Country Reports on Terrorism 2019

This 2019 report details terrorist activities occuring around the world and provides an overview of areas where international and regional terrorist organizations may have a presence or foothold and access to financial or other types of support

A Systems Approach to Biometrics in the Military Domain

Forensic biometrics is the application of forensic science principles to physical and behavioral characteristics. Forensic biometrics is a secondary sub-system in the forensic science "system of systems," which describes forensic science as a sub-system in the larger criminal justice, law enforcement, intelligence, and military system. The purpose of this paper is to discuss biometrics in the military domain and integration into the wider forensic science system of systems. The holistic system thinking methodology was applied to the U.S. biometric system to map it to the system of systems framework. The U.S. biometric system is used as a case study to help guide other countries to develop military biometric systems that are integrated and interoperable at the whole-of-government level. The aim is to provide the system of systems framework for agencies to consider for proactive design of biometric systems

The politics of security lists

The List, one of the most archaic means of written enumeration and classification, has made a forceful recurrence in the post-9/11 global security landscape. From terrorist sanctions lists and No-Fly lists to “kill-lists” for drone warfare; from the privately compiled lists of risky banking clients to the regulatory lists of untrustworthy or incompliant companies, the list seems to proliferate as a contemporary technology of security and regulation. How and why are lists becoming newly embedded in security practices? What work do lists perform as specific techniques of government and forms of normative ordering? And what consequences follow for how problems of legal accountability and political responsibility are currently understood and addressed? This paper frames security lists as inscription devices that are heterogeneous, unpredictable and productive in unforeseen ways. It draws attention to the ways they materialise the categories they purport to describe, and how they enact novel forms of knowledge, jurisdiction and targeting. We suggest that critiques could be strengthened by making visible and contesting the fragmented and diffuse conditions through which security lists are produced