Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Regional and Global Security

By deliberating on the correlations between the monetary security and the EUROsceptic views of the European citizenry and elites, this chapter addresses the problem of supranational monetary policy and the consequences it has for the economic security of the EU and its constitutive member states. The analysis starts with the introduction into the concept of EUROscepticism and its relations with the classical Euroscepticism. Then the second key term of the chapter is defined, which is the monetary security—nested in the general understanding of the economic security. Here, not only the author provides his own understanding of the monetary security, but also discusses its main levels, dimensions, functions and determinants. In the last part, the correlations between the two phenomena are discussed, followed by a conclusive part, summarising the main conclusions on the correlations between the phenomenon of EUROscepticism and supranational monetary integration.

This chapter provides brief analysis of space security, as well as its origin and ideas important for ESA and the European Union. This allows to discuss main elements of space security in latest documents prepared by the European Commission, reveals driving forces for regional order, when challenges and problems in outer space could be used as a transmission belt for domestic and regional preferences to the global level. The author argues that these preferences are mostly of military nature and institutions of space security, that have been created by the European Union, will be analyzed from the perspective of defense and military goals.

This chapter examines the nature and potential concerns and challenges of still unexplored phenomenon of sub-national actors’ activity in the world politics, especially in the North America. The chapter finds that American non-central governments, even have clear agenda in foreign affairs, are more limited by structured ideas and through structured institutions, than through interests on the states’ level. The chapter also argues that to deal with the rise of states’ activity in foreign affairs, more attention should be given to the question of change and continuity in relations between central and non-central governments, but also between sub-national governments in the North America.

In 2004, Brazil and its South American neighbors created the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). UNASUR was added to existing Latin American regional organizations such as the Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR) or the Organization of American States (OAS), leading to overlapping regionalism both in membership and issues. UNASUR was supposed to serve political cooperation and integration of infrastructure but it gradually turned to security issues when it launched the South American Defense Council in 2008. Mixing traditional and non-traditional security issues, like energy, UNASUR led to complex regional security governance. Understanding this complex set of economic, energy, and traditional security requires a differentiated look at ideas, actors’ interests, and institutional competencies. This chapter will analyze economic, energy, and traditional security governance in South America by focusing on MERCOSUR and UNASUR with a particular view to the regional power Brazil by applying such a theoretical lens.

This chapter highlights the distinctiveness of international law as applied and formed by the Latin American States with regard to the security issues. Following the concept pursued in this book, the chapter will be divided into four parts. The first one, ideas, discusses the principles of non-intervention and commitment to democracy as the fundaments of the Latin American security system; the second one, interests, concerns the Latin American States’ security interests; the third part, institutions, is focused on the Latin American institutional security framework; and finally, interactions show the relations between the Latin American and universal security systems from the perspective of international law. The thesis advanced in this paper is that Latin American security system is distinct from the universal one not only in terms of important security issues, history and pursued policies, but also because of the specific application and understanding of principles and institutions of international law, which underline the autonomy of the Latin American region from the rest of the international community.

At the 2007 Africa—8European Union (EU) summit, a Joint Africa–EU Strategy (JAES) was agreed upon that defined the long-term policy orientation between the two continents. A partnership in peace and security (JAES P&S) received a prominent place within the Strategy. 2017 is a special year for the continent-to-continent relationship since it marks up its 10th anniversary. Understanding the outcome of the JAES P&S one needs to assess and analyse on the one hand, the role that ideas (such as e.g. the paradigm changes in the conceptualisation of security, its nexus to development and regional integration) had on informing the standing up of JAES P&S, and on the other hand analyse the inter-institutional interactions needed in the implementation of this partnership.

Boko Haram poses a significant threat to global security, considering its capability to sustain persistent strikes against Nigerian State and the adjourning neighbours of Cameroon, Chad and Niger republics. At the wake of the group’s public emergence in 2002, the respective governments, citizens and the International Societies greatly under estimated its capability. Initially, Boko Haram was a mere local group with limited domestic objectives and either perceived in religious, political, or ethnic terms. These notions about the group persisted until 2010, when the group began full-scale terrorism as a strategy to confront the states. Not until the United State of America thereto designated the group in 2013 as a terrorist organisation. The affected countries as a choice of modality, adopted a multinational counter- insurgency approach to curb the situation. Despite these, researchers and policy makers have done little to understand and highlight the motivation and the underlying factors why the group would commit suicide, destroy lives and property for reasons that are difficult to comprehend within the scope of ordinary logic. This research establishes that the fervent desire to reconstruct identity along Islamic rules and principles, as a way of life, underlie the determination of the group and their unwillingness to consensus but total defeat of the world system, which they consider evil. The ideological and cultural components of the group’s struggle remain the source of the conflict, strength, persistence, and their resilience.

Sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN personnel in United Nations Peace Operations undermines the very peace the intervention aims to facilitate. By default, this also undermines the legitimacy of the United Nations as a key driver of liberal interventionism. International institutions have developed a series of policies, strategies and initiatives which focus on human security and securitisation of women; namely, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda serves as the overarching strategic framework for addressing gender inequality in conflict and post-conflict situations. Regional organizations, including the African Union, have also implemented their own women and gender-related protocol with a goal of improving security and stability on the continent. This chapter broadly looks at the interests and interactions of the UN, African Union and other actors in pursuing the WPS agenda, especially where it relates to adoption and implementation of instruments designed to securitise women, promote gender equality and address sexual exploitation and abuse in Peace Operations. The chapter identifies the key barriers to progress and concludes that regardless of the various issues surrounding motivation of various actors and human-security oriented instruments, there is a need to meaningfully engage with feminist scholarship and civil society organizations in order to find sustainable solutions to the problem.

According to the United Nations, women are one of the most vulnerable group during both, war and conflicts, as well as, civil strife. On the one hand, the women’s need for promotion of equality, development and peace is often red as an objection of being the victim, and on the other hand, as a result of political changes and strengthening the role of women, playing in conflict resolution and peace-building. This process started with the international changes initiated by the set of Conferences on Women. After Conference in Nairobi, in 1985, a new course of action for the advancement of women was devised, which outlined measures for achieving gender equality at the national level and for promoting women’s participation in peace and development efforts. Increasing involvement of women in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms has been aimed at preventing and managing conflicts trough a various activities. The paper will refer to the role that women have played in shaping the peace processes, considering the selected aspects of East Africa’s case study. The analysis will be referring to the social constructivism. The assumption is that actors (women) may interact and affect the normative and the ideational structure, and shape the behavior of different entities (entities responsible for peace). However, the author does not attempt to take a comprehensive explanation of relations between actors and structures, or build assertions about the nature of cause and effect, but only to consider and understand this phenomenon. The paper will be based on the content analysis of both, writings and reports on: women’s activity, conflicts and peace processes and negotiations, as well as, the political and mass media discourse (including: BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, All Africa).

Due to the uneven water distribution around the world, population growth, high pressure over economic output (mostly food production) and an increasing number of sources of pollution, the use of water in international river basins will be under stress in the near future. However, why we won’t observe a crescent number of acute conflicts or wars? It is the opposite; States in the presence of water scarcity tend to engage into cooperative behavior embracing principles such as equitable and rational use to mention a few, but why? This chapter takes an interdisciplinary framework comprised by international law and theory of international relations and a constructivist approach for analyzing the quality of cooperation over transboundary water. The argument of the chapter is that the increasing sophistication in cooperation process over shared water produces important implications to international security in the river basins, thus, reaching the point of the formation of regional water security communities. At empirical level, the chapter presents evidences of the existence of a water security community in the Okavango River Basin, which demonstrates that even in challenging political and physical environments, as in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, it is possible to achieve a high level of cooperation and institutional design that includes principles of governance and peaceful conflict resolution.