Critical Security Studies

At various points in its career, the Indian state has deployed technologies to govern the nation. Recently the state has undertaken a number of large scale projects to install digital technology. The most controversial of these is the Unique Identity Project, which is registering the biometric, along with demographic, information of the residents. In this paper, I will try to understand what is politically at stake in this technological intervention. I would like to explore the political logics of biometric system and its consequences. I will argue that UID re-imagines the economy and the state-citizen relationship as a series of transactions. Theoretically, the main thrust of this paper is to understand the “general economy of power”, as Michel Foucault calls it, which is unfolding in India around the issues of capitalist growth, inequality, social protection, and terrorism—and UID explores the technological possibility of the great convergence of these concerns.

In this article I pursue two main lines of argument. First, I seek to delineate two distinctive modes of justifying imperialism found in nineteenth-century political thought (and beyond). The 'liberal civilizational' model, articulated most prominently by John Stuart Mill, justified empire primarily in terms of the benefits that it brought to subject populations. Its proponents sought to 'civilize'lthe 'barbarian'. An alternative `republican' model focused instead on the benefits - glory, honour and power above all - that accrued to the imperial state. Less concerned with spreading civilization, its proponents concentrated on fortifying the imperial polity. Second, I offer a 'republican' interpretation of the writings of the historian and public moralist J.A. Froude (1818-94), arguing that he both diagnosed the problems of modern Britain and prescribed imperial solutions to those problems, based on his reading of the fate of the Roman republic.

Recent scholarship on John Stuart Mill has illuminated his arguments about the normative legitimacy of imperial rule. However, it has tended to ignore or downplay his extensive writings on settler colonialism: the attempt to create permanent “civilized” communities, mainly in North America and the South Pacific. Mill defended colonization throughout his life, although his arguments about its character and justification shifted over time. While initially he regarded it as a solution to the “social problem” in Britain, he increasingly came to argue that its legitimacy resided in the universal benefits—civilization, peace, and prosperity—it generated for humanity. In the final years of his life Mill seemed to lose faith in the project. Finally recognizing the prevalence of colonial violence and the difficulty of realizing his grand ambitions, yet refusing to give up on colonization altogether, his colonial romance gave way to a form of melancholia.

""In the years since 9/11, terrorism has been transformed into an issue of global significance. Terrorism and the war on terror has affected virtually every aspect of modern life, and a precise understanding of terrorism is now more important – and contentious – than ever.

This innovative text provides a much-needed critical introduction to terrorism. Cutting-edge research on contemporary issues is combined with new insights into long-debated issues such as the definition of terrorism, the nature of the terrorist threat and counter-terrorism strategies. Showing that the methods we adopt as well as the material we study are vital for a clear understanding of the subject, this text goes beyond traditional IR approaches to rethink popular beliefs and assumptions about terrorism. Taking a genuinely global and integrated approach, this book is an ideal entry into the study of terrorism.

The text is supported by:

• International case studies from around the world
• A detailed glossary introducing key actors, events and concepts relating to terrorism
• Learning aids to stimulate critical thinking, including discussion questions, further readings and selected web resources.""

Since 11 September 2001, the War on Terror has dominated global political life. Times of Terror takes a critical look at the different ways in which the George W. Bush administration created and justified this far-reaching conflict through their use of language and other discursive practices. It becomes clear that representations of time were central in presenting this war as a necessary, legitimate and coherent response to the events of 9/11. Moreover, by exploring these representations, a space is opened for a rethinking the politics of identity, violence and time beyond this particular context.

The articulation of international and transnational terrorism as a key issue in US security policy, as a result of the 9/11 attacks, has not only led to a policy rethink, it has also included a bureaucratic shift within the US, showing a re-thinking of the role of borders within US security policy. Drawing substantively on the ‘securitisation’ approach to security studies, the article analyses the discourse of US security in order to examine the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that its mission provides a new way of conceptualising ‘borders’ for US national security. The securitisation of terrorism is, therefore, not only represented by marking terrorism as a security issue, it is also solidified in the organisation of security policy-making within the US state. As such, the impact of a ‘war on terror’ provides an important moment for analysing the re-articulation of what security is in the US, and, in theoretical terms, for reaffirming the importance of a relationship between the production of threat and the institutionalisation of threat response. La unión del terrorismo internacional y transnacional como asunto clave en la política de la seguridad de EE.UU., por consecuencia a los ataques del 11/9, no sólo ha conducido a un nuevo replanteamiento de política, sino que también ha incluido un cambio burocrático dentro de los EE.UU., señalando un replanteamiento del rol de las fronteras dentro de la política de seguridad en los EE.UU. El artículo analiza el argumento de la seguridad de EE.UU. para examinar la fundación del Departamento de Seguridad Patria, extrayendo sustancialmente del enfoque a la ‘securización’ con base a los estudios de seguridad, indicando que su misión provee una nueva manera de proporcionar ‘fronteras’ a la seguridad nacional de los EE.UU. Por lo tanto, la securización del terrorismo no sólo se representa al señalar al terrorismo como un asunto de seguridad, sino que también se consolida con la organización de la determinación de políticas de seguridad dentro la nación estadounidense. Como tal, el impacto de una ‘guerra al terrorismo’ provee un momento importante para analizar la rearticulación de lo que la seguridad es en los EE.UU. y en términos teóricos, para reafirmar la importancia de la relación entre la producción de la amenaza y la institucionalización de la respuesta a la amenaza.

Global maritime security has been a subject of analysis and debate in the West since the onset of the European expansion. This article distinguishes four main periods with regard to the doctrines and practices of global maritime security since c. 1450, during which the role of the state in relation to private actors has shifted. As a concept of global policy making, however, maritime security only emerged with the increasing importance of non-traditional security issues in the maritime sphere from around 1990. Maritime security studies has emerged in close connection with these developments, but in order to achieve intellectual excellence as a field of study, maritime security studies needs to distance itself from policy makers and industrial interests and develop an interdisciplinary research agenda based on in-depth studies of a broad range of traditional and non-traditional maritime security issues.

"http://www.researchmoz.us/global-security-and-vulnerability-management-market-2012-2016-report.html

Global Security and Vulnerability Management market to grow at a CAGR of 9.35 percent over the period 2012-2016. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing use of diverse operating systems. The Global Security and Vulnerability Management market has also been witnessing the widespread adoption of mobile devices in workplaces. However, the availability of open source solutions could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Global Security and Vulnerability Management Market 2012-2016, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Security and Vulnerability Management market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

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The way in which societies institutionalize “collective memory” is one of the most important aspects of contemporary politics, feeding directly into the constitution of individual and communal identities, and creating sources of discord and dialogue. This essay explores some of the most significant issues at stake in debates over the political uses of the past. I suggest that it is important to distinguish between three modes of historical consciousness, memory, mythology, and critical history. I then offer a critique of Avishai Margalit’s "The Ethics of Memory" (2002), arguing that in failing to allow space for “acknowledging” the plurality of communal myths his strong communitarian conception of mnemonic ethics leaves room for the perpetuation of asymmetric power relations and the imposition of hegemonic identities. Developing this line of thought, the essay then explores some of the ways in which agonistic democratic theorists might think through the relationship between past and present, myth and history. I argue that it is necessary to avoid procedures and institutions that entrench diverse identities while simultaneously establishing conditions in which different communities can freely propound their historical identity-constitutive claims.

In order to grasp some of the key intellectual developments and trends that shaped the global politics of twentieth century and continue to shape our own world—neo-classical economics, modernization theory, deterrence theory, the democratic peace, among others—it is necessary to explore the history of the human sciences. It is important, in other words, to examine the role of the modern research university in producing and diffusing ideas about the self, society, the economy and world order. International Relations (IR), and political science more generally, played a significant role in this story. In recent years we have seen a growth of interest in the history of IR, though it is still an underdeveloped area of research. Among other things, scholars have shown that many of the foundational myths of the discipline—the views that inform textbook understandings of the past and present—are deeply flawed. This article first examines this recent work, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, and then proceeds to offer some thoughts on future directions for research. It identifies a range of questions and topics that have yet to be adequately addressed, and draws on the latest methodological work in intellectual history, highlighting some new interpretative approaches that can enrich scholarship in this area.