Treating Syrian Refugees as a National Security Threat: Do the Means Fit the End?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Kerwin
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Security Threat

scholarly journals Ideological Extremism Among Syrian Refugees Is Negatively Related to Intentions to Migrate to the West

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 1362-1374
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jasko ◽  
David Webber ◽  
Erica Molinario ◽  
Arie W. Kruglanski ◽  
Katharine Touchton-Leonard
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Refugee Status ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Sentiment ◽  
Practical Implications

The conflict in Syria created a dire humanitarian situation, as nations around the world struggled with how best to deal with the more than 6.6 million Syrian refugees who fled their homes to escape aggression. Resistance to granting refugee status to individuals often originates in the belief that the influx of refugees endangers national security because of the presumably extremist religious and political beliefs that refugees hold. The present research surveyed Syrian refugees residing in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq ( N = 1,000). The results revealed that the majority of surveyed refugees did not intend to migrate to the West and would rather return to their home country. More importantly, refugees most interested in moving to Western countries were the least likely to subscribe to Islamist extremism or to harbor negative sentiment toward the West. Theoretical and practical implications for addressing the current refugee crisis are discussed.

scholarly journals Development of Profiling Methods for Contraband Firearm Volatile Odor Signatures

2022 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Nettles ◽  
Cameron Ford ◽  
Paola A. Prada-Tiedemann
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Security ◽  
Solid Phase ◽  
Headspace Analysis ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
And Performance

The early detection and location of firearm threats is critical to the success of any law enforcement operation to prevent a mass shooting event or illegal transport of weapons. Prevention tactics such as firearm detection canines have been at the front line of security tools to combat this national security threat. Firearm detection canines go through rigorous training regimens to achieve reliability in the detection of firearms as their target odor source. Currently, there is no scientific foundation as to the chemical odor signature emitted from the actual firearm device that could aid in increased and more efficient canine training and performance protocols or a better understanding of the chemistry of firearm-related odorants for better source identification. This study provides a novel method application of solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) as a rapid system for the evaluation of odor profiles from firearm devices (loaded and unloaded). Samples included magazines (n = 30) and firearms (n = 15) acquired from the local law enforcement shooting range. Headspace analysis depicted five frequently occurring compounds across sample matrices including aldehydes such as nonanal, decanal, octanal and hydrocarbons tetradecane and tridecane. Statistical analysis via principal component analysis (PCA) highlighted a preliminary clustering differentiating unloaded firearms from both loaded/unloaded magazines and loaded firearm devices. These results highlight potential odor signature differences associated with different firearm components. The understanding of key odorants above a firearm will have an impact on national security efforts, thereby enhancing training regimens to better prepare canine teams for current threats in our communities.

Explaining the Politics of Security: Syrian Refugees in Turkey and Lebanon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sefa Secen
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Benign Neglect ◽  
The Media ◽  
High Level

Abstract Under what conditions do governments view and respond to the arrival of refugees primarily as a security threat? Comparatively analyzing the securitization of Syrian refugees in two host countries, Turkey and Lebanon, this paper proposes a domestic political context–based theory and typology of securitization. Based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the media data including mainstream national Turkish and Lebanese newspaper articles, this research first differentiates between different levels of securitization and finds that moderate securitization in Lebanon during the early years of the refugee crisis (2013–2014) coincided with an open border policy, inaction, legal ambiguity, and benign neglect. From 2015, a marked increase of securitization in Lebanon coincided with controlled borders, restrictive policies, and heightened tension. Securitization of Syrian refugees has followed a somewhat different trajectory in Turkey, where the state switched from non-recognition (2013–2014) to recognition (2014–2016) and then from recognition to integration (2016–present), while a decrease in securitization mapped onto this policy trajectory despite the opposition's and the public's increasing discontentment with the presence of refugees. Then, this paper argues that the low level of securitization in Turkey is an outcome of the incumbent party's Islamist political ideology that motivates transnational religious solidarity, whereas the high level of securitization in Lebanon is a consequence of elite divisions and the country's unique historical experiences with Palestinian refugees that engender competing security perspectives and agendas on Syrian refugees. Overall, this study demonstrates how contextual or domestic factors are key to explaining government attitudes toward refugee groups and contributes to our understanding of the sources and processes of securitization.

scholarly journals Organized Crime and National Security

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Campbell
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Security ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Empirical Argument ◽  
Legal Consequences

This article problematizes the growing tendency to characterize organized crime as a national security threat, referring primarily to the situation in the United Kingdom but also drawing on international and comparative examples. Three distinct arguments are presented contesting this comparison. First, it is questionable whether either concept is sufficiently clear in a definitional sense for the comparison to be meaningful analytically. The second empirical argument suggests that organized crime, as it is defined and encountered usually in the United Kingdom, does not yet constitute such a threat. Third, and regardless of the validity of the preceding arguments, it is argued in a normative sense that such a comparison should be resisted to the greatest extent possible, given the extraordinary legal consequences it entails. These claims indicate how caution must be exercized in making such a connection.

scholarly journals The State’s Changing Role Regarding the Kurdish Question of Turkey: From Consistent Tutelage to Volatile Securitization

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burak Bilgehan Özpek
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Systemic Crisis ◽  
Kurdish Question

Disappearance of the established security paradigm of Kemalist state has not helped to create strong institutions and legal-bureaucratic structures that are supposed to prevent a certain political elite to dominate the political system and criminalize its adversaries by security reasons. Instead, survival concerns and political will of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has become replacement of the established paradigm. This has created a systemic crisis. On the one hand, the AKP has played the role of a regular political party, which is supposed to have equal rights and privileges with other players in the game. On the other hand, the AKP has been the tutelary actor that determines what national security is and who threatens national security. As a result of this picture, the AKP has exploited its monopoly over securitization to eliminate the criticisms of the opposition groups. Therefore, any political party or political group has not been viewed as a national security threat only if it has not threatened the political survival of the AKP. Such a crisis has also affected the AKP’s approach toward the Kurdish question. Unlike the established paradigm’s allergy toward the political demands of Kurds due to its commitment to nation-state principle, the AKP’s fluctuated policy toward the Kurds resembles to a political party’s survival strategy rather than a policy stemming from a consistent national security paradigm.

Securitization and Lithuania’s National Security Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Ieva Karpavičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Securitization Theory ◽  
The Military

Abstract The paper addresses the security threat perception and securitization of existential threats in Lithuania. It focuses upon the securitization theory and its ability to explain the change of national security agendas as affected by the changes in national identity and existential security threats. It takes into account the internal and external factors that are shaping the objective and subjective national threat perception. The paper applies O. Waever’s securitization theory with an aim to explain how the national security threats are being addressed and perceived in Lithuania. Moreover, the paper is developed against the backdrop of the most recent developments in securitization theory and evolution of its theoretical perceptions of identity, existential threats, and legitimacy. It also discusses the possibility of inclusion of hybrid security threats into an analysis of securitization. The empirical part of the article assesses the most recent security challenges, provides evaluation of changes in national security perception, and portrays the dynamics of national security threats as defined in the National Security Strategies and the Military Doctrine. The paper focuses upon the most recent dynamics in security policy of Lithuania. It also takes into account the hybrid nature of security threats and the reaction to hybrid security elements such as: cyber security, information security, and international terrorism.

China’s ‘new media’ create new markets and new risks

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New Media ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Growth ◽  
Short Video ◽  
The Government

Subject Live streaming and short video in China. Significance Live streaming and ‘short video’ apps have fast become mainstream in China. The international growth of Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok has generated fears in the United States that its data policies and censorship constitute a national security threat. Impacts China’s array of internet regulations make it easy for the government to find fault with a firm whose actions it disapproves of. Future laws in China will directly govern the use of the algorithms tech firms use to monitor and censor content. US politicians will be increasingly aware, and wary, of Chinese tech firms that collect data on US citizens.

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