Securitization in Chinese climate and energy politics

This article provides an overview of securitization in Chinese climate and energy debates. Scholars have debated the merits as well as the potentially problematic implications of securitization, or framing issues as ‘security,’ since the early 1990s. Early concern focused on the potential problems with linking environmental issues with ‘security,’ and the debate has since also turned specifically to the climate and energy. However, it is only recently that this debate has begun to pay attention to China. Energy and climate concerns are of increasing importance to China: the sheer scale of its energy consumption and air pollution struggles dwarf the challenges seen by other states, and its policy choices play a key role in shaping global climate and energy dynamics. Thus, while securitization in the Chinese context is rarely studied, how China frames its energy and climate policy matters. Both energy and climate are taken increasingly seriously, and security plays an increasing role in debates. This review surveys the increasing popularity of linking security with climate and energy issues both in the academic debate on China and in official discourse, and some of the potential implications

An East African perspective for paradigm shift on maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region

© 2015 Indian Ocean Research Group. This paper advances the view that the meaning of maritime security should be considered based on lessons of history and requirements of human well-being. It challenges the tendency to separately view maritime security from the political, economic and social structures of the East African littoral states. Based on a critical reading of the history of the development of violent colonial structures in the region, the paper shows that most security discourses in relation to East Africa advance a paradigm that legitimises the control and management of the region's maritime domain under the surveillance of foreign powers. The framing of poverty and conflicts as internally caused and economically motivated power struggles within fragile states contributes to this paradigm. This paper argues that the East African maritime domain is an integral part of the hinterland, and maritime security should be understood from a perspective that addresses structural violence in the regio

Responses to the ‘Arabellions’: The EU in Comparative Perspective — Introduction

This article introduces the themes of this special issue which is devoted to the reactions by external actors including the EU to the events unfolding in the Arab world beginning in December 2010. In particular, we look at the balancing act by external actors between their desire for stability, on the one hand, and their normative principles toward human rights and democracy, on the other. We compare the action (and inaction) of the European Union (EU) with other international and regional players, including the United States, Russia, Turkey and Israel. The contributions assess the response of these actors to the Arabellions events and analyse changes in their approaches to the Arab region. We ask three questions: (1) How have external actors assessed the 'Arabellions' and what role did they see for themselves in this context? (2) Which goals and instruments did external actors pursue toward the MENA region? In particular, how did they deal with conflicting goals, such as support for human rights and democracy, on the one hand, and concerns about security and stability, on the other? (3) How can we explain the varying responses of external actors to the Arabellions