Global Responses To Global Threats

This book seeks to understand the obligations of the international community to promote and protect state and human security in situations of international humanitarian crises. In Iraq and Syria, as well as in neighbouring states, the rise of ISIL has raised serious state and human security challenges. This study explores the relationships between the Global-Regional Partnership, the United Nations and nine organizations in their attempt to deal with the challenges presented by ISIL. Each organization is analyzed in terms of how it has responded in the past and how it is now responding to the ISIL threat based on three perspectives; resource capacities (military, political, economic, technological, normative); willingness and readiness; and impediments to capacity and abilities. The overall aim is to discern what capacities and abilities international organizations have to protect state and human security and prevent civilians from mass atrocities inflicted by ISIL forces. The study addresses the role of international organizations when the UNSC is unable or unwilling to uphold the most fundamental norms and values in the UN Charter. This approach acknowledges that within the international community there is an overall acceptance on security for a partnership between the UN and regional organizations, but that there is also a contested call for a renegotiated international contract on state and human security. This volume will be of much interest to students of international relations, human rights, peace and conflict studies, terrorism studies and International Relations.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

This book examines how the world has reacted to, and been affected by, the terrorist attacks on September 11th, the ensuing war in Afghanistan and President George Bush's declaration of a 'war on terror' as the 'first war of the 21st Century'.

This book explores the reasons behind the variation in national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it furthers the policy studies scholarship through an examination of the effects of policy styles on national responses to the pandemic. Despite governments being faced with the same threat, significant variation in national responses, frequently of contradictory nature, has been observed. Implications about responses inform a broader class of crises beyond this specific context. The authors argue that trust in government interacts with policy styles resulting in different responses and that the acute turbulence, uncertainty, and urgency of crises complicate the ability of policymakers to make sense of the problem. Finally, the book posits that unless there is high trust between society and the state, a decentralized response will likely be disastrous and concludes that while national responses to crises aim to save lives, they also serve to project political power and protect the status quo. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of public policy, public administration, political science, sociology, public health, and crisis management/disaster management studies.

This brief focuses on translational criminology practices as they relate to counter-terrorism and homeland security. The work provides a detailed and practical examination of how global threats (such as, terrorism and cybercrime) are managed through local response. It covers emerging strategies in data collection procedures, inter-agency cooperation, and new analytical techniques including risk-terrain modeling. In addition, it presents a common methodology, including steps in risk assessment, risk management, and decision-making, that can be used to frame and analyze global and local threats. The authors examine these issues using examples of how law enforcement responded to specific security threats including the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the 2003 terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey, and the 2010 Stuxnet attack on the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran. This work expands on existing literature covering the impact that globalization has on cross national threats, drawing on disciplines related to criminology, such as international relations and political science.

The rise and spread of Covid-19 in the beginning of 2020 presents a once-in-a-century challenge and opportunity for decision makers, managers, scholars, and citizens to understand the risks, mitigate its impact and prepare for future crises. Drawing on a global network of scholars, this book presents a comparative analysis of ten nations’ response to a global pandemic, while operating nominally under the framework of the World Health Organization. The book introduces the concept of ‘collective cognition’ as an analytic lens for examining the nations’ response to Covid-19 during the first six months of the emerging pandemic (January – June 2020) and draws out insights for improving systems of global risk management. This book addresses four primary audiences: policy-makers and leaders in nations struggling to contain viruses while guiding their societies under threat; academic researchers, students, and educators engaged in preparing the next generation of professionals committed to investigating emerging risk: managers of non-profit and private organizations that operate and maintain the networks of social, technical, and economic services that are essential to functioning communities; and the informed general public interested in understanding this extraordinary sequence of events and in managing the novel risk of COVID-19 in a more informed, responsible way.