Maritime security and transformations in global governance

Private security beyond private military and security companies: exploring diversity within private-public collaborations and its consequences for security governance

“…Regarding the empirical contribution, Aarstad's article [25] challenges several common wisdoms regarding current maritime governance arrangements. This author argues that due to several recent shifts in private and public governance capabilities in this domain (primarily related to the proliferation of armed private security provision), public actors nowadays facilitate security governance by carving out privileged spheres for commercial industries through their convening capacities, regulatory infrastructure and legitimizing role.…”

“…In particular, it analyses, firstly, the societal and political outcomes of tasking non-security related businesses with security responsibilities, and, secondly, the consequences of having traditional state sectors become increasingly dependent upon private capabilities and resources. This section is composed of three articles: the first one, which is authored by Aarstad [25], is entitled 'Maritime Security and Transformations in Global Governance'; the second one, written by Biaumet [26], focuses on 'The sentinel and the rebel. Multi-choice policing in Burundi and the state-centered approach of security sector reform '; and the final article, by Saldivar and Price [27], is on 'The Social and Political Impact of the New (Private) National Security: Securitization of immigration in the United States Post 9/11′.…”

Refugees and the (Digital) Gatekeepers of “Fortress Europe”

“…These tools and everyday communications devices -the most important "non-food item" that people take with them, may seem contingent upon, rather than determining aspects of the physical properties of the shorelines, maritime and airspaces that coastguard or land-based border authorities patrol. But in the context of ongoing policies of digitizing strategic infrastructures, security and government services, they play an under-theorized role in the cat-and-mouse game that characterizes how asylum seekers are received, processed and their personal data archived and considered by would-be host countries, humanitarian organizations, UN agencies, and courts of law (Aarstad 2017;Bosilica 2016;Boulanin 2013;Bowden 2013). In line with legal reconsiderations of how Internet infrastructure recalibrates state security measures and cross-border law enforcement, these computer-dependent powers have been challenging longstanding notions about national sovereignty and rule of law as these, in turn, have been reconsidered for forging international agreement over responsibility and accountability for combating climate change, and custodianship over outer space, the world's oceans and polar regions.…”

Business unusual: collective action against bribery in international business

“…The IMO has historically acted as a global regulator, although in recent years a number of voluntary private regulation initiatives have emerged to tackle specific problems where the IMO had been somewhat slow to act, particularly in the areas of pollution and private security [54][55][56]. Corruption in ports constitutes a non-tariff trade barrier [57], impeding economic and social development, particularly in developing countries.…”