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Rethinking security... or not 27.5.16

01 May 2016

The Ammerdown Group, which "brings together peacebuilding practitioners and academics concerned about the effects of geopolitics on the security of people worldwide," argue in a new discussion paper that a "more secure future for all depends on finding new answers to fundamental questions: what does ‘security’ mean, whom should it benefit, how is it achieved, and whose responsibility is it?" Meanwhile, the 2016 edition of the EU's annual Security Research conference is coming up soon, displaying very little - if any - sign of the type of discussions that the Ammerdown Group argue are necessary.

"Across the world, people face growing insecurity as a consequence of a global crisis with ecological, economic, and political dimensions. The principal response of the world’s most powerful states – dominance of their environment by means of extended military and surveillance powers – has been making matters worse. This discussion paper asks why and how the current approach has been failing, and what kind of alternative could be more productive in the long term. It argues that a more secure future for all depends on finding new answers to fundamental questions: what does ‘security’ mean, whom should it benefit, how is it achieved, and whose responsibility is it?"

The Ammerdown Group: Rethinking Security: a discussion paper: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, May 2016 (link) and full report (pdf).

The EU's Security Research Conference 2016 in The Hague seems unlikely to be asking such questions, with panel discussions on:

• EMPACT priorities on capacity building in security research with a focus on illicit Firearms trafficking and Cybercrime
• Integrated Border Management (led by the European Commission (link): "The European Commission has adopted important measures to help improve border management and the EU’s internal security, as well as to safeguard the principle of free movement of people. This brings opportunities for new technologies on for example the use of unmanned systems and sensors for border protection to ensure strong and shared management of external borders.")
• ENLETS-topic on financial investigation (ENLETS is the European Network for Law Enforcement Technology Services)
• Forensics
• Space and Security
• Research on radicalisation: a concrete contribution to policy making

See: European Commission, 'SECURITY RESEARCH CONFERENCE at SRIE 2016', 1 June 2016 (pdf)