Showing papers by "Didier Bigo published in 2008"

Globalized (in)security: The field and the ban-opticon

Abstract: The discourses that the United States and its closest allies2 have put forth asserting the necessity to globalize security have taken on an unprecedented intensity and reach. They justify themselves by propagating the idea of a global ‘(in)security’, attributed to the development of threats of mass destruction, thought to derive from terrorist or other criminal organizations and the governments that support them. This globalization is supposed to make national borders effectively obsolete, and to oblige other actors in the international arena to collaborate. At the same time, it makes obsolete the conventional distinction between the universe of war, defence, international order and strategy, and another universe of crime, internal security, public order and police investigations. Exacerbating this tendency yet further is the fact that, since 11 September 2001, there has been ongoing frenzied speculation throughout the Western political world and among its security ‘experts’ on how the relations between defence and internal security should be aligned in the new context of global (in)security.

Terror, Insecurity and Liberty: Illiberal Practices of Liberal Regimes after 9/11

Abstract: Understanding (In)Security Didier Bigo and Anastassia Tsoukala. Globalized (In)Security: The Field and the Ban-Opticon Didier Bigo. Defining the Terrorist Threat in the Post-September 11th Era Anastassia Tsoukala. Hidden in Plain Sight': Intelligence, Exception and Suspicion after September 11th 2001 Laurent Bonelli. Military Activities within National Boundaries: The French Case Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet. Military Interventions and the Concept of the Political: Bringing the Political Back into the Interactions between External Forces and Local Societies Christian Olsson

Understanding (in)security

Abstract: Since the late twentieth century, research on security issues has become an area of increasing interest to scholars. The concept of security, the framing of security policies, the defining of threats, and the implementation of (in)securitization processes have been approached from a range of disciplines, going from International Relations (IR), psychology and law to history, sociology and criminology. Yet, regardless of its intrinsic quality, research on these issues did not end up with a satisfactory set of interpretations because it relied on single disciplinary analyses.

The changing landscape of European liberty and security: the mid-term report of the CHALLENGE project

Abstract: The article offers a critical assessment of the liberties of citizens and others living in the EU and the way in which they are affected by the proliferation of discourses about insecurity, and government and transnational agencies practices of reassurance, protection and coercion enacted in the name of the safety of citizen or their collective security, in which information about their identity is exchanged through new techniques of surveillance and control. It analyses first the apparent radicalisationisation of specific forms of transnational political violence and its effects on liberal policies. Next it assesses the threat assessments produced through technologies of risk management and the development of new technologies of surveillance. Third it describes the changing forms taken by the logic of suspicion and practices of exception and derogation, especially in relation to established understandings of the rule of law, to the multidimensional and continuous reframing of the enemy. It then discusses the impact of this on the rights and freedoms of citizens and foreigners, and finally it assesses the relation between the internal and external impact of illiberal practices, especially in the context of transatlantic relations but also of an increasingly interconnected world order, and the place of the EU in this world.

What Future for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice? Recommendations on EU Migration and Borders Policies in a Globalising World. CEPS Policy Briefs. No. 156, 20 March 2008

Abstract: The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has launched a brainstorming exercise about the future policy priorities for the development of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Migration and borders will constitute two of the most relevant policies on which the next EU budget covering the AFSJ beyond 2013 will be focused. This Policy Brief seeks to contribute to this brain-storming exercise by putting forward a package of policy recommendations covering the following three themes: I. How to structure Justice and Home Affairs in the EU: to get the best results. II. Mastering the integration debate and comprehensively framing the citizen/foreigner/immigrant relationship. III. The utility of large-scale information systems with interoperable databases including biometric technology for the protection of people living in the EU.

Preventing Violent Radicalisation and Terrorist recruitment in the EU: the threat to Europe by Radical Islamic terrorist groups

Abstract: The ad hoc briefing paper “Preventing violent radicalisation and terrorist recruitment in the EU - The threat to Europe by radical Islamic terrorist groups” provides an original analysis and evaluation of the different strategies that are meant to deal with such phenomena, as well as their effectiveness. This perspective takes into account the dynamics of actions/reactions between the various parts involved in violence and its repression, thus going beyond recommendations mainly aiming at controlling the networks through which individuals enter the radicalizing dynamics, in a “worst-case scenario” perspective. The core point of the paper is to transgress the different forms of self-censorship that exist in the field of the counterterrorist public policies, by insisting upon the fact that some of the measures taken can contribute to the radicalisation, or more accurately, to the dynamics of escalation. The priority is then to move the focus, while widening the angle of the problem, to highlight the interactions not only between clandestine organisations and reference fields but also public authorities, journalists and others. The question of the radicalisation must be reconsidered and redefined as a subsidiary of the questions on escalation and de-escalation dynamics of the conflicts. The ad hoc briefing paper is thus structured as follows: the first part aims at understanding the radicalisation processes; the second part deals with the questions of clandestineness, radicalisation and recruitment; the third part deals with the dilemma faced by authorities and their policies, that can either lead to an escalation or a de-escalation, depending on whether they tend to mimetic rivalry or distanciation. Finally, the paper provides certain policy recommendations, mainly based on favouring distanciation, taking into account the pernicious effects of intensified measures of control, repression or war on violent radicalisation, and controlling and supervising counter radicalisation.

Review of security measures in the 6th Research Framework Programme and the Prepa-ratory Action for Security Research

Abstract: Security research has constituted, over the pas few years, a strong priority for Community policies in the field of scientific research, industry, and justice and home affairs. Community efforts in this domain have been channelled, over the period 2002-2006, through the 6 Framework programme (FP6) and the Preparatory action on security research (PASR). FP6 has sustained, within its various thematic priorities, a series of projects and programmes dealing with technological developments in the field of security. The PASR is a targeted initiative of the European Commission aiming at developing contacts and partnerships between the actors of the European security industry, the public actors, and research bodies. PASR activities, in this respect, have mainly focused on technological development and the networking of actors, in anticipation for the thematic programme on security now established under FP7. The analysis of the contents of research being conducted under the FP6 and PASR is very revealing in this respect: it highlights the fact that this research is mainly oriented towards technological development as such, and unquestioningly takes security as a norm and a fundamental value. In this regard, and despite the odd exception, European security research does not include in its scope the effects that increasingly sophisticated technologies of control and surveillance can have on individual freedom and rights, particularly with regard privacy and the protection of personal data. It does not address the necessary limits to security. The point, then, is to envisage the modalities through which a reflection on the ethical, legal, political and social implications of security technologies can be strengthen and further integrated in European security research.

Sociologie politique de l’international : une alternative

Abstract: POURQUOI PROPOSER LE PROJET DE L'IPS ? Modifier le debat tel qu'il est presente par les internationalistes Le projet de creation de l'IPS repose sur l'idee de decentrer le debat constructivisme mainstream theory en en montrant les limites, le caractere souvent americano-centre et en proposant une alternative reposant sur : Une epistemologie specifique qui se distingue des autres courants des theories de l'international. Un programme de recherche qui s'en inspire et qui croise des recherches contemporaines (...).

Au nom du 11 septembre. Les démocraties occidentales à l'épreuve de l'antiterrorisme

Abstract: Depuis les annees 1990, et surtout depuis les attentats du 11 septembre 2001, les Etats-Unis et les Etats de l'Union europeenne ont multiplie les initiatives pour repondre aux menaces du « terrorisme islamiste » : durcissement des legislations, renforcement de la cooperation antiterroriste internationale, actions ouvertes ou clandestines violant souvent le droit international. Et les effets de sideration produits par des attentats spectaculaires et meurtriers ont largement inhibe l'attention critique des citoyens face aux autres menaces que la plupart de ces initiatives font peser sur les democraties. C'est de ce constat qu'est ne ce livre collectif, destine a un public large. Reunissant les contributions d'une trentaine de specialistes europeens, universitaires et journalistes, il propose un ensemble sans equivalent d'informations et d'analyses. Elles montrent a quel point la lutte antiterroriste est devenue centrale dans la nouvelle geopolitique mondiale et la vie politique des Etats democratiques. Et comment les acteurs en charge de cette lutte (legislateurs et politiques, magistrats, services de police et de renseignements, militaires) faconnent un monde d'operations militaires, d'extension de la surveillance, de pratiques d'exception et de desinformation. Cet ouvrage permet ainsi de mesurer le chemin parcouru par les democraties occidentales pour limiter les libertes des uns au nom de la securite des autres. Un chemin aussi contestable au plan ethique et politique qu'en termes d'efficacite, puisqu'en clivant les societes, ces methodes encouragent souvent la violence qu'elles pretendent combattre

What Future for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice? Recommendations on EU Migration and Borders Policies in a Globalising World

Abstract: The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has launched a brainstorming exercise about the future policy priorities for the development of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Migration and borders will constitute two of the most relevant policies on which the next EU budget covering the AFSJ beyond 2013 will be focused. This Policy Brief seeks to contribute to this brain-storming exercise by putting forward a package of policy recommendations covering the following three themes: I. How to structure Justice and Home Affairs in the EU: to get the best results. II. Mastering the integration debate and comprehensively framing the citizen/foreigner/immigrant relationship. III. The utility of large-scale information systems with interoperable databases including biometric technology for the protection of people living in the EU.