Two-Level Security Management and the Prospects for New Democracies: A Simulation Analysis

Most new democracies face serious internal, ethnic/separatist conflicts; in addition, some face international threats. The literature on the growth of democracy in the global system and its impact on world politics does not fully account for the dual threats all states must address in managing their security. Based on theoretical work by Starr (1994) which describes the "common logic" of conflict processes in war and revolution, we outline a model of how states respond to security threats from both external and internal sources. Using computer simulation, we analyze the model and evaluate the relative importance for state security of factors such as system size, numbers of democracies in the system, extraction/allocation strategy pursued by new democracies, and government legitimacy level. Our results show that new democracies thrive in systems that are predominantly democratic. Also, ally support can provide crucial resources for new democracies facing internal threats. Finally, "endangered" democracies can recover security by attempting to buy off domestic threats rather than deter them, and by improving legitimacy.     

因势利导:化解非传统安全困境的东盟路径

非传统安全困境存在吗?这种安全困境为何产生?以东盟为中心的东亚区域合作能否将其化解?既往研究通常一分为二地看待国家在传统安全与非传统安全议题中的行为逻辑,用安全困境的理论解释前者,安全化与和合主义等概念描述后者,认为后者更易导向国际合作。新冠肺炎疫情是一次非传统安全危机,然而世界各国却在应对过程中合作乏力、对立加深,这是一种非传统安全困境,各国政策和行为意图的不确定性是其主要原因。冷战后,以东盟为中心的区域合作架构在非传统安全议题上因势利导,增强各国对安全威胁的共同认识,依托既有地区合作机制凝聚共同利益,形成了增强政策和行为意图确定性的“威胁—利益”转化机制,在一定程度上化解了这种非传统安全困境。2020年4月,为应对疫情而召开的“10+3”特别峰会即为例证。东盟国家与中日韩三国对安全利益的共识虽有待增强,但对安全威胁的预估已趋于一致,是化解当下全球性非传统安全困境的一个地区性积极表征。     

俄罗斯新版国家安全战略评析

2021年7月2日,俄出台新版《俄罗斯联邦国家安全战略》,其中有许多新变化值得关注.俄认为,当前国际形势动荡不安,地缘政治紧张局势日益加剧,武力仍是解决国家间冲突矛盾的重要手段.俄当前国家安全面临的主要威胁是美西方针对其进行的"混合战争",具体包括军事威胁、经济制裁和政治施压.为此,新战略提出的基本战略目标是维护国内、...     

东南亚海盗问题探究

海盗问题是对当今世界安全构成重大威胁的非传统安全问题之一。东南亚海盗对我国的安全,尤其是海洋和能源安全构成了巨大的威胁和挑战。本文力图探讨东南亚海盗的历史与现状、当今东南亚海盗猖獗的主要原因以及东南亚海盗问题的影响和前景。     

Soft Security Threats in the New Europe: The Case of the Balkan Region

‘You cannot have a process where Balkan countries pretend to reform and we pretend to believe them.’

Chris Patten, EU Commissioner in charge of External Relations BBC World News, 25 November, 2002

Southeastern Europe represents for Europe a significant geo-strategic and geopolitical region whose stability and security directly affects Europe’s political and security infrastructure. Conflicts and instability are still prevalent in the Balkans and, as a consequence, security cooperation in Europe is struggling to cope with risks of a non-military nature. It is widely accepted that as a region, the Balkans at the dawn of the 21^st century remains weak and unable to deal efficiently with soft security threats. This article initially provides a generic picture of the Balkans and the hard security challenges prevalent there. It also aims to identify and assess the main types of new security threats that are currently present in the region, as well as to explore how these threats would be influenced by EU and NATO membership. The article also outlines the cooperative security measures adopted by the southeastern European countries, and it concludes by providing some thoughts on how the future developments in the region will be influenced by current international developments     

国际气候安全与气候技术合作困境与对策

全球气候变化正在带来严重的国际安全风险，气候问题已经与国家安全深度绑定。气候安全的治理能否成功，很大程度上取决于气候技术的选择及其全球普及程度。当前，国际社会积极利用先进气候技术实现气候安全面临着多重困难。文章对国际气候技术合作存在的障碍、未来合作方向和机制建设进行梳理，并以中美气候技术合作为例，探讨克服气候技术合作障碍的可能路径。解决气候技术合作难题，需要知识产权保护制度的改革和行业技术规范的供给。中美作为全球最大的两个经济体和碳排放国，宜进一步加强气候技术合作，履行大国责任，向发展中国家积极转让清洁能源技术，并借此契机重塑彼此互信，扩大科技领域的合作空间。     

Current International Cooperation and Developments in Information Security

Global information security and the threats to its integrity are becoming increasingly important. In this paper,the authors talk about areas requiring international cooperation, the major problems with current international cooperation, and finally give their reflections on international cooperation.     

南海地区安全：打击海盗与反恐合作

南海地区不仅具有重要的战略地位，而且是世界上最繁忙的国际航道之一，其安全正面临着海盗与恐怖分子的威胁。随着国际海事局有关海盗定义的修订，要维护南海地区的安全仅依靠南海周边国家的力量是不够的，特别是马六甲海峡。因此，海峡沿岸国要求海峡使用国共同分摊维护安全的经费负担，并提供有关培训、设备和信息情报等援助。这种情况说明，维护南海地区安全必须由南海周边国家及南海航道使用国共同合作，只有通过密切的国际合作，才能有效地打击海盗与恐怖主义活动，真正地维护南海地区的安全。     

Russian national security concepts 1997 and 2000: A comparative analysis

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the newly independent Russia had to redefine its relations with the outside world. In order to establish new relationships with both new and traditional cooperation partners, the country's leadership had to define the main strategic objectives, identify the main interests and threats to Russia's security and propose new ways of coping with the challenges the vast country confronted. The first years of independence were marked by a power struggle between various parts of the political elite, which delayed the process of defining the country's strategic goals in the field of national security. In December 1997, the Concept of National Security of the Russian Federation was published, and in January 2000 a new version was made public. This brief article is a comparative study of the concepts of national security embodied in the two documents, focusing on Russia's relations with the outside world and use of nuclear deterrence as a means to solve security and status dilemmas.     

Global Threats and American Strategies: From Communism in 1955 to Islamism in 2005

America's current security threats—the insurgency in Iraq, Islamic terrorism, and Iran's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons—seem strange and unprecedented. Parallels can be drawn, however, between the security threats of 2005 and those of fifty years ago. The U.S. foreign policy developed to confront the communist threat offers lessons as we develop strategies to combat today's threat. Two contemporary perspectives on strategic issues—one conservative/realist, one neoconservative/idealist—apply lessons of the Cold War to today's U.S. foreign policy, but each has serious flaws. A third, neorealist perspective, suggests that by leveraging the divisions already present in the Muslim world, the United States can win the global contest against Islamic terrorism. However, this would require a transformation in American strategy that will not be easily achieved.     

网络空间安全:基本态势、冲突来源与战略稳定（英文）

Cyberspace is increasingly considered of equal strategic importance as land, sea, air and space. The current security trends in cyberspace, featuring technological innovation, cyber threats, great-power competition and militarization, has brought the issue of cyber strategic stability to the fore.     

Sovereignty at Sea: States and Security in the Maritime Domain

The oceans present a variety of perils to both states and private actors, ranging from smuggling to direct attacks on vessels. Yet, a disconnect exists between states’ maritime power and sovereign fleets due to the emergence of open shipping registries in the 20th century. How have great powers like the United States responded to threats generated by transit of the oceans for legitimate and illicit purposes? The nature of peacetime security threats that states confront at sea has shaped divergent responses. The main maritime powers draw a distinction between threats aimed at states and threats to commerce. Where perceived threats to the state are concerned, great powers have sought to revise understandings of the protections sovereignty provides—specifically, by seeking expanded interdiction rights—to further their own security goals. When maritime powers perceive that international commerce is under threat, they delegate the sovereign protection function both upward to internationally sanctioned maritime coalitions and outward to private security firms. These policies are responses to the security challenges that result from the decoupling of sovereign power and the merchant fleet that followed the emergence of open shipping registries.     

“多元性”非传统安全威胁： 网络安全挑战与治理

随着非传统安全威胁的愈加综合与复杂,非传统安全研究需要进一步精细化。“多元性”非传统安全威胁针对那类与传统安全因素相互交混的威胁而提出,在缘由、意图、主体、手段、地缘等多方面显示了非传统与传统安全相互交织的“多元性”特征。网络安全威胁是“多元性”非传统安全威胁中的重要议题,其呈现了主权难以界定、合法性难以判定、身份难以限定、过程难以追踪、应对难以依靠单一主体的非常规特征,网络安全维护需要新思维。一些国家奉行进攻型网络安全战略,导致了网络空间的威胁升级与安全困境,不利于全球网络安全维护。“优态共存”基于中国“和合”价值观而提出,主张认同建构与互惠共建,更好地适应了网络安全治理的跨界合作、“大安全”观与超越安全困境的能力要求,是较优的网络安全治理方略,可成为“多元性”非传统安全维护的一般路径。     

太空武器化及中国太空安全构建

太空技术的出现来自冷战时代的美苏军备竞赛。在世界第一颗卫星上天后,太空随之被赋予了军事化意味,太空武器化接踵而至。冷战后,为了确保太空霸权,同时维护一超独霸的地位,美国不惜重拾冷战时代的太空武器化政策,由此,引起其他国家的相应回应。太空武器化程度逐渐抬升,给国际战略稳定与平衡造成严重威胁与挑战,引起反导系统和太空军备竞赛,增加核战风险,阻碍世界核裁军进程,也给太空商业开发、"太空2030议程"等带来诸多挑战。太空武器化给中国太空安全造成巨大的挑战与威胁,使中国太空资产的安全陷于危险境地,中国利用太空资产的自由有可能被限制或被剥夺,战略目标(包括战略核力量)受到太空系统的侦察与打击的威胁。为应对太空武器化的威胁与挑战,从安全上加强太空威慑力量建设,构建中国的太空安全体系显得紧迫与必要。     

Collective Security and Non-State Actors in Eurasia

International security cooperation usually takes one of two forms. A classical collective security organization is designed to promote international security through regulating the behavior of its member states. A defensive security organization is designed to protect a group of states from threats emanating from a challenging state or group of states. Both forms of security cooperation bind states to act in concert with respect to threats presented by other states. The emergence of non-state actors such as terrorist or extremist organizations challenges traditional forms of collective security. Threats from political extremism, terrorism, and outlaw organizations have grown in visibility during the past decade in the countries of Eurasia. The terrorist attacks of September 11 and the ensuing global war on terrorism have given added impetus to the Eurasian inter-state cooperation in confronting non-traditional threats and challenges from non-state actors. Bearing in mind the theory of collective security, this article analyzes threats posed by non-state actors with respect to Eurasian collective security organizations including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures, and the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. The article concludes that the effectiveness of these organizations at achieving stated objectives depends upon their capacity to adopt new criteria of effectiveness.     

Security threats and institutional response. The European context

This paper will explore the perceptions of security threats (identification of types and likelihood of occurrence) and institutional response (degree of institutional suitability according to type of threat) that prevails in the European context. It will compare how the main security institutions (NATO, EU and OSCE) respond to different type of security threats. This will be done through the aid of a number of security governance functions (conflict prevention, peace-enforcement, peace-keeping and peace-building). A main objective of the paper will be to examine which of the three is deemed most relevant in dealing with specific types of threats.     

International Conflict,International Security Environment,and Military Coups

Why do some countries repeatedly experience military coups while others seem immune? Are countries more prone to military coups when faced with external threats? The answers to these questions still remain contested: While several scholars hold that countries facing external threats are more vulnerable to coups, others argue that such countries are actually more secure from coups. I argue that by failing to distinguish between immediate and acute threats, caused by wars and militarized conflicts, and chronic threats from a state’s international security environment, the existing literature ignores the possibility that these two types of external threats differently affect the likelihood of coups. I propose that wars and militarized conflicts, infrequent and often short lived, decrease coup propensity, while a threatening security environment increases coup risk. I find strong supporting evidence that the presence of chronic international threats increases the likelihood of coups while acute international conflicts lower that likelihood.     

Are non-traditional security challenges leading regional organizations towards greater convergence?

How are regional organizations responding to the emergence of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges? Are they engaging in more cooperative efforts to meet new threats? Or, on the contrary, do they react in different manners according to their distinctive values, principles and internal structures? This article attempts to investigate how the threats posed by NTS are compelling different regional organizations to reconsider their security thinking and to find new innovative ways of cooperation. This is done by comparing two diverse regional organizations, the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), whose models of security cooperation have significantly varied reflecting the preference for different security approaches. The EU's security system has been more formalized and institutionalized; conversely, the "ASEAN way" has traditionally been rooted in the principles of informality and consensus. It is argued, however, that the emergence of NTS threats is acting as a catalyst behind a normative and operational shift of the modus operandi of both organizations. In so doing, this empirical analysis will try to shed light on the effects of exogenous factors on the emergence of patterns of convergence within the security sphere of distinctive regional processes.     

新冠肺炎疫情与全球安全文化的退化

安全文化是一个社群就怎样界定安全和安全威胁、怎样保障和实现安全所达成的主体间理解和共同知识。冷战之后,全球化推动了一个全球社会的初步形成,因之也催生了一种以开放安全、共同安全与合作安全为基本内容的合作型全球安全文化的雏形。但是由于全球治理失灵,不断出现且日益积累的全球性威胁得不到有效应对,民粹现实主义强势兴起,合作型全球安全文化屡遭重创,开始向以封闭安全、孤立安全、零和安全的冲突型安全文化转变,明显降低了国际安全合作的几率。抗击新冠肺炎疫情中的全球公共安全合作的失败就是一个明显的例证。虽然人类向共同体进化的历史大趋势不可阻挡,但在一段时间内,合作型全球安全文化与冲突型全球安全文化的激烈竞争将会是国际关系的新常态。     

Who Cares about the Weather?: Climate Change and U.S. National Security

Is climate change a national security threat to the United States? This question remains a subject of debate in academia and has received renewed emphasis in the policy community. Even taking a narrow definition of national security, climate change already constitutes a national security threat to the United States, both in terms of direct threats to the country as well as its broader extraterritorial interests. While some of these purported threats—abrupt climate change and sea-level rise—have been overstated by advocates, several concerns, mostly related to the effects of extreme weather events on the United States and its strategic interests overseas, are sufficient enough that they already constitute security threats. That climate change potentially poses a direct threat to the U.S. homeland and its overseas interests suggests the subject warrants serious attention.