global security

On the Word ‘Global’

by Patrick Porter | Feb 24, 2013 | Featured

The word 'global' has become so frequently used in Western strategic debate that is has almost become background music. On one level, overuse robs it of resonance. But on another, it might be contributing to the conceptual and rhetorical overstretch that has led the US to overextend itself. Consider just one recent example. In making the case recently for maintaining the Pax Americana, the expansive grand strategy in which the US tries to hold on to unipolar supremacy with a worldwide military...

A puzzle in promotion: Petraeus at the CIA

by Laura Sjoberg | Apr 27, 2011 |

This is a guest blog by Jarrod Hayes, who is is an assistant professor of International Relations at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research broadly focuses on the social construction of...

Feminist IR 101, Post #5 War and Security (in Theory)

by Laura Sjoberg | Jan 23, 2011 |

There's been a small break (understatement) in my posting as I dealt with some pressing stuff personally and professionally, and to post about some time-sensitive stuff (like Don't Ask, Don't Tell,...

Gender and Security: Theory and Practice

by Laura Sjoberg | Feb 25, 2010 |

My post-ISA blogging is slower than it otherwise would have been, due to an unfortunate interlude with food poisoning. But I figured I'd start with the "working group" that Jennifer Lobasz and I ran...

More global security Posts

Why It May Be Good To Think Twice Before Opening Fire On Pirates

by Charli Carpenter | Nov 27, 2008 |

Daniel Sekulitch provides an update on the pirate "mothership" sunk by India last week in a much-trumpeted police action on the high seas:"It has now been confirmed by the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre that the vessel sunk last week by an Indian warship was not a pirate mothership but, rather, a fishing boat that had been hijacked by pirates. The Thai-owned fishing boat, Ekawat Nava 5, had been commandeered early on November 18 and the crew had been tied up by their captors, according to the shipowner. Later that same day, the Indian Navy Ship Tabar encountered the Ekawat Nava 5 and ordered...

Pirates and Sovereigns

by Charli Carpenter | Nov 20, 2008 |

This post began as a response to the comments on Peter's recent post on pirates, but they got to be so long, and required hyperlinks, I decided to start a new thread. In his comment to that post, T. Greer asks what the pirates who hijacked the oiltanker Sirius Star were thinking, since they can't deal with the logistics involved in selling the cargo and were certainly likely to provoke the great powers (further) by targeting such a prize. Somali pirates want two things, as far as I can tell: 1) Money, which is why their strategies have been based on ransom demands - they don't care about...

Rethinking the Long “War”?

by Charli Carpenter | Nov 4, 2008 |

Whomever wins today, we can safely look forward, I think, to a President who will tread more carefully on the fine line between protecting national security from "global terrorism" and upholding international commitments to fundamental human rights and the rule of law. Fortunately for that person and his advisors, Simon Fraser University's Human Security Report Project just released its weekly bulletin. "In Focus" this week is "Terrorism." The bulletin provides a useful round-up of the latest research on terrorism trends (from Rand Corporation: Al Qaeda and Its Affiliates: A Global Tribe...

Meanwhile, Off the Coast of Somalia…

by Charli Carpenter | Oct 5, 2008 |

AP reports, in an article titled "Somali Pirates Stare Down Superpowers":With a Russian frigate closing in and a half-dozen U.S. warships within shouting distance, the pirates holding a tanker off Somalia's coast might appear to have no other choice than to wave the white flag. But that's not how it works in Somalia, a failed state where a quarter of children die before they turn 5, where anybody with a gun controls the streets and where every public institution has crumbled. The 11-day standoff aboard the Ukrainian MV Faina begs the question: How can a bunch of criminals from one of the...

Bestir Yourselves, Ye Councils of Nations, and Smartly

by Charli Carpenter | Sep 20, 2008 |

International Talk Like a Pirate Day ends at midnight, and once again pirate lovers around the world are gleefully splicing the mainbrace with their mateys and poking fun at the bilge rats who don't get that it's, well, Talk Like a Pirate Day. (Pirate Dictionary here for the uninitiated; a superior and more scholarly resource is George Choundas’ A Pirate Primer.)While that's all in good fun, the time seems right to remind ourselves that maritime piracy is resurgent globally (the International Maritime Bureau reported rates of four attacks per week in April) and that it represents a scourge,...

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