Self Organized Multi Agent Swarms (SOMAS) for Network Security Control

Computer network security is a very serious concern in many commercial, industrial, and military environments. This paper proposes a new computer network security approach defined by self-organized agent swarms (SOMAS) which provides a novel computer network security management framework based upon desired overall system behaviors. The SOMAS structure evolves based upon the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) formal model and the more complex Interactive-POMDP and Decentralized-POMDP models, which are augmented with a new F(*-POMDP) model. Example swarm specific and network based behaviors are formalized and simulated. This paper illustrates through various statistical testing techniques, the significance of this proposed SOMAS architecture, and the effectiveness of self-organization and entangled hierarchies

Easing the smart home: Translating human hierarchies to intelligent environments

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02478-8_137Proceedings of 10th International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, IWANN 2009, Salamanca, Spain.Ubiquitous computing research have extended traditional environments in the so–called Intelligent Environments. All of them use their capabilities for pursuing their inhabitants’s satisfaction, but the ways of getting it are most of the times unclear and frequently unshared among different users. This last problem becomes patent in shared environments in which users with different preferences live together. This article presents a solution translating human hierarchies to the Ubicomp domain, in a continuing effort for leveraging the control capabilities of the inhabitants in their on–growing capable environments. This mechanism, as a natural ubicomp extension of the coordination mechanism used daily by humans, has been implemented over a real environment: a iving room equipped with ambient intelligence capabilities, and installed in two more: an intelligent classroom and an intelligent secure room.This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through the HADA project(TIN2007-64718) and by the chair UAM–Indra of Ambient Intelligenc

The Political Economy of Transnational Drug Trafficking: Criminal Rackets and State-Making in Modern Mexico

Far from embodying distinct social actors, the line separating the ‘police’ from the ‘criminal’ is historically fluid and at times very thin. Generated by the capitalisation of economic relations, waves of bandits and criminals have often been instrumental to advance the interests of their enabling economic and political elites by forming the security apparatuses (reliant on preying, delinquency and extortion) supporting the elites' hegemony. Mexicans, at multiple stages in the country's national history, have become well-acquainted with the blend of legality and illegality characterising the country’s security sector. Building from historical sociology, comparative studies and critical approaches to policing, this thesis argues that criminal activities (in particular contraband and drug trafficking) were important political economies supporting the development of the state security apparatus under the PRI regime in Mexico (1940s to 1990s). The thesis documents the paradoxical but regular input of criminal markets into the political economies of pacification, policing and state repression, taking place at crucial junctures in the history of the single-party state, and assisting the production of its particular socioeconomic order. This ‘instrumentalisation’ of transnational criminal markets connects with and replicates little-studied Cold War security dynamics whereby the reach of the U.S. security apparatus (global policing, paramilitarism, counterinsurgency, dirty wars, etc.) was expanded by tapping into criminal activity in host nations. Building from the Mexican experience, the thesis argues that state rackets in (transnational) crime generated political economies that, embedded into local processes, played a notable part in the making of capitalist modernity, liberal state making and empire. The thesis documents in particular the ancillary role of drug and contraband markets in the operation of the PRI’s central security bodies, the Dirección Federal de Seguridad and the Policía Judicial Federal. Drawing from multi-archival research and unprecedented testimonies by former law enforcement agents, the thesis provides a new framework to grasp the important role of criminal-police entanglements in the making of Mexican modernity.Conacyt, Cambridge Trust, CLAS, St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge Political Economy Society

Forum: Complex Systems and International Governance

That we live in an age of complexity and transition is hardly news. Ours is the age of interconnections, ambiguity, and uncertainty; of the diffusion of authority; of various kinds of revolutions: military, technological, social, political, economic, and even philosophical. What springs from these developments is the feeling of a lack of control. Decision-makers either think they have no other option but to act as they do or are paralyzed by the uncertainties and conflicting pressures they face. The usual solution is to try to reassert control, which leads to new problems. Paradoxically, as our tools to make sense and control societies and our environment increase, our ability to do so diminishes

From Copenhagen to Kampala - Understanding Securitization Through the Postcolonial Context

With their concept of securitization, the Copenhagen School has introduced an ontological, epistemological, and methodological turn in the academic field of security studies that produced a wide body of literature by broadening, widening, and deepening the discourse. Especially more sociological scholars have stressed the importance of social contexts and illustrated how the inclusion of those allows for a better understanding of securitizing processes. Yet, despite the enormous increase and prominence of postcolonial works, securitization scholars have failed to properly incorporate and adapt to this postcolonial turn. This article sets out to bridge this missing link between securitization, social contexts, and the concept of the postcolonial. Combining a wide range of secondary literature, this article proposes an analytical framework of the postcolonial context that functions as an intersectional site which encompasses the interconnectedness of discursive, material, and power structures (socio-linguistic and socio-political dimensions of context) and that includes a temporal (pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independent) as well as spatial (local, national, regional, global) dimension. The securitization of homosexuality in Uganda functions as a helpful case to illustrate both the benefit and necessity of applying the underlying conceptualization of the postcolonial context to securitization theory. Not only does it help to better understand matters of homosexuality in the Ugandan context, but it also offers an innovative contribution to the general discourse on securitization and facilitates to extend its application to non-European settings

'Enlightened' West African dictatorship challenged by state capture? Insights from Benin, Togo and Senegal

Populist nationalism is on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa. Depending on the political orientation, it is both reinforced and confronted by social media and social movements. Nationalism also cements the longstanding rule of autocratic regimes in West Africa, particularly in Togo, Benin and Senegal. Supported by the commodification of the party system, autocrats set up a shadow state. They use populism to prop up their illegitimate rule and to destabilize the opposition. The internet and social media play a crucial role in the spread of fake news through the mostly state-controlled media. The Catholic Church also tried, with little success, to counteract the wave of nationalism. In Benin, for example, in 2019 the bishops of Cotonou called for a ‘fast on the lies that inundate and poison interpersonal and social relationships’. In Lomé, the bishops' conference condemned the systematic persecution of the opposition and the arrest of its leader, presidential candidate and former prime minister Agbeyome Kodjo. Senegal, like Benin, has long been marketed as a 'showcase of democracy' in Africa, including peaceful political transition. But things changed radically with the 2019 Senegalese presidential election, which brought new configurations. One of the main problems was political transhumance, which was elevated to the rank of religion with disregard for political morality. It threatened political stability and peace. In response, social networks of mostly young activists established in 2011 after the Arab Spring focused on campaigning for grassroots voters for good governance and democracy. They proposed a break with a political system they saw as neo-colonialist. Activists such as 'Y'en a marre' (literally 'I'm fed up') and other dissident social movements benefited from the country's particular social conditions, which favoured collective action. Should President Macky Sall opt for a third term in 2024, it would again pose a serious challenge to Senegalese democracy.Populistischer Nationalismus ist in Subsahara-Afrika auf dem Vormarsch. Er wird je nach politischer Ausrichtung durch soziale Medien und soziale Bewegungen sowohl verstärkt als auch konfrontiert. Der Nationalismus zementiert auch die langjährige Herrschaft autokratischer Regime in Westafrika, insbesondere in Togo, Benin und Senegal. Unterstützt durch die Kommodifizierung des Parteiensystems errichten Autokraten einen Schattenstaat. Sie nutzen den Populismus, um ihre illegitime Herrschaft zu stützen und die Opposition zu destabilisieren. Das Internet und soziale Medien spielen eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Verbreitung von Fake News durch die meist staatlich kontrollierten Medien. Auch die katholische Kirche versuchte mit wenig Erfolg, der Welle des Nationalismus entgegenzuwirken. In Benin beispielsweise riefen die Bischöfe von Cotonou 2019 zu einem "Fasten der Lügen auf, die zwischenmenschliche und soziale Beziehungen überschwemmen und vergiften". In Lomé verurteilte die Bischofskonferenz die systematische Verfolgung der Opposition und die Verhaftung ihres Anführers, Präsidentschaftskandidaten und ehemaligen Ministerpräsidenten Agbeyome Kodjo. Senegal wurde, ebenso wie Benin, lange Zeit als 'Schaufenster der Demokratie' in Afrika verkauft, einschließlich eines friedlichen politischen Wandels. Doch die Dinge änderten sich radikal mit der senegalesischen Präsidentschaftswahl von 2019, die neue Konfigurationen mit sich brachte. Eines der Hauptprobleme war die politische Transhumanz, die unter Missachtung der politischen Moral in den Rang einer Religion erhoben wurde. Sie bedrohte die politische Stabilität und den Frieden. Als Reaktion darauf konzentrierten sich soziale Netzwerke von meist jungen Aktivisten, die 2011 nach dem Arabischen Frühling gegründet wurden, darauf, Wähler an der Basis für gute Regierungsführung und Demokratie zu werben. Sie schlugen einen Bruch mit einem politischen System vor, das sie als neokolonialistisch ansahen. Aktivisten wie 'Y'en a marre' (wörtlich "Ich habe es satt") und andere soziale Dissidentenbewegungen profitierten von den besonderen sozialen Bedingungen im Land, die kollektives Handeln begünstigten. Sollte sich Präsident Macky Sall für eine dritte Amtszeit im Jahr 2024 entscheiden, würde dies die senegalesische Demokratie erneut vor eine ernsthafte Herausforderung stellen

Theory and Test on the Corporate Governance of Financial Cooperative Systems: Merger vs. Networks

This paper presents a study of the economic organization of systems of financial cooperatives (FC). The first part presents a theoretical framework rooted in principles of transaction cost economics (TCE) that seeks to explain empirical regularities observable in systems of FC worldwide. The second part is an empirical study that compares X-efficiency between members of the Quebec Desjardins movement (DM) and the United States Credit Union system (USCU), the first organized as a tight network of institutions and the second composed largely by independent institutions with few ties. The fundamental proposition is that networks, are a superior form of governance mechanism (over markets and mergers) for relatively wide and relevant ranges of contractual hazard and size of the institutions. Further, that networks provide substitute, hierarchy based, control mechanisms when size of the institution dilutes internal governance mechanisms, discouraging subgoal pursuits and expense preferences by agents, both occurring in large FC. The theory allows us to generate a set of testable hypothesis of which we highlight three: i) For small FC, differences in efficiency will be relatively small, if any. ii) Large institutions should display systematically lower efficiency than similar sized FC members of strategic networks. iii) Networks should display lower variance in the size as well as in performance indicators. Throughout, empirical results are consistent with our central theoretical proposition.Transaction cost economics, financial cooperatives, credit unions, networks, corporate governance, technical efficiency, X-efficiency