International Security

Gendering human security is useful for making explicit the role of practice and actors, and the power relations between them, attributed through socialized and naturalized characteristics of the feminine and masculine. It offers analytical and empirical insights that release human security discourses from the stranglehold that a state-based, militarized security perspective has thus far had on the definition of security as a whole. A gender-based human security analysis reveals what human security means when understood through the power and practices of domination and marginalization, and more specifically the extent to which the militaries are capable of contributing to human security today. In feminist approaches as well as many human security perspectives, security has been delinked from the state and discussed in terms of other referent objects. Feminist and human security share a “bottom-up” approach to security analyses, but feminists have identified a gender blindness in huma...

Natuna or better known as the Natuna Islands is one of the border areas in Indonesia that has complex problems. As a cluster of islands bordering Indonesia with Malaysia and Vietnam, the Natuna Islands are also located in the South China Sea region, which is a regional dispute hot spot in East Asia. This paper will discuss the concept of border security and border security issues in the waters of the Natuna Islands. In this paper, the authors argue that the problem of the Indonesian EEZ maritime boundary in the Natuna Islands territorial waters with Malaysia and Vietnam needs to be immediately resolved, because in addition to sovereignty, the precision of the EEZ boundary with neighboring countries will be related to the management of natural resources contained in the particular territorial waters. This condition is increasingly complicated when China with its nine-dashed line has raised problems of overlapping claims in the Natuna waters. In addition, the obscurity of maritime bou...

In every culture there are certain ideas explicit in the interaction of different elements which in turn sometimes act as an instrument of social control with which different cultural segments are held together. Thus, prior to the spread of Islamic and Christian influences, most societies in Africa believed in a complex structure of spirits and ancestors who influenced the living. This was contained in the traditional belief which reflects the wholeness of the universe, i.e., the various elements of which constituted not only the living, but also the dead and spirits. Thus among the Esan, the Erinni (Elimin masquerades) are organic to their myth of creation. In this way, they function as the major stabiliser of the people’s destiny. As far as the people are concerned, they are ancestral spirits who periodically visit their living forebears in masquerade forms. Their visits are regarded as spiritual interventions to the world of the living and as a result are highly venerated. They a...

About the Book Indonesia is the largest archipelago state in the world comprising 17,480 islands, with a maritime territory measuring close to 6 million square kilometres. It is located between the two key shipping routes of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Indonesia’s cooperation in maritime security initiatives is vitally important because half of the world’s trading goods and oil pass through Indonesian waters, including the Straits of Malacca, the Strait of Sunda and the Strait of Lombok. This book analyses Indonesia’s participation in international maritime security cooperation. Using Indonesia as a case study, the book adopts mixed methods to assess emerging power cooperation and non-cooperation drawing from various International Relations theories and the bureaucratic politics approach. It addresses not only the topic of Indonesia’s cooperation but also engages in debates across the International Relations, political science and policy studies disciplines regarding state coopera...

Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increasingly topical as it confronts the international community with intertwined challenges related to climate variability, poverty, food insecurity, population displacement, transnational crime, contested statehood and jihadist insurgencies. This Special Issue discerns the contours of political orders in the making. After situating the Sahel region in time and space, we focus on the trajectory of regional security dynamics over the past decade, which are marked by two military coups in Mali (2012 and 2020). In addressing state fragility and societal resilience in the context of increasing external intervention and growing international rivalry, we seek to consider broader and deeper transformations that can be neither ignored nor patched up through the framework of the ‘war on terror’ projected onto ‘ungoverned spaces’. Focusing especially on the mobilisation of material and immaterial resour...

ABSTRACT A lack of capabilities is most often taken to imply a lack of influence. The foreign policy of the Seychelles provides a surprising case of successful small state diplomacy that counters this claim. With a population of less than 100,000 and a diplomatic service of 100 staff, Seychelles is recognized as a broker in international organizations and as an agenda setter in ocean governance. This article explores this success in four steps. First, we unpack why the current diplomatic success of Seychelles is a surprise. Second, drawing on literature on small state diplomacy, we identify three sources of small state influence: capability and location, political culture and institutional design, and political strategy. Third, we analyze recent Seychellois diplomacy in light of the four factors as well as the limitations of Creole small state diplomacy. We conclude by discussing what other small states may learn from the Seychelles.

In this paper a novel (2, n) visual cryptographic scheme has been proposed which may be useful in banking operations in the “either or survivor ” mode where n is the number of generated shares, from which n-1 is the number of account holders in an account and one share should be kept to the bank authority. In this technique one account holder should stack his/her share with the share of the bank authority and the secret image for user authentication will be revealed. In this technique two consecutive pixels are taken as the one time input for the share generation process. This technique generates shares with less space overhead compared to existing techniques and may provide better security. It is also easy to implement like other techniques of visual cryptography.

Following two waves of decolonization in the Pacific (1962-1970 and 1974-1980), the situation of island states in this region have changed radically. Finally independent microstates have gained their legal international opportunity to decide on own internal and regional policy. Nonetheless, post-colonial relations in the region were largely influenced by the Pacific Ring powers, led by the United States, which consequently created a unique local system. Such struggle in order to uphold influence in the Pacific occurred in the post-war period initially between the USA and Japan. Two imperial approaches emerged from these international movements, which were implemented in the diplomacy of both countries: “New world order” and its Japanese response – “New regional order”. Government in Washington maintains close relations with states in Oceania by changing their formal names (free association, unincorporated and unorganized territory, unincorporated and organized territory, commonwealt...

In this article we examine the role of climate change and climate hazards, their attendant impacts on water and food security in the Arab world, and the inability or unwillingness of governments to cope with these forces in the years leading up to, and during, the Arab uprisings. In one case study we investigate how long-term drought in Syria, large-scale human displacement, and the lack of an effective government response, may have contributed to social and political unrest in Syria, fueling a conflict with significant national, regional and international security dimensions. In a second case study, we explore the phenomenon of hazard globalization, whereby climate hazards have serious implications for food and water security far from the event epicenter. Specifically, we examine how drought in China and Russia may have influenced the rebellion in Egypt.

Natuna or better known as the Natuna Islands is one of the border areas in Indonesia that has complex problems. As a cluster of islands bordering Indonesia with Malaysia and Vietnam, the Natuna Islands are also located in the South China Sea region, which is a regional dispute hot spot in East Asia. This paper will discuss the concept of border security and border security issues in the waters of the Natuna Islands. In this paper, the authors argue that the problem of the Indonesian EEZ maritime boundary in the Natuna Islands territorial waters with Malaysia and Vietnam needs to be immediately resolved, because in addition to sovereignty, the precision of the EEZ boundary with neighboring countries will be related to the management of natural resources contained in the particular territorial waters. This condition is increasingly complicated when China with its nine-dashed line has raised problems of overlapping claims in the Natuna waters. In addition, the obscurity of maritime bou...

The Ukraine crisis provides clarity as to how competition and great power rivalry will be executed moving forward. Actors will increasingly utilise the multilateral weaponisation of the financial system and cyberspace while building resilience to deter potential aggressor states. Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has reanimated deep concerns about the possibility of large-scale conflict in Europe. It has made EU policymakers deeply aware that the post-WWII international order that was built to limit the power of states and to minimise the chance of conflict is not necessarily permanent without greater economic, military, and multilateral investment.

This paper provides a descriptive study from a theoretical perspective that emphasize the importance of collective security in promoting and maintaining international peace and security through an extensive partnership of committed states. The study is built around the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a bastion of unity, solidarity, peacekeeping and security between nations. The purpose is to analyze the evolution of NATO from a collective defense organization during the period of Cold War, to a collective security organization in our present days. In the light of the events that followed the fall of communism in Europe, the principle of collective security has started to replace the concept of collective defense, by shaping NATO dimension from a regional defense organization to an international security organization in the Euro-Atlantic region. By fulfilling its commitment to protect and ensure peace on the European continent against various threats, such as communism expansion, civil wars and terrorist attacks, the alliance can be considered one of the most suitable examples that illustrates the concept of collective security. The empirical data use to analyze the role of NATO regarding the concept of collective security includes relevant articles and reports from the international relations, security studies and political sciences field. The findings revealed that important events which took place at the beginning of the 21st century, such as the enlargement of NATO, new threats to the international security and a change from direct threats to risk situations has shaped a new identity and extended the role of the alliance to a more global one. Also, we can argue that NATO's members have changed their approach from a static, reactive and territorial concept of collective defense toward a proactive and anticipatory approach.

This paper offers a counter-narrative to the constricted Western narratives that often discount how colonial domination, exploitation, and external interference have shaped Africa’s past and present, especially in the area of security. It focuses on the numerous security challenges in Africa and its complex historical nexus to the colonial legacy. The piece draws from the variegated dominant arguments and counterarguments on African (in)security issues, colonial rule, and the theoretical security models and concepts. The paper demonstrates, through an exploration of the formation of postcolonial states, that colonialism cannot be excused as some distant root cause of the security problem on the continent, but has deliberately crafted some specific subjects, societies and states that serve to perpetuate the challenges in the security complex of Africa. Keywords: security, colonial legacy, nation-state, Africa