EU security sector reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Reform or resist?

ABSTRACT

Attempts to explain the failure to reform the security sectors in post-conflict countries have often resorted to two sets of explanatory factors: international and local factors. This article seeks to move from that unhelpful dichotomy to an explanation linking both factors. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach and the concept of “counter-conduct,” it examines the rationality and practices of European Union (EU) governmentality and how governing technologies are resisted and reversed by local elites involved in security sector reform (SSR). Instead of understanding power and resistance as binary opposites, this article argues that counter-conduct can be conceived as implicated in the very relations of power that it seeks to resist. To tease out these relations, the article analyzes the EU's efforts in SSR in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it identifies four forms of counter-conduct: upholding European standards, using the local ownership trap, simulating reforms, and lowering the bar.     

Effective? Locally owned? Beyond the technocratic perspective on the European Union Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories

ABSTRACT

The European Union Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories (EUPOL COPPS) was established in 2006 to contribute to the establishment of effective policing in support of an independent and democratic Palestinian state. EUPOL COPPS is often commended for its contribution to the professionalization of the Palestinian security sector under local ownership. Drawing on 40 interviews, we argue that the mission can be considered effective and locally owned only from a narrow technocratic perspective, which denies the political reality of continued occupation and absence of democracy. A broader analysis, which includes the voices of ordinary Palestinians, reveals that EUPOL COPPS contributed to the professionalization of authoritarian policing under continued Israeli occupation. Our findings show the limits of technocratic approaches to peacebuilding interventions and call for a stronger engagement with the ultimate beneficiaries of peacebuilding missions.     

Turning the tides of war: The impact of private military and security companies on Nigeria’s counterinsurgency against Boko Haram

Since the 2003 war in Iraq, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have become increasingly legitimate actors in modern conflicts. Despite this normative shift, rumours in March 2015 regarding the use of South African mercenaries in Nigeria to combat Boko Haram insurgents caused an international outrage, while the Nigerian government remained nonchalantly silent on the matter. This article investigates the impact of mercenaries on the conflict in the last six months of the Jonathan government. Using primary and secondary qualitative research, it assesses the role that PMSCs played in Nigeria’s counterinsurgency strategy, along with the ensuing reaction of international and local media to the outsourcing of violence to foreign companies. The article concludes that – notwithstanding the improved image of PMSCs in the world, and the actual impact of the contractors on the Nigerian counterinsurgency effort – the stigma of mercenaries continues to plague the industry, particularly on the African continent.     

话语体系与国家安全

话语体系是当今人文社会科学研究的热词,也已成为影响国家安全的一个重要因子。论文首先介绍话语体系的概念及其特点,报告了话语体系研究的缘起和发展脉络、主要学科与核心关键词以及主要相关文献,并对当前研究现状进行总结。分析了话语体系与国家的关系,并从国家的主体思想、发展道路、身份特质、文化自信、文明追求、话语权等方面阐述了话语体系对国家安全的重要性。论文指出,话语体系是影响国家安全的重要领域,也是国家之间博弈的重要阵地。     

建立军民融合创新体系的重大意义

加快形成军民融合创新体系,是习主席在十二届全国人大五次会议解放军代表团全体会议上提出的重大战略思想。建立军民融合创新体系,是顺应军民科技发展新形势的必然抉择,是夯实科技兴军物质基础的内在要求、提升国家创新能力的重大举措、推动创新文化形成的有效途径,也是推进供给侧结构性改革的现实需求。加快形成军民融合创新体系,反映了现代战斗力和生产力生成的规律,体现了统筹国家安全和发展全局的内在要求,为深入实施军民融合发展战略、开创强军兴国新局面指明了方向,具有重大意义。     

国防科技风险投资基金“一体两翼”发展构想

发展国防科技风险投资基金是提高国防科技创新能力、推进武器装备投融资机制改革的重要途径。本文在论述设立国防科技风险投资基金必要性的基础上,明确了基金设立的三种基本类型,设计了\"一体两翼\"模式构想,为国防科技风险投资基金发展提供了遵循。     

基于区块链的地学大数据管理

随着地理观测技术、计算机网络和地理信息系统、社会调查统计的迅速发展,具有空间位置的自然环境数据正在急剧增长,上升到大数据级别。而传统的数据库已经无法满足现有地学大数据的规模和增长速度。在资源访问方面,人们更加担心数据安全与隐私保护问题。由于数据交易的双方和交易中介都是互不信任的,这显然不利于数据的共享与流通,将阻碍地学大数据产业的发展。常用地学数据管理系统主要由单一机构进行维护管理,在多方用户参与的情形下,由于无法信任数据库中的数据,每一方用户都需要一个专用数据库,这样不同数据库之间数据的差异将产生繁琐的争议。区块链的到来却给这一问题的解决带来了希望,区块链技术实现了不完全可信网络环境中的可信数据管理,具有去中心化、防篡改、不可抵赖、完整性等特性,从而为解决目前依靠中心或第三方机构存在的高成本低效率和信息安全问题提供了切实的方法。本文从区块链的共识机制、智能合约、身份验证、数据溯源等方面进行阐述,并重点分析区块链如何解决流通和共享数据的问题,让地学大数据真正得以广泛应用。     

美英海军舰船远海维修保障体系特点

我国海军执行远海护航与南海领海巡航任务已成常态化,同时随着\"一带一路\"国家战略的稳步实施,海军舰船必将走得更远,为经济建设与世界和平、地区稳定保驾护航。为了科学地构建我国远海舰船维修保障体系,本文分析总结美英国家海军舰船远海维修保障体系基本模式、特点及利弊,并在合理界定远海及远海维修保障概念的基础上,提出构建我国海军舰船远海维修保障体系的基本策略。