Since the end of the Cold War, the concept of security has been reconceptualised among academics and policy makers to broaden the security agenda. As a result, security challenges that stem from transnational phenomena have been brought to the centre of attention for contemporary security analysts. Transnational security challenges represent various non-traditional threats to both human and national security. In order to understand how different issues become transnational security challenges, the securitisation theory will be utilised in the context of drugs and asylum seekers as transnational security challenges. Whilst both case studies prove to be effectively securitised, the validity of describing these issues as security challenges differ significantly. Drugs do have the potential to threaten human security, whilst drug trafficking can significantly threaten national security. However, refugees seeking asylum in Australia do not pose an existential threat to human or national security. Furthermore, it is important to recognise the dangers of securitisation, as the process can potentially be counterproductive for solving particular issues.
Transnational security challenges refer to various threats that operate across national boundaries and involve cross-border transference as a fundamental part of its process. These threats are complex, interconnected, non-traditional and typically involve non-state actors. Issues such as transnational organised crime, terrorism, piracy, environmental degradation and infectious disease are examples of issues at the centre of the transnational security agenda. Dupont argues that transnational issues were largely ignored by the mainstream discourse on security until the September 11 terroris...
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... is difficult to determine how different issues come to be seen as security challenges. The use of the securitisation process as a theoretical tool to analyse drugs and asylum seekers as a threat shows that certain speech acts elevate transnational issues into high politics. The analysis also shows that issues can be securitised regardless of their validity transnational security challenges. Furthermore, it can be argued that securitisation is counterproductive for solving particular transnational issues. Militarisation as a result of securitisation can often result in increased regional tensions. The broadening of the security agenda can unfortunately result in encompassing all transnational issues. It is important to seriously consider the validity of a perceived security threat before describing the issue as a transnational security challenge.
How does the creation of the Department of Homeland Security affect resources traditionally designated for local criminal justice organizations?
Australia has had a long history of receiving individuals and groups who are seeking asylum as well as unfortunately a long history of turning those away who are perceived as different. (McKay,Thomas & Blood 2011).Even though the white Australia policy was abandoned decades ago it still lives on as a strong resonance in the conservative right of politics (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). Community fear about Australia’s border seem easily triggered, which has prompted the term ‘paranoid nationalism’ to be used to describe the heightened refugee politics of the Howard years linked to discrimination and maltreatment of asylum seekers which still lives on today (Westoby & Ingamells, 2010). This paper will use the term asylum seeker to identify those who have arrived at Australian shores seeking refuge without a valid visa. I aim to consider throughout this paper this history of how asylum seekers have been constructed as the ‘other’ and to examine the role of public discourse and political, legal and media responses, such as the implementation of detention centres, as creating and reinforcing the position of asylum seekers as different and not belonging. It will be therefore argued that while we have come a long way from the treatment the Howard government gave asylum seekers, we have not come far enough. Two key areas being the use of ‘othering’ and the implementation of detention centres need to be challenged if we are to take the responsibility of providing refuge for asylum seekers seriously.
Shiraev, Eric B., and Vladislav M. Zubok. International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Terrorism and national security with regards to immigrants and their behavior. The increase in terroristic activities, drug trafficking and other anti-social events has raised a big question against immigrants of specific religious beliefs and geographical associations.
The concept of homeland security has developed over the last decade. Homeland security as a concept was precipitated by the terrorist attacks of 9/11. However, prior to 9/11 such entities as the Gilmore Commission and the United States Commission on National Security discussed the need to evolve the way national security policy was conceptualized due to the end of the Cold War and the rise of radicalized terrorism. After 9/11, policymakers concluded that a new approach was needed to address the large-scale terrorist attacks. A presidential council and department were established, and a series of presidential directives were issued in the name of “homeland security.” These developments established that homeland security was a distinct, but undefined
Bristol, Nellie. “Foreign Aid and National Security.” CQ Researcher by CQ Press. SAGE Publications, 17 June 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
The threat of global terrorism continues to rise with the total number of deaths reaching 32,685 in 2015, which is an 80 percent increase from 2014 (Global Index). With this said, terrorism remains a growing, and violent phenomenon that has dominated global debates. However, ‘terrorism’ remains a highly contested term; there is no global agreement on exactly what constitutes a terror act. An even more contested concept is whether to broaden the scope of terrorism to include non-state and state actors.
Atzili, Boaz. (2007). When Good Fences Make Bad Neighbors: Fixed Borders, State Weakeness, and International Conflict. International Security. 31 (3), p139-173.
Taking into account that states asses its strengths in order to adopt the most effective strategies to deal with potential menaces, westerns states understand the advantages of the aforementioned theory. The current threats that the Western world take into account are composed by local, regional and global menaces. To this paper it is essential recognise the scope of all of those elements that configure a threat to the West. Among many others there are drugs, crime, and terrorism, geo-strategic actors such as the Middle East and Russia, and growing powers such as China. These are complicated patterns that states need to strategically cope with. In fact, the security strategy from Western states is framed between the combination o...
The topic for discussion in this work is enshrined in U.S. Coast Guard mission challenges. The topic for research is “Enforcement Seams Caused by Differing Laws, Policies & Procedures in relation to Immigration” (U.S. Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement. 2011, p. 6). According to Bush (2003), the security situation in the world is challenged by ever increasing global terrorism. Introduction of counterfeit products, the need for reinforcement of anti-dumping policies, drug and human trafficking remains a real threat in U.S. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection [CBP]. 2013). Sometimes, balancing between ethics and regional safety remains an elusive aspect (Bush, 2003). Ethical...
A Feminist Contribution to the study of Security in International Relations Under the International Relations(IR) model rests, a major focus, security. There are different theories on how security should be perceived. The majority defines security as the protection of the state. However, the Feminist method values security in the form of human interest over the state’s and also recognizes gender concerns within International Relations. The Feminist theory gives a very different perspective with various strengths but also holds weaknesses.
According to Jay Albanese organized crime is a continuing criminal enterprise that is rationally working to produce profit through illicit activities based on demand, where its existence is kept through force, threats, and corruption (Albanese 2004). When looking at transnational organized crime, we are looking at crimes that involve crossing national borders and individuals who work within more than one country to complete illicit business endeavors. I argue that political and systemic issues as well as outside influences leave weaker governed countries more exposed to the risks of transnational organized crime. I will be exploring four different areas related to this topic in order to understand why these countries experience an abundance of transnational crime; how it has become available through globalization, whereby the world has become an increasingly smaller place; factors that allow for countries to become more susceptible to criminal activity; the international moral panic that allows for policy control and global influence; and a link between organized crime and terrorism and its use to larger countries. This is an important topic because as the world shrinks our connection to one another grows and the influence one faces may cause repercussions upon all of us one day.
Security is risked: Protectionists off and on again battle a country that ought not to be reliant to the point that it can't shield itself.
While the policy regulations of states strive to maintain their sovereignty, states have long recognised their interdependence in policing transnational illegal activity (Gerspacher 2009). Transnational crime has long posed a significant obstacle to policing efforts. The extensive effects of globalisation, world political and economic shifts, technological advances, security challenges and the implications of climate change, have all served to influence the crime environment and make the job of policing the community more challenging than ever before (Keelty 2007). According to Hills (2009) there is a widely shared conviction that international police forces must co-operate if they are to respond effectively to the crime and insecurity facilitated by globalisation. Operation Cathedral and the Solomon Islands peacekeeping operation will be explored in order to illustrate the negative and positive consequences of involvement in international policing operations.
In the introduction Watson gives us brief summations of what securitization and humanitarianism were; further along in the piece we are introduced to a paragraph which discusses the influence of the Copenhagen school and that primary types of discourse that emerged from their theorisation of security; discussing how the school's sectoral approach captures how many political elites have the capacity to securitize a widening range of objects that could be deemed as referent and details how humanitarianism can function as a form of securitizing dialogue. Watson also discerns between humanitarianism as security versus societal and state security, in that humanitarianism, in it's most recent form, human security – is distinct from the aforementioned typed of security as they primarily around the concept of securing identity and securing the concept of sovereignty – human security's main focus is that in which it securitzes human life and human dignity over the interests of state and society and due to the usage by academics, humanitarian organisations and states has now lead to humanitarianism becoming a securitzing discourse that is loosely organised around the general concept of protecting and preserving human