Cybersecurity and cyber defence in the emerging democracies

How do we interpret current cybersecurity and cyber defence affairs beyond what we know from the advanced democracies and industrialised states? This article argues that in the emerging democracies, the military is on its way to being the dominant force controlling cyber centres or commands emulating those already established in the global North. There are three main takeaways from such developments when using the case study of the western hemisphere. First, states in the region have decided to manage their cyber affairs through inter-governmental and military-to-military diplomacy with more powerful states, such as the United States. Second, governments are eager to set up interactive policy communities at the national level to review cyber risks together with those in the defence sector. Third, militarising cyberspace in fragile political and policy settings can become somewhat risky for democratic governing. Ultimately, marrying the protection of the digital space to highly politicised armed forces might turn into a challenge when trying to set up a secure and egalitarian internet

Joined up effort: the military’s role in tackling COVID-19

The military has played a major role in the UK’s pandemic response, and there are signs the deployment has helped to make the forces more nimble and adaptable, says Carlos Solar (University of Essex)

Trust in the military in post-authoritarian societies

Why does the military remain one of the most trusted institutions despite, in some cases, their history of violence, corporate abuses and bloody interventions to overthrow the state and punish parts of society? This article analyses the interaction between individual factors and support for the armed forces in Argentina, Brazil and Chile to understand current forms of opinion and trust-shifts in post-authoritarian societies. It explores whether in these three democracies, support for the military is explained by the extent to which citizens support other political institutions, democracy, partisan ideologies, and novel military missions, such as the armed forces combating crime. The empirical results suggest that trust in congress and the police are statistically significant factors explaining variance in the outcome in the three case studies. The findings then vary by country. Support for democracy is positively correlated with trust in the military in Brazil but negatively associated with confidence in the military in Chile, where support for military intervention when there are increasing levels of crime is also statistically significant with confidence in the armed forces. In both Brazil and Chile, individuals supporting the armed forces are more likely to support the military participating in countering crime. These findings have important implications for the study of military sociology and politics

Exploring the multilevel nature of police confidence in Brazil

This article proposes multilevel modelling to account for individuals? contexts when predicting police confidence. It uses the case study of Brazil considering 107 cities from 25 states to assess four evidence and literature-based predictors impacting police confidence measures in the country. The article found that being a crime victim, experiencing police corruption and having low interpersonal trust were negatively and significantly associated with confidence in the police. Levels of variance between individuals grouped by cities and states were a considerable explanatory feature of police confidence. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to police governance

State, Violence, and Security in Mexico

Book reviews: Paul Kenny, Ḿonica Serrano with Arturo Sotomayor, eds., Mexico’s Security Failure, Collapse into Criminal Violence (New York: Routledge, 2012). Wil G. Pansters, ed., Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth- Century Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012). George Philip and Susana Berruecos, eds., Mexico’s Struggle for PublicSecurity: Organized Crime and State Responses (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Peter Watt and Roberto Zepeda, Drug War Mexico: Politics, Neoliberalism and Violence in the New Narcoeconomy (London and New York: Zed, 2012)

Government and Governance of Security: The Politics of Organised Crime in Chile

At a time when Latin America is experiencing societal unrest from human rights violations, corruption and weak institutions Government and Governance of Security offers an insightful understanding for the modern steering of crime policies. Using Chile as a case study, the book delivers an untold account of the trade-offs between political, judicial and policing institutions put in practice to confront organised crime since the country’s redemocratisation. In an effort to encompass the academic fields of political science, public policy and criminology, Carlos Solar challenges the current orthodoxies for understanding security and the promotion of the rule of law in developing states. His research aptly illuminates the practicalities of present-day governance and investigates how networks of institutions are formed and sustained across time and, subsequently, how these actors deal with issues of policy consensus and cooperation. To unveil the uniqueness of this on-the-ground action, the analysis is based on an extensive revision of public documents, legislation, media accounts and interviews conducted by the author with the key policy makers and officials dealing with crimes including drug-trafficking, money laundering and human smuggling