European CIP-related Testing Capabilities: Gaps and Challenges

One of ERNCIP’s goals is to identify gaps in European CIP-related experimental and testing capabilities, and to set up a wider debate on how to deal with these gaps. This report draws an indicative picture about the known state of European CIP-related test capabilities. The analysis is primarily based on an ERNCIP online questionnaire on the issue circulated at the end of 2012, which was completed by 65 respondents representing different types of ERNCIP stakeholders. The ERNCIP Thematic Groups have also provided information about their respective capabilities and perceived gaps in their sectors. This report aims to provoke further debate among the ERNCIP stakeholder communities.JRC.G.6-Security technology assessmen

Towards Testing Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Resilience has in recent years become a new catchword in critical infrastructure debates. But what is exactly meant by resilience in this context; is it an alternative to protection, and if not, what is their relationship? How can critical infrastructure resilience be enhanced, and how can we know how resilient critical infrastructure is in the first place? Can it be measured and tested? This paper, being a concise literature review and a conceptual treatment of the issue, provides some tentative answers to these questions focusing especially on the technological dimension of critical infrastructure.JRC.G.6 - Security technology assessmen

National disaster risk assessments in Europe. How comparable are they and why?

In the late 2000s, a process started that was designed to approximate the national disaster risk assessments in the European Union. Member states are currently obliged to prepare their assessments every three years. The European Commission will summarize the results, which should not only lead to a better overview of common risks but also direct future joint activities and investments. To date, two rounds of this new practice have been implemented and summarised. The present study investigates how and why this largely informal integrative practice was born, how it is facilitated, and how successful it has been vis-à-vis the expectations, especially achieving a relative comparability of the national risk assessments

Resilienssin ulottuvuudet

Resilience is the buzzword of our time. The term has a long tradition, but it only became very popular in the 2010s. Resilience is studied in several disciplines. In addition, the term has numerous practical applications. This has led to the fact that it is not clear what resilience means at any given context. Since the term is often still translated into national languages, mostly without reaching its multiplicity, it further obscures the understanding of resilience. The article creates a concise overview of the concept of resilience, its history and today's applications. It presents the resilience research of the last two decades from many perspectives: society, organization, technology, ecology, macroeconomics and psychology. The article identifies as a kind of watershed in resilience theories the question of whether resilience is recovery after an external shock or adaptation to change. The article focuses on the question of whether and how resilience can be measured. The article also urges Finnish research to seize the opportunity to conduct empirical resilience research using advanced qualitative and quantitative methodsResilienssi on aikamme iskusanoja. Termillä on pitkät perinteet, mutta vasta 2010-luvulla se nousi suureen suosioon. Resilienssiä tutkitaan usean tieteenalan piirissä, ja termillä on lukuisia käytännöllisiä sovellusaloja. Tämä on johtanut siihen, että ei ole yksiselitteistä, mitä resilienssi milloinkin tarkoittaa. Termin kääntäminen kansallisille kielille, useimmiten tavoittamatta sen moninaisuutta, hämärtää entisestään resilienssin ymmärtämistä. Artikkeli luo tiiviin katsauksen resilienssin käsitteeseen, sen historiaan ja nykypäivän sovelluksiin. Siinä esitellään kahden viimeisen vuosikymmenen resilienssitutkimusta yhteiskunnallisesta, organisaatiollisesta, teknologisesta, ekologisesta, makrotaloudellisesta ja psykologisesta näkökulmasta. Artikkeli käsittelee muun muassa resilienssiteorioiden eräänlaista vedenjakajaa, nimittäin kysymystä, onko resilienssi palautumista ulkoisen shokin jälkeen vai sopeutumista muutokseen. Erityisen huomion kohteena on myös kysymys resilienssin mittaamisen mahdollisuuksista ja siihen soveltuvista menetelmistä. Lopuksi käsitellään resilienssikäsitteen hyödyllisyyttä rauhan-, konfliktin- ja maailmanpolitiikan tutkimuksessa ja käytännössä

The arctic and Africa in China’s foreign policy: how different are they and what does this tell us?

The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly reflect the overall grand strategy of a country that is slowly but surely aiming at taking on the role of leading global superpower. In doing so, Chinese foreign policy has demonstrated flexibility and adaptive tactics, through a careful tailoring of its so-called core interests and foreign policy principles, and even identity politics, to regional conditions. This implies that regions seeking autonomy in the context of great power activism and contestation should develop their own strategies not only for benefiting from Chinese investment but also in terms of managing dependency on China and in relation to China and great power competition

A discipline without a name?:Contrasting three fields dealing with hazards and disaster

A growing number of research fields have been striving for recognition as an academic discipline. Rather than argue that ‘our field’ should also be recognised as such, we stop to ask two fundamental questions. Our first question concerns whether and how disciplinary concerns would benefit research fields dealing with hazards and disasters. Second, we reflect on the implications of not having a broadly accepted name referring to ‘our’ body of scholarship. We take as our point of departure a comparative assessment of three commonly used umbrella terms used to refer to the broad range of tasks that concern emergencies, hazards and disasters: DRR; homeland security; and societal security. Each of these terms have their associated scientific journals and higher education programmes, as well as policy spheres of influence. We find that greater awareness of the label issue could facilitate increased conceptual pragmatism and integration among related fields, academic programmes and practice communities. Not only would this enhance knowledge creation initiatives, but it would also facilitate the formation of a shared professional and academic identity

Higher Education and the Changing Situation of Societal Security in the Baltic Sea Region

While concepts like risk and crisis management have grown ubiquitous at all levels of government, they have also cemented their place in academia as interdisciplinary fields of study in higher education. In the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), these types of educational programmes are typically labelled under the umbrella term ‘societal security’ in English. This article provides a succinct depiction of the state of the art of societal security in higher education in this region. After a brief introduction of the concept, the article comprehensively analyses second level degree programmes (master’s equivalent) in this field. Particularly, four conceptual and thematic areas appear to constitute the core of societal security degree programmes, though in different combinations and under a variety of labels, those being risk, crisis management, safety management, and resilience. We note, however, that these concepts and their respective research objectives exhibit extensive overlaps

Cyber threats, harsh environment and the European High North (EHN) in a human security and multi-level regulatory global dimension: Which framework applicable to critical infrastructures under “Exceptionally critical infrastructure conditions” (ECIC)?

Business opportunities in the European High North (EHN) are accompanied by the danger of cyber-threats, especially to critical infrastructures which in these Arctic regions become “extra critical” because of the harsh environmental climatic conditions and remoteness of distances. Critical infrastructures (CI) in the EHN are crucial for numerous sectors, such as the energy sector which is completely depended on digitalization, internet and computers’ commands. Such a new condition of extra criticality should also include human security concerns to avoid human disasters. An effective legal framework under “exceptionally critically infrastructure conditions” (ECIC) for this technology is important not only in terms of national legislation, but also in view of a regional, international and global networks character. This paper links for the first time, law, internet and cybersecurity, environment and society in a global human security dimension in a multi-regulatory contextual analysis. The aim is to trace the legal framework for response to a cyber-attack to critical infrastructure in the energy sector and takes Norway as a case study because this country is highly dependent on cyber technology and on critical infrastructures. The question of research is: using a human security focus in the case of cyber-threats under ECIC in the EHN, what ways can an assessment recommend to improve international, and regional law? Five analytical tasks are undertaken: 1) the concept of critical infrastructure vulnerability to cyber-attacks under “exceptionally critically infrastructure conditions” (ECIC) in the EHN with focus on the energy sector is explained in connection to the notion of human security, 2) a backdrop of regional and international collaboration is followed, 3) a trajectory of multilevel contextual analysis of the different sources of law and policy applicable to cyber-threats to CI is outlined, and 4) an examination of cooperation under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Citizen and civil society perspectives on cyberspace in the European High North

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