Re-imagining the Borders of US Security after 9/11: Securitisation, Risk, and the Creation of the Department of Homeland Security

The articulation of international and transnational terrorism as a key issue in US security policy, as a result of the 9/11 attacks, has not only led to a policy rethink, it has also included a bureaucratic shift within the US, showing a re-thinking of the role of borders within US security policy. Drawing substantively on the 'securitisation' approach to security studies, the article analyses the discourse of US security in order to examine the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, noting that its mission provides a new way of conceptualising 'borders' for US national security. The securitisation of terrorism is, therefore, not only represented by marking terrorism as a security issue, it is also solidified in the organisation of security policy-making within the US state. As such, the impact of a 'war on terror' provides an important moment for analysing the re-articulation of what security is in the US, and, in theoretical terms, for reaffirming the importance of a relationship between the production of threat and the institutionalisation of threat response. © 2007 Taylor & Francis

Threads and Boundaries: Rethinking the Intellectual History of International Relations

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Terror from behind the keyboard: conceptualising faceless detractors and guarantors of security in cyberspace

By reflecting on active public-domain government documents and statements, this article seeks to develop securitisation theory’s articulation of the dichotomy between legitimate and illegitimate violence as it is reflected in British government policy. This dichotomy has (re)developed through a process wherein GCHQ and MI5 are portrayed as ‘faceless guarantors’ of security, in Manichean juxtaposition to the discursively-created phantom cyberterrorists, who are presented as ‘faceless detractors’ of security. It has previously been stated that the terrorism discourse associated with the present ‘War on Terror’ is attributed, in part, to mechanics of fantasy. I argue that, within the securitised discourse of cyberterrorism, the limits of fantasy possesses a murky nuance, which in turn, allows for a deeper - or at least more entrenched - securitisation. The official discourse surrounding the intelligence services’ online surveillance apparatus operates with a similar opaque quality, but this is upheld by securitising actors as a strength to be maintained

Interpol and the Emergence of Global Policing

This chapter examines global policing as it takes shape through the work of Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization. Global policing emerges in the legal, political and technological amalgam through which transnational police cooperation is carried out, and includes the police practices inflected and made possible by this phenomenon. Interpol’s role is predominantly in the circulation of information, through which it enters into relationships and provides services that affect aspects of governance, from the local to national, regional and global. The chapter describes this assemblage as a noteworthy experiment in developing what McKeon called a frame for common action. Drawing on Interpol publications, news stories, interviews with staff, and fieldwork at the General Secretariat in Lyon, France, the history, institutional structure, and daily practices are described. Three cases are analyzed, concerning Red Notices, national sovereignty, and terrorism, in order to explore some of the problems arising in Interpol’s political and technical operating arrangements. In conclusion, international and global policing are compared schematically, together with Interpol’s attempts to give institutional and procedural direction to the still-evolving form of global policing

Coping with a Crisis of Meaning: Televised Paranoia

Across all genres, television communicates a host of perceived dangers or risks to human survival as entertainment, responding and reproducing the victim and risk consciousness of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Terrorism has captured the imaginations of not only politicians but also producer/writers, and as a consequence of this, and the visual spectacle that war and terrorism provide, it has featured regularly and consistently in British and American television programming. This article presents the analysis of some British current affairs entertainment programming (film and documentary) broadcast by the BBC during the height of the misnamed ‘war on terror’. Through the analysis of these programmes, I will demonstrate a psycho-cultural approach to textual analysis informed by early object relations psychoanalysis. Being aware of the degree to which political elites have shaped what is known about the ‘war on terror’ allows us to apply knowledge of the political and historical context of these elites to understanding why the dominant ‘war on terror’ perspective is paranoid in character. I will offer an explanation of why a paranoid style predominates in terrorism related programming in my conclusion

Extending the Use of Bioplastic Granules for the Application of Trichoderma Biocontrol Isolates in Flori/Horticulture and Turfgrass

Bioplastic materials are gaining increasing interest in a variety of different industrial and 13 domestic applications. Beside its usage as mulching films and plant clips in horticulture, no other 14 agricultural applications have been proposed. In 2009 we demonstrated that granules made of the 15 bioplastic Mater-Bi are an efficient and practical solution for field applications of biocontrol 16 isolates of the fungus Aspergillus flavus. Here, we investigated the feasibility to extend this 17 approach for delivering propagules of two biocontrol Trichoderma isolates with the final objective 18 to control damping-off of selected bedding, horticultural and turfgrass species. Bioplastic granules 19 entrapping conidia of Trichoderma virens Gv29-8 or T. harzianum ATCC 20847 were applied to a 20 potting mix infested with the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. Both isolates showed a positive 21 effect in reducing damping-off disease of impatiens and tomato seedlings. In the case of potting mix 22 infested with the lowest level of pathogen propagules causing 30% of damping-off, application of 23 1% (w/w) of inoculated granules resulted in 5 and 3% of impatiens and tomato seedlings, 24 respectively, affected by damping-off. With a more severe infestation (50% of damping-off), 25 amending the potting mixture with 10% bioplastic granules produced an average of 91% 26 suppression of damping-off in both species. Granules entrapping conidia of the biocontrol isolate 27 ATCC 20847 were significantly more effective in protecting impatiens and tomato seedlings. The 28 experiment was repeated with potting mix infested with Pythium ultimum and planted with annual 29 bluegrass. Bioplastic granules inoculated with the T. harzianum isolate significantly reduced (~ 30 90%) the impact of damping-off caused by this pathogen. Results from this study indicated that the 31 usage of this bioplastic-based formulation has the potential to be extended for the biocontrol of 32 damping-off in flori/horticulture crops and turfgrass