Between Security Markets and Protection Rackets PDF Download

Author: Marc von Boemcken
Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
ISBN: 3863881893
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Security is a social practice, which constitutes different formations of political order. Developing a political economy of security practice, the author distinguishes these formations with a view to the actual exchanges between various providers and receivers of security services. He thus departs from a popular perspective in political science, which charts ongoing transformations in the global security landscape along a series of categorical divisions between state and non-state or between the public and the private. A more rewarding analytical perspective conceives the two most dominant security formations in the contemporary world as either based on commercial or on compulsory relations.

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Languages : en
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Author: Aisha Ahmad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190656786
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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For two decades, militant jihadism has been one of the world's most pressing security crises. In civil wars and insurgencies across the Muslim world, certain Islamist groups have taken advantage of the anarchy to establish political control over a broad range of territories and communities. In effect, they have built radical new jihadist proto-states. Why have some ideologically-inspired Islamists been able to build state-like polities out of civil war stalemate, while many other armed groups have failed to gain similar traction? What makes jihadists win? In Jihad & Co., Aisha Ahmad argues that there are concrete economic reasons behind Islamist success. By tracking the economic activities of jihadist groups in Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Mali, and Iraq, she uncovers an unlikely actor in bringing Islamist groups to power: the local business community. To illuminate the nexus between business and Islamist interests in civil war, Ahmad journeys into war-torn bazaars to meet with both jihadists and the smugglers who financed their rise to power. From the arms markets in the Pakistani border region to the street markets of Mogadishu, their stories reveal a powerful economic logic behind the rise of Islamist power in civil wars. Behind the fiery rhetoric and impassioned, ideological claims is the cold, hard cash of the local war economy. Moving readers back and forth between mosques, marketplaces, and battlefields, Ahmad makes a powerful argument that economic savvy, as much as ideological fervor, explains the rise of militant jihadism across the modern Muslim world.

Author: Ian Douglas Wilson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113504208X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Gangs and militias have been a persistent feature of social and political life in Indonesia. During the authoritarian New Order regime they constituted part of a vast network of sub-contracted coercion and social control on behalf of the state. Indonesia’s subsequent democratisation has seen gangs adapt to and take advantage of the changed political context. New types of populist street based organisations have emerged that combine predatory rent-seeking with claims of representing marginalised social and economic groups. Based on extensive fieldwork in Jakarta this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the changing relationship between gangs, militias and political power and authority in post-New Order Indonesia. It argues that gangs and militias have manufactured various types of legitimacy in consolidating localised territorial monopolies and protection economies. As mediators between the informal politics of the street and the world of formal politics they have become often influential brokers in Indonesia’s decentralised electoral democracy. More than mere criminal extortion, it is argued that the protection racket as a social relation of coercion and domination remains a salient feature of Indonesia’s post-authoritarian political landscape. This ground-breaking study will be of interest to students and scholars of Indonesian and Southeast Asian politics, political violence, gangs and urban politics.

Author: Joakim Berndtsson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317042212
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Conveniently structured into five sections, The Routledge Research Companion to Outsourcing Security offers an overview of the different ways in which states have come to rely on private contractors to support interventions. Part One puts into context the evolution of outsourcing in Western states that are actively involved in expeditionary operations as well as the rise of the commercial security sector in Afghanistan. To explain the various theoretical frameworks that students can use to study security/military outsourcing, Part Two outlines the theories behind security outsourcing. Part Three examines the law and ethics surrounding the outsourcing of security by focusing on how states might monitor contractor behaviour, hold them to account and prosecute them where their behaviour warrants such action. The drivers, politics and consequences of outsourcing foreign policy are covered in Part Four, which is divided into two sections: section one is concerned with armed contractors (providing the provision of private security with the main driver being a capability gap on the part of the military/law enforcement agencies), and section two looks at military contractors (supporting military operations right back to antiquity, less controversial politically and often technologically driven). The final Part takes into consideration emerging perspectives, exploring areas such as gender, feminist methodology, maritime security and the impact of private security on the military profession. This book will be of much interest to students of military and security studies, foreign policy and International Relations.

Author: Dina Siegel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387747338
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Dina Siegel and Hans Nelen The term ‘global organized crime’ has been in use in criminology since the mid 1990s. Even more general and abstract than its daughter-terms (transnational or cross-border organized crime), ‘global organized crime’ seems to embrace the activities of criminal groups and networks all around the planet, leaving no geographical space untouched. The term appears to cover the geographical as well as the historical domain: ‘global’ has taken on the meaning of ‘forever and ever’. Global organized crime is also associatively linked with ‘globalisation’. The social construction of both terms in scientific discourse is in itself an interesting theme. But perhaps even more interesting, especially for academics trying to conduct empirical research in this area, is the analysis of the symbolic and practical meaning of these concepts. How should criminologists study globalisation in general and global organized crime in particular? Which instruments and ‘theoretical luggage’ do they have in order to conduct this kind of research? The aim of this book is not to formulate simple, straightforward answers to these questions, but rather to give an overview of contemporary criminological research combining international, national and local dimensions of specific organized crime pr- lems. The term global organized crime will hardly be used in this respect. In other social sciences, such as anthropology, there is a tendency to get rid of vague and abstract terms which can only serve to confuse our understanding. In our opinion, criminology should follow this initiative.

Author: Susanne A. Wengle
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009165917
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
An accessible and nuanced introduction to contemporary Russian politics using the theme of stability versus fragility as its overarching framework. This innovative textbook explores core themes as well as path-breaking insights into the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the environment.

Author: Elke Grawert
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442254564
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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The Arab Uprisings have brought renewed attention to the role of the military in the MENA region, where they are either the backbone of regime power or a crucial part of patronage networks in political systems. This collection of essays from international experts examines the economic interests of armed actors ranging from military businesses in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Sudan, and Yemen to retired military officers’ economic endeavors and the web of funding of non-state armed groups in Syria and Libya. Due to the combined power of business and arms, the military often manages to incorporate or quell competing groups and thus, to revert achievements of revolutionary movements.

Author: Simon Chesterman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199228485
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Frequently characterized as either mercenaries in modern guise or the market's response to a security vaccuum, private military companies are commercial firms offering military services ranging from combat and military training and advice to logistical support, and which play an increasingly important role in armed conflicts, UN peace operations, and providing security in unstable states. Executive Outcomes turned around an orphaned conflict in Sierra Leone in the mid-1990s; Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI) was instrumental in shifting the balance of power in the Balkans, enabling the Croatian military to defeat Serb forces and clear the way for the Dayton negotiations; in Iraq, estimates of the number of private contractors on the ground are in the tens of thousands. As they assume more responsibilities in conflict and post-conflict settings, their growing significance raises fundamental questions about their nature, their role in different regions and contexts, and their regulation. This volume examines these issues with a focus on governance, in particular the interaction between regulation and market forces. It analyzes the current legal framework and the needs and possibilities for regulation in the years ahead. The book as a whole is organized around four sets of questions, which are reflected in the four parts of the book. First, why and how is regulation of PMCs now a challenging issue? Secondly, how have problems leading to a call for regulation manifested in different regions and contexts? Third, what regulatory norms and institutions currently exist and how effective are they? And, fourth, what role has the market to play in regulation?

Author: Joseph Savirimuthu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351901427
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
During the last decade in particular the levels of critical engagement with the challenges posed for privacy by the new technologies have been on the rise. Many scholars have continued to explore the big themes in a manner which typifies the complex interplay between privacy, identity, security and surveillance. This level of engagement is both welcome and timely, particularly in a climate of growing public mistrust of State surveillance activities and business predisposition to monetize information relating to the online activities of users. This volume is informed by the range of discussions currently conducted at scholarly and policy levels. The essays illustrate the value of viewing privacy concerns not only in terms of the means by which information is communicated but also in terms of the political processes that are inevitably engaged and the institutional, regulatory and cultural contexts within which meanings regarding identity and security are constituted.