Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Security (National & International)

This edited volume uses a 'constructivist/reflexive' approach to address critical infrastructure protection (CIP), a central political practice associated with national security.

The politics of CIP, and the construction of the threat they are meant to counter, effectively establish a powerful discursive connection between that the traditional and normal conditions for day-to-day politics and the exceptional dynamics of national security. Combining political theory and empirical case studies, this volume addresses key issues related to protection and the governance of...

This book is the first full history of South African intelligence and provides a detailed examination of the various stages in the evolution of South Africa's intelligence organizations and structures.

Covering the apartheid period of 1948-90, the transition from apartheid to democracy of 1990-94, and the post-apartheid period of new intelligence dispensation from 1994-2005, this book examines not only the apartheid government's intelligence dispensation and operations, but also those of the African National Congress, and its partner, the South African Communist Party...

Previously published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly, this volume assesses the nature, power, role and function of names in global politics and the international media.

Names are not objective, they accrue subjective associations, for example 'Terrorist' has a very different connotation to 'Freedom-fighter'. The contributors seek the truth beneath the names assigned in an effort to remove the obscurity created by the power of 'the politics of naming' to the reality of the situation, taking examples from Al Qaeda, Russia's demonization of the Chechens and naming...

This book addresses the ambiguities of the growing use of private security contractors and provides guidance as to how our expectations about regulating this expanding 'service' industry will have to be adjusted.

In the warzones of Iraq and Afghanistan many of those who carry weapons are not legally combatants, nor are they protected civilians. They are contracted by governments, businesses, and NGOs to provide armed security. Often mistaken as members of armed forces, they are instead part of a new protean proxy force that works alongside the military in a multitude of...

Containing essays by an array of top international scholars, this new book provides a comprehensive analytical critique of the current state of research in the terrorism and counterterrorism studies field, what it has substantively achieved over the years and where it should be heading in the future.

Offering an overall examination of research achievements and gaps in scholarly efforts towards understanding terrorism as a complex behavioural and social phenomenon, it also assesses various research approaches into counterterrorism studies, clearly identifying a pathway for...

By the middle of 2007, Afghans had become increasingly disillusioned with a state-building process that had failed to deliver the peace dividend that they were promised. For many Afghans, the most noticeable change in their lives since the fall of the Taliban has been an acute deterioration in security conditions. Whether it is predatory warlords, the Taliban-led insurgency, the burgeoning narcotics trade or general criminality, the threats to the security and stability of Afghanistan are manifold. The response to those threats, both in terms of the international military intervention and...

The post-September 11th security policies of Poland, the UK, France, the US and Germany presented in this new book illustrate how and why the Atlantic community ruptured over Iraq, a result in part, it is argued, of the existence of particular national strategic cultures.

Whilst the longer term effects of Iraq for the transatlantic security agenda have yet to fully transpire, what is certain is that the EU's ambitions to become a credible security actor have been seriously questioned, as has the notion of multilateralism as an international norm, as has the function of...

Does humanitarian military intervention save lives as intended? Or does it perversely embolden rebels and ignite the spiral of violence that it seeks to prevent?

Such questions lie at the heart of a new and lively controversy in international politics. "Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention" explores whether the emerging norm of intervention backfires in conflicts such as Kosovo, exacerbating the ethnic cleansing and killing of innocent civilians. Leading academics investigate this problem, including when and where it is most likely to occur, and how to avert the unintended...

Many have questioned the wisdom of the international intervention in Afghanistan in light of the escalation of violence and instability in the country in the past few years. Particularly uncertain are Canadians, who have been inundated with media coverage of an increasingly dirty war in southern Afghanistan, one in which Canadians are at the frontline and suffering heavy casualties. However, the conflict is only one aspect of Afghanistan's complicated, and incomplete, political, economic, and security transition.

In Afghanistan: Transition under Threat, leading...

This collection will inform and stimulate new thinking about the current strengths and...