Ignoring Hello Kitty: globalization and resistance in Austria

This essay studies the processes of globalization and resistance in Austria by using the Japanese cartoon character, Hello Kitty, as a case study. Bringing in a number of significant researches on this cartoon character, it targets the “hybridization” process involved in the Hello Kitty Magazine, a major form of publicity in the country, before moving onto actual reception of the character in Austria, which has apparently taken the form of “resistance”. As such, the essay fills the gap in current researches on globalization in Austrian studies, which mainly focus on Americanization but not Japanization, as well as supplements Kinsella’s influential essay on the Japanization of European youths, which focuses on the United Kingdom, but not the rest of Europe.

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Problems of maintaining defense security in today's world

This article addresses critical problems relating to Russian defense requirements in the first decades of the twenty‐first century. In the modern system of defense security two interrelated problems come clearly into view. On the one hand, political‐diplomatic, economic, informational and other non‐military means are necessary to resolve antagonisms, prevent conflicts, and provide for the national defense. On the other hand, when all these capabilities are exhausted, one must be ready to use military force. The author discusses the international environment confronting Russia, the threats facing the state, the organization of national defense, force structure, the nature of possible armed conflicts and the ways in which the armed forces and other troops may be used, and military training and education of personnel.     

Municipality and food security promotion for disabled people: evidence from north-eastern Thailand

This article puts forward a qualitative method for analysing the role of municipalities in promoting food security for people with disabilities, and examining barriers that affect their food access and food utilisation. Findings from face-to-face interviews with mayors, street vendors, and disabled persons from three major municipalities in north-eastern Thailand clearly indicate that a lack of knowledge of food security among mayors and street vendors, and financial restrictions suffered by families, have become insurmountable barriers to food among people with disabilities. The article recommends that municipalities should create paid employment for people with disabilities and incorporate universal design into infrastructure improvement.     

Laudable,ahistorical and overambitious: security sector reform meets state formation theory.

Security sector reform (SSR) is a concept that is highly visible within policy and practice circles and that increasingly shapes international programmes for development assistance, security co-operation and democracy promotion. This paper examines the concept and practice of SSR using theories of the state and state formation within a historical-philosophical perspective. The paper recognises that the processes of SSR are highly laudable and present great steps forward towards more holistic conceptions of security and international development. However, the main argument of the paper is that we should be careful of having too high expectations of the possibility of SSR fulfilling its ambitious goals of creating states that are both stable and democratic and accountable. Instead, we should carefully determine what level of ambition is realistic for each specific project depending on local circumstances. A further argument of this paper is that legitimate order and functioning state structures are prerequisites and preconditions for successful democratisation and accountability reforms within the security sector.     

Engaging the narrative in ontological (in)security theory: insights from feminist IR

Ontological security theory (OST) provides a unique account of how state Self-identity is formed and reformed in international relations. OST postulates that state Self-identity is usefully understood by inquiring into the foundation of a state's sense of Self: its autobiographical narrative. We seek to amend this line of argument by further suggesting that the autobiographical narratives of states are ‘gendered’. Feminist theorizing about the relationship between gender and power implies that the dominant autobiographical narrative of state Self-identity is ‘gendered’ masculine. The power of this masculinized autobiographical narrative flows from an ‘internal othering’ process of counter ‘feminine’ autobiographical narratives that exist alongside the masculinized autobiographical narrative. Our goal is to suggest that opportunities do arise for counter ‘feminine’ narratives to challenge the dominant autobiographical narrative due to their interdependence and we explicate two practices by which masculinized narratives can be engaged, challenged and disrupted.     

Ignoring public opinion: the Australian and Polish decisions to go to war in Iraq

This article investigates why the governments of Australia and Poland decided to contribute military forces to the United States led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 when a majority of Australian and Polish citizens were opposed to national involvement in the invasion. The objective of the article is to increase understanding of the conditions under which governments ignore the public in their foreign policymaking. The article examines the explanatory power of four intervening variables: issue salience, elite debate, timing of the next election and the importance assigned to international gains by the government. On the basis of the Direct Method of Agreement, the article concludes that government perceptions of international gains and the timing of the next election were potentially necessary factors for the outcomes of the cases, while issue salience and elite debate were not necessary conditions. A distant election may, thus, provide sufficient electoral protection for a government that conducts a foreign policy to which the public is opposed.     

Human (in)security: Palestinian perceptions of security in and around the refugee camps in Lebanon

Based upon over 20 hours of focus groups and in-depth interviews with diverse representation from three Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the authors analyse Palestinian perceptions of both Lebanese and Palestinian security institutions, detailing the ways in which conventional, state-centric approaches to security by both parties have been insufficient. Special attention is paid to the new security regime in the Nahr al-Bared camp, which was destroyed in 2007 during a protracted battle between the Lebanese army and the militant Islamist group Fatah al-Islam. This is because the Government of Lebanon has made clear its intention that this regime serve as a model for the country's other 11 camps. Ultimately, the authors argue, Palestinian human security is inextricably linked to Lebanese sovereignty and national security, and the improvement of Palestinian human security will yield tangible security benefits for Lebanese and Palestinians alike. Rather than presume to speak on behalf of all Palestinians in Lebanon, the authors have instead opted to present detailed—and sometimes contradictory—quotations from Palestinians interviewed on such subjects as arms, violent extremism, Lebanese–Palestinian relations and the protection of human rights.     

Racist violence and criminal behaviour in Sweden: Myths and reality

Since World War II, Swedish national socialists and right wing extremists have been divided into two main factions: nationalists, who are parliamentarian, non‐racist but ethnocentric, non‐revolutionary; and race ideologists, who are revolutionary, racist and internationally oriented. During the 1980s a new generation took over, and activities increased. The militant racist subculture, consisting of small independent networks, exists within a long tradition of organised racism or extreme nationalism in Sweden. The organised activists of small militant race‐ideologist sects can be described as the most extreme form of the organised hostility towards refugees and migrants, while the unorganised perpetrators of attacks against refugee hostels can be regarded as the extreme expression of an established mentality in the local community. The organised and unorganised exist in a symbiosis. The perpetrators of violence are in most cases to be found at the intersection between the subculture of ‘white power’ and the general hostility towards refugees in the community.     

The EU's security and the sea: defining a maritime security strategy

Abstract

This article comprehensively discusses the maritime dimension of the European Union's (EU's) security, which encompasses military and civilian aspects, intergovernmental and community components as well as institutional and geopolitical elements. First, the article provides a narrative of the development of the maritime element in the EU's security policy since the adoption of the European Security Strategy in 2003. By depicting the interrelations between the sea and the EU's security, the article shows that the maritime dimension of EU security is generally well established, but often obscured by the complicated institutional structure of the Union. Thereafter, the article emphasises the need to define an effective EU Maritime Security Strategy, which would provide a strategic framework for the Union's security-related activities regarding the sea that encompass maritime power projection, as well as maritime security and safety. Accordingly the article provides some recommendations concerning the definition of such a strategy and for appropriate constituting elements: the maritime-related risks and threats, the maritime strategic objectives, the means to implement the strategy, and the theatres of EU maritime operations.     

Congo Co: aid and security

Northern donors manage the Democratic Republic of Congo as though it were a company. Through aid, these donors identify and respond to key weaknesses in Congo's ability to operate economically within the global market. As it is a country that poses high threats (from infectious diseases, economic misconduct and a volatile political situation) and high opportunities (in terms of political influence over, and sale of, vast resources) decisions on aid are taken in accordance with Northern concerns, which dominate the definition of global security. In this way, economic decisions are incorporated into the pursuit of global security. Most aid goes to the health sector and is characterised by surveillance, not prevention or treatment, and a set of governance interventions that grant strategic influence in shaping the political economy of the country. These responses have functions in terms of global security; they also grant some returns to Congo, but neglect much and aggravate some forms of insecurity at a domestic level.     

Hybrid security governance in Africa: rethinking the foundations of security,justice and legitimate public authority

This article asks whether the concept of ‘hybridity’ offers a more convincing account of security governance in Africa than the standard state-focused models. It seeks to clarify the complex intersections between formal and informal, state and non-state security actors, and the varied terrains on which hybridity is constructed, instrumentalised and recalibrated over time. Rather than romanticising informal or ‘traditional’ institutions, it suggests that they too embed their own power hierarchies, become sites of contestation, and do not work equally well for everyone, least of all for the weak, vulnerable and excluded. Thus the focus is placed upon the real governance of security in hybrid systems, and the patterns of inclusion and exclusion (including gender biases) they reinforce. Finally the paper considers how policy-makers and shapers can work with the grain of hybrid security arrangements to create more legitimate, broadly-based and effective African security governance.     

Human security and the separation of security and development

This article advances a counter-intuitive argument about what are argued to be the links between security and development in human security. The argument is counter-intuitive because the merging of development and security is explicitly part of the human security discourse. However, this paper will argue that human security can better be understood not through its own discourse, but placed in the context of the changing relationship between the developing world and the developed world after the end of the Cold War. Rather than the merging of security and development it will suggest that human security is representative of a period in international relations in which there is a separation of security and development. The broader international context is one in which the developing world is less of a security concern to the developed than was the case during the Cold War.