Switzerland) or developing countries (Nigeria, Bangladesh). My analysis shows that national capacities and issue‐specific motivations drive up the delegation size. Although the issue‐specific explanations are relatively rare in UN‐related research (due to the general‐purpose nature of the organisation), I argue that human rights, international security, economic development, and UN governance are the agendas for which states care about the General Assembly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that leaders attending the signing of the Dar es Salaam Declaration on peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes region admitted it might be difficult to implement amid ethnic violence, poverty and political mistrust. Accusation to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for failing to control rebel groups along their border; Evidence of sexual abuse by United Nations peacekeepers in the DRC; Pledges of countries to confidence-building measures.

Indian Ocean is an important trade route and a key international sea – lanes of communication in the present century. The major objectives of this research paper are to analyze the security and other challenges in Indian Ocean. In this research paper the qualitative and descriptive research methodology will be applied. The geo-economic and political approach will be applied to gauge the challenges of Indian Ocean and their counter remedies. Indian Ocean is also important due to geo-strategic location. There is always issue of maritime security is always there due to the presence of various checkpoints of straits of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb and Indonesian straits etc. There are many challenges confronted in Indian Ocean such as piracy, environmental hazards and arms, human and drugs smuggling. There is a need to chalk out the joint strategy to provide security and counter terrorism and other maritime crimes in Indian Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and subsequent 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia have thrust Ukraine and European security into an intense and formidable challenge. The Western response, marked by a resolute sanctions regime targeting Russian officials and entities, has not only met but exceeded initial expectations, serving as a powerful testament to a steadfast stance against Russian aggression. As the full-scale invasion enters its third year, characterized by unconventional and asymmetrical tactics, delving into the historical roots of this crisis is imperative, acknowledging the enduring influence of the Soviet Union on the geopolitical landscape. This paper embarks on a rigorous exploration of the multifaceted factors propelling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Geopolitical power dynamics, historical grievances, competitions of national conscience, economic dependencies, and security concerns are scrutinized intensely to unravel the intricate motivations behind the conflict. The study offers an exhaustive analysis of global ramifications, encompassing geopolitical realignments and shifts in alliances. The war in Ukraine has not only damaged global food and energy supply chains but has also rendered international trade fragile and complicated, reshaping the global landscape significantly. The Russian invasion, transcending the bounds of a mere territorial conflict, reshapes the global order. Simultaneously, Putin’s strategic miscalculation, fueled by perceived success in Crimea, led to an underestimation of Ukrainian resilience. Subsequent events in eastern Ukraine underscored the limits of Putin’s strategic calculations, showcasing the indomitable spirit of a people united in defense of their homeland. Ukraine’s extraordinary resilience, evident through citizen mobilization and strategic defense initiatives, shatters the perception of invincibility. The nation’ ability to transform challenges into opportunities underscores its unwavering commitment to long-term security and territorial integrity. Even with uncertain perspectives of Western support Ukrainian leadership continued to provide all the efforts to win this war. By harnessing collective strength, Ukraine sends a strong message about its determination to safeguard sovereignty, protect citizens’ interests, and emerge stronger in the face of adversity. By harnessing collective strength, Ukraine sends a resounding message about its determination to safeguard sovereignty, protect citizens; national interests, and emerge stronger in the face of adversity. Indeed, while Russia employs military tactics, Ukraine fights with the indomitable spirit of its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research portrays militant splinter groups as more violent than their parent organizations due to factors like more extreme preferences or capacity-building needs. Though widely held, the assumption that splinters are particularly violent has not been systematically tested. In this paper, we develop and test an alternative explanation for splinter behavior. We argue splinter groups often appear less violent than their parents due to an underlying selection effect. Splinters break away where there are large organizational barriers to internally address a faction's grievances. These barriers tend to exist in well-organized parents that are also capable of high levels of violence. Splinter groups lack this established organizational infrastructure, resulting in lower levels of relative violence. We test this logic with an original dataset on parent and splinter groups and a pair of comparative case studies. We find that splinters are less violent than parent organizations, challenging conventional wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide an overview of social engineering attacks, and their impacts on cybersecurity, including national and international security, and figures out detection techniques, and major methods for countermeasure. How do social engineering attacks affect national and international security? And why is it so hard to cope with them? Seeking for answers to these questions, this paper applies qualitative research methods particularly literature review and case analysis. While qualitative research methods are predominantly employed, quantitative methods will also be utilized when deemed essential. Social engineering attacks, also referred to as online fraud, are a type of attack that typically necessitates minimal or no technical knowledge. Social engineering attacks, instead benefit from the weaknesses and mistakes of individuals, since the user is accepted as the weakest link in cybersecurity. Many studies have shown that the vast majority of successful cyber-attacks in the digital world are social engineering (SE) because countering them is more difficult than countering technical cyber-attacks. Based on the analysis of some major cyber-attacks such as the intervention in the 2016 US Presidential elections, the hacking of CIA director, John Brennan in 2015, and Stuxnet in 2010, the paper figures out that social engineering attacks have a tremendous impact on cybersecurity on the individual, institutional, societal, national, and international levels. Penetration tests and training for raising awareness are the prolific ways to mitigate social engineering attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The so-called 'migration crisis' facing the EU between 2015 and 2017 divided EU Member States and caused a rise in populist and racist discourses. Countries like Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic refused to participate in the EU relocation scheme. This paper explores what enabled this opposition to the EU. It analyses the securitising move of the Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS) in constructing migrants as a security threat. It studies the adopted discourse and the effectiveness of the securitisation process, applying the Copenhagen School Approach to securitisation theory. Through an in-depth discourse analysis of a wide range of texts, we argue that the PiS discourse enabled the securitisation of migration and the subsequent decision to refuse the EU relocation scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By launching a war against Ukraine, Russia changed the entire world system and demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the global security system. Today it is necessary to look for effective solutions to support the adoption of security decisions and develop effective strategies for the formation of a new architecture of the international security system. The paper aims to obtain preliminary approximate estimates of the state commitments of the countries of the world that support Ukraine in the war with Russia and to reveal non-obvious connections and regularities in the provision of various types of aid. The data were collected on the rough refugee cost estimate, quantitative assessment of the government-to-government commitments, and preliminary data on non-bilateral aid transferred by governments to Ukraine of 40 countries. We used the FP-Growth algorithm to identify non-obvious connections and patterns between different types of support for Ukraine. We created an associative rules model to detect non-obvious patterns and relationships between the different types of bilateral commitments of the countries, that support Ukraine. Preliminary estimates were obtained between various types of international support for Ukraine in the war against Russia covering February 24 to November 20, 2022, the number of Ukrainian refugees accepted by the respective countries, and the sale of arms to Russia by some of them after the ban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NATO is one of the most successful intergovernmental organisations. It is also a military and political, as well as a defence alliance of 31 states and almost one billion people. It is a state of mind embodied in the principle that any thought of threatening or using force in resolving any dispute between Member States is forbidden. Paper examines: How does NATO's multilateral diplomacy work? Which values does NATO protect? What is the main advantage of the Washington Treaty that has kept Member States together in NATO for seventy-four years (1949-2023)? NATO's future oscillates between two possible alternatives. One is an alliance limited to its core functions, dealing with common defence and deterrence - the two fields in which NATO performs best. At the other extreme is an expansive view of NATO as dealing with resilience and new security challenges (such as human security and climate change). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century, the term "security" has taken on a multidimensional meaning, in accordance with the wide number of emerging technologies, trends and threats that are influencing the international environment. Over the last 20 years, modern geopolitical issues have always existed in the background of age-old issues: poverty, wars, diseases and environmental disasters. Today, the global security agenda is forced to take all of these elements into account, together with new ones such as climate change. In this context, the European Union's effort to assert itself as a relevant security actor has come both of a desire to remain relevant in current international talks, as well as a need to adapt in order to continue the expansion of its values and members. However, when predominating national interests would have to give way to a European common good, member states continue to generally opose such an outcome. At the EU level, the intention to become a strong and viable security actor has manifested itself through a strong focus on the two efforts which would make it so: the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)*. In the international community, the extent to which this desire has developed into an actual role in formulating international security policies is still debatable, although the Union's influence has been easier to observe after Russia's unjustified and illegal invasion of Ukraine. As the world adapts to the new status quo and the realities of the war in Ukraine, EU member-states are starting to revert to real-politik choices made with national concerns in mind. This, in turn, can hurt EU policies that require closeness and cohesiveness in areas such as multilateral defence and security. Thus, the purpose of this paper is threefold: to recount the steps that were taken in the common security and defence area so that the Union can get to where it is today; to underline the influence that member states can have in regards to the EU's efforts to better consolidate and coordinate its defence policy, as well as the need to avoid member states following their own national interests that could be detrimental to the organization; to provide some ideas and possible actions in regarding to steps that might be taken to ensure the European Union does not only keep developing its Common Foreign and Security policies, but also takes steps to ensure all member states are on the same page and are equally involved in achieving the EU's defence goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of non-GAAP performance measures is a widespread, and certainly not a recent, phenomenon. In fact, companies increasingly believe that non-GAAP financial measures play a critical role in their financial communication strategy, and investors often rely on a wide range of non-GAAP measures to evaluate companies' performance. However, anecdotal evidence also highlights a misleading use of non-GAAP financial measures, these metrics being disclosed more prominently than comparable GAAP metrics, and inconsistently presented from period to period. The apparent 'schizophrenic' nature of non-GAAP measures has often attracted scholars' attention, while national and international security agencies and standard setters have recently renewed their interest in this topic. Therefore, this paper reviews the nearly two decades of research on non-GAAP reporting to offer insights into what academics have learned so far about non-GAAP reporting practices. In particular, this paper analyses the main objectives of the research, the related setting under investigation, the role of non-GAAP disclosure, and the type of non-GAAP metrics, with the aim of describing the evolution of this field of research over time and providing a structured reference point to carry research forward into specific sub-areas of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Great powers’ military power diffusion (MPD) is superior to Middle Powers (M.P.) in technology acquisition, military innovation, and state & financial capacity. However, M.P.s have started to enhance their MPD thanks to their growing impact on international politics. In this vein, this paper aims to offer an alternative explanation of MPD by introducing a novel theoretical framework, Military Power Diffusion Capacity (hereafter MPDC), to assess how M.P.s’ MPD influences the balance of power and warfare at both regional and international levels. In doing so, this article is structured into three sections. First, we investigate the existing theoretical frameworks on military power diffusion and the spread of military power by middle-ranking states. Second, we examine the historical evolution of Turkey’s defence industry. Third, we introduce our MPDC framework and test it to the Turkey’s case. Here, we propose a five-layered MPDC framework based on the following determining factors: 1) Sustainable Financial & State Capacity, 2) Geopolitical and strategic rivalries, 3) Domestic conditions, 4) Civil-Military bargaining levels, and 5) regional and global power status-driven aspirations. Then, we scrutinize Turkey’s MPDC since the 1990s within our five-layered framework to assess the implications of its MPD on the changing international security environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How domestic constituents respond to signals of weakness in foreign wars remains an important question in international relations. This paper studies the impact of battlefield casualties and media coverage on public demand for war termination. To identify the effect of troop fatalities, we leverage the timing of survey collection across respondents from nine members of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Quasi‐experimental evidence demonstrates that battlefield casualties increase the news coverage of Afghanistan and the public demand for withdrawal. Evidence from a survey experiment replicates the main results. To shed light on the media mechanism, we leverage a news pressure design and find that major sporting matches occurring around the time of battlefield casualties drive down subsequent coverage, and significantly weaken the effect of casualties on support for war termination. These results highlight the role that media play in shaping public support for foreign military interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the repercussions that the war in Ukraine since 2022 has had on the European Union (EU) policy of economic globalisation. The Union's comprehensive response to the conflict is examined from different angles, taking in energy insecurity, economic shocks, geopolitical shifts, humanitarian challenges and technological vulnerabilities. In this context, the EU's adaptive resilience is evident on several fronts, such as the integration of its economic policies with security (particularly in critical sectors), its role in the European security architecture and its commitment to incorporating Ukraine into the West. The study expands to include the flexible management of mass migration, tech vulnerabilities, energy resilience, economic stability, geopolitical alliances, humanitarian response action and technological reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores an enormous elephant in the Mediterranean space: European security assistance's impact on the continuation of a global postcolonial order. We identify three core practices of security assistance that provides for postcolonial readings: externally producing 'the problem' and designing 'the solutions' to be tackled; linking the 'provider' and 'recipients' in material dependencies; and contestation as 'thin' adjustments rather than 'thick' resistance. Contrary to claims of functionalism, what we observe in contemporary European security assistance practice is consistent with postcolonial logics that produce distinct subjectivities and reproduce patterns of inequalities. European states – whether former colonial powers or not –use security assistance to structure the world in hierarchical ways. We argue that security assistance is not primarily about strategic effects but principally about signalling superiority and reproducing dependencies and colonizing/colonised mentalities. Moreover, security assistance practices reveal the need for security assistance – i.e. European SA presence often gets entangled with insecurity, and as such, security assistance practice makes the need for security assistance visible – a self-producing evidentiality that is as taken out of the colonial playbook. The paper explores constitutive processes at work by drawing on insights from British, French, Italian and Swedish approaches to security assistance in Libya and Lebanon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The qualitative and quantitative balance in strategic nuclear capabilities between major global nuclear-armed states had been the subject of a longstanding international bilateral and multilateral treaty regime, which since the onset of the 21st century has undergone a process of continual degradation. With the gradual establishment of a more confrontational multipolar world order, the treaty regime as well as the guarantees it provided for international security have come into further peril. The present paper will examine the defining characteristics of the nuclear treaty regime, the factors leading to a point of balance in preceding decades between the nuclear superpowers of the United States of America and the Russian Federation, and the transformational factors, which have destabilised the balance in contemporary times. Furthermore, the paper will extend the discussion on the future of nuclear arms control to the changing geopolitical landscape and the rise of new major global powers such as the People's Republic of China. Ultimately the paper, attempts to establish the framework of the future evolution of the nuclear arms debate and the possibilities of reaching a new point of stability and deterrence between the mentioned state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary times, scholars have increasingly turned to the research on norms to study behavior and identity transformation in international politics. This has led to understanding stigma as attached to global actors refusing to follow normatively shared expectations of social conduct. However, the field of nuclear politics has largely ignored this research in particularly identifying how noncompliant states manage their stigmatized identities, after engaging in acts of nuclear deviance against hegemonic norms. By combining and advancing the existing literature on international political sociology, constructivist approaches in international relations theory, and nuclear governance, this paper first argues that stigma should be understood as a position of relational power dynamics that recalcitrant states occupy in contesting dominant norms. Second, it conceptualizes a new category of stigma management as stigma redaction , whereby noncompliant nuclear states occasionally engage in corrective conduct to prevent their identities being permanently cemented as rogue by dominant powers. To contextualize both these arguments, this paper examines the empirical case of India's relationship with the United States, post India's nuclear test in 1974. In doing so, it furthers our understanding of sociological deviance in international politics through an interdisciplinary lens and contributes to the field of international security studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the only nuclear-armed country in the world that has an unconditional No First Use (NFU) of nuclear weapons policy. China's practice of this policy and its impact on international security have important implications for the international debate around NFU and inform other countries' potential consideration of NFU. Whether NFU policy could deliver the expected benefits of reducing the role of nuclear weapons, containing nuclear arms competition, and mitigating the risk of nuclear proliferation depends on the perceived credibility by other countries of such policy. This paper examines a number of internal challenges that may affect the perceived credibility of China's NFU policy. One of them is Chinese military strategists' expressed interest in threatening nuclear use in a conventional conflict under certain conditions through the so-called "lower the nuclear coercion threshold" operation. The others include the lack of institutional constraint in the Chinese system to ensure implementation of NFU and the growing ambiguities about the NFU policy's applicability in specific scenarios as a result of new technological development. The paper offers recommendations on how China can address these challenges and work with other countries to create the conditions for the international adoption of NFU, including how to address the concerns of nonnuclear weapons states about the conventional-level security consequences. It concludes by discussing how China and the other nuclear-armed states can better fulfill their disarmament obligations by strengthening the existing NFU policy and promoting credible NFU policy more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological threats pose significant risks to national and international security. A deliberate release of biological agents whether by terrorist groups or individual perpetrators constitutes an immediate threat to the life and health of the people. Many biological agents can spread infectious diseases or cause illness in humans. In the 21st century, infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death worldwide. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the unsettled problems in the arena of biosecurity and health security. Moreover, the rapid development of biotechnology leads to an increased threat of biological weapons. Therefore, this article articulates how a state can effectively protect the health and life of its citizens from these threats. The main objective of this paper is to encapsulate the perilous weaknesses in existing preparedness for countering biological risks. Similarly, it explores the policies and capabilities of Pakistan for tackling the growing biological threats. Finally, this paper explores the severe gaps in policy for countering biological risks, particularly in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the current issue of “European Security,” which focuses on the development of European security in external regions and features papers on the political aspects of regional security, statistical analyses pertaining to international security, and the relationship between regional security and the European Union (EU).

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

Tensions in the EU-China relationship have hampered cooperation in various sectors, including a set of transnational security issues where engagement with China is unavoidable but nevertheless profoundly challenging. The EU maintains a "tripartite" strategy, originally outlined in its 2019 Strategic Outlook, seeing China as a "partner", but also as an economic "competitor" and a "systemic rival". China's former State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has described the European approach as suffering from "cognitive dissonance". As a result, and as demonstrated by the failure of the 2022 EU-China Summit, the two parties are now operating within two different frameworks, and constructive cooperation has become increasingly difficult. By working with Qin Yaqing's concept of "relationality", this article aims to contribute to a better conceptualisation of the ways in which the EU and China can work with each other to tackle global issues. Challenging the literature that tries to explain the shift in EU-China relations by focusing on individual actors, this research's approach focuses on the relations between actors. Adopting this ontology of relations, this research paper analyses how, in the EU-China relationship, relations between the two parties contribute to creating their own identities and motivate their actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]