Root ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Welcome to Deutsch Security Square, a research centre at the Department of International R Institute of Political Studies [ URL "http://ips.fsv.cuni.cz/ipseng-1.html"] , Faculty of Sciences [ URL "http://fsveng.fsv.cuni.cz"] of the Charles University in Prague [ URL "htt uken-1.html"] . The Centre aims to engage in collective research of security in the best t the scholarship of Karl Deutsch seeking, in his words, "more knowledge for greater compete compassion." Here are our latest news: ****************************************************************************************** * Forget Hobbes ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 07/03/2016 The discipline of International Relations suffers from 'Hobsession' and should forget Hobb for rethinking its foundations, the Square's Ondrej Ditrych argues for International Polit published article, he first criticises the instrumentalisation of intellectual history in relations (IR) that clouds issues of contemporary politics rather than illuminating them. benefiting from the recent advances in Hobbes’ studies in the field of political theory an the importance of both textual plausibility and authorial intentions for preserving the ‘h the possible interpretations, he suggests that ‘IR’ were of no particular concern to Hobbe scattered remarks on the ‘superpolitical’ state of the many governments interacting with e functionally subservient to the purpose of demonstrating the reality of the state of natur pointing to the ‘security continuum’ of various states present in his political theory, he reading of Hobbes as authoring the discipline’s foundational inside/outside difference. Read the article here [ URL "http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ip/journal/va ****************************************************************************************** * Exchange: The Future of European Astropolitics ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 30/11/2015 In a pioneering conversation opening a new series of Deutsch Security Square occasional ex topical security issues of the day, Nikola Schmidt and Bohumil Dobos, both with the Facult Sciences, Charles University, discuss the future of European astropolitics. In the course conversation, Schmidt challenges Dobos’ case for desirability of ‘colonising’ the Moon to denial of space exploration by potentially hostile actors by pointing to several political technical issues that problematise this position. This leads to dialectical development of and situating it in a broader context of EU’s strategy. Read the exchange here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-schmidt_and_dobos_astropolitic ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: Securing Cities after Paris ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 20/11/2015 The terrorist attacks committed in Paris sent shockwaves throughout Europe and the world. Katarina Svitkova proposes what can be done by European cities and their inhabitants to co form of terrorist threat. She argues that a part of the strategy to reduce the risks assoc political violence Europe now faces should be, in particular, adopting resilience thinking urban security, designing specific contingency plans for cities, maintaining psychological immediate response, pursuing resilience by design in urban planning, and supporting long-t specific public awareness. Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-svitkova_after_paris.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: United Nations Peacekeeping ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 18/11/2015 The UN has recently celebrated its seventieth anniversary. Next year will mark six decades engagement in international peacekeeping operations, the future of which was debated by le than fifty states in New York this September. In the Square's new brief, Dagmar Rychnovska Daniel argue that UN peacekeeping operations do have a role in helping to mitigate and sta conflicts but should not be seen as a universal solution to political and military crises. partnerships with regional organizations must be further developed together with the engag communities on the principles of equality and transparency. The peacekeepers, they conclud ready to familiarize themselves with the established and functioning practices of the loca Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-rychnovska_a_daniel_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Event: Managing Global Security through a New Concert? ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 13/10/2015 Is power diffusion in contemporary world to result in ever more global turbulence? Can the turbulence be mitigated by a “concert” of powers as a global security management instituti by the concert created at the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) which rebuilt the European or to pieces in French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars? Harald Müller, head of research at Institute Frankfurt and one of the most influential German expert voices on international to that end in a recent D.SQ conversation. He was joined on stage by Patrick Morgan, Tiern and Conflict and University of California Irvine and a foremost U.S. expert on strategic a international politics and global security management. ****************************************************************************************** * Event: Nuclear Weapons and Security Community ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 30/09/2015 The Square hosted a public lecture by Dr. Jan Ruzicka, Director of the David Davies Memori at Aberystwyth University and Deutsch Security Square advisory board member, titled The Pr Nuclear Weapons: Security Community as an Alternative Solution? In the lecture, Dr. Ruzick nuclear weapons were an important factor in the genesis of Deutsch's thinking about (secur Furthermore, drawing on Deutsch's criticism of the concepts of world state on one hand and the other, he explored whether security community might offer an alternative solution to t nuclear weapons. ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: The Captivating Visual Utopias of Sunni Jihadism ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 10/09/2015 In the Square's new security brief, Petr Spelda provides an overview of reality-suppressio in the visual propaganda of the Islamic State Group that are employed to build "alluring u or compositions of virtual post-apocalyptic sociopolitical orders. He argues that as react counterpropaganda is doomed to be ineffective, we need positive programs, erecting utopias that conceive of liberal democratic arrangements not as routines but tenous systems which, properly, empower anybody regardless of their background. In addition, he outlines ways of software toolsets capable of effectively assisting law enforcement agencies in producing s assessments. Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-spelda_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * The Strategic Significance of Ethical Imperatives ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 10/09/2015 The theoretical discourse in civil–military relations tends to perpetuate the notion that military organizations is often negatively affected by the influence of domestic ideologic this article published by Armed Forces and Society journal, the Square's Tomas Kucera ques and argues that an effective form of military organization can be produced by incorporatin of domestic society into its defense organization. To understand the role of societal ethi in defense policy, he introduces the Kantian model of societal–military relations; a model the normative character of military missions and suggests that its effective fulfillment r institutional culture consistent with such a mission. This is then demonstrated in the cas German rearmament and the post–Cold War transformation of the Bundeswehr. Read the article here [ URL "http://afs.sagepub.com/content/41/4/639.short" ****************************************************************************************** * Internship Call: Research Assistants ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 27/08/2015 The Square is opening a call for positions of research assistants. The internship, offered three months, will consist in providing research support to the Square's fellows, conducti supervised research and assisting with administrative agenda. Applications are welcome unt 2015. You will find more information here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-internship_dsq.pd ****************************************************************************************** * Partnership: The Square Becomes a Member of the EU Nonproliferation Network ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 03/07/2015 The Square is thrilled to be joining the EU Nonproliferation Consortium [ URL "http:// www.nonproliferation.eu"] network, founded by the Council of the EU to bring together fore institutions and research centres from across the EU to encourage political and security-r and the longterm discussion of measures to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass des and their delivery systems. The main aim of the network is to foster discussion of measure proliferation within civil society, particularly among experts, researchers and academics. works through the organisation of expert meetings, international conferences, ad hoc semin development of a dedicated website and through a family of publications. ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: The European Union at the NPT Review Conference ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 03/07/2015 In the Square's new security brief, Michal Smetana makes an assessment of the EU performan NPT Review Conference. Although not a party to the treaty itself, the EU has long striven visibility in the area of nuclear non-proliferation, but its ambition in this area remains As an actor, the brief concludes, the EU will not be able to produce a coherent common pos a more significant role in the NPT review process unless there is a fundamental change in towards nuclear disarmament on one or the other side of the opinion spectrum occupied by t Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-smetana_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Partnership: The Square Affiliates to IRSEC Hub ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 30/06/2015 The Square is proud to be extending its partnership network and joining today the IRSEC Hu "http://www.irsec-hub.org"] or International Relations and Security Affairs Resource Hub, Prague Security Studies Institute [ URL "http://www.pssi.cz"] (PSSI). The main goal of thi is to facilitate an online information platform that seeks to foster a more active and int international relations and security affairs community within Visegrad countries and beyon supporting cooperation and information exchange within and between participating countries level of public education in the region and attract greater attention to regional projects research. The Square becomes the IRSEC Hub's twenty-eighth member. ****************************************************************************************** * Event: Russia's Foreign Policy and Ukraine ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 17/06/2015 The Square hosted a public lecture by Maria Raquel Freire of the University of Coimbra tit Foreign Policy in the Context of the Crisis in Ukraine: Lines of (Dis)Continuity. In the l Freire elaborated on the basic principles of Russian foreign policy, arguing that Russia i pragmatic and realist player than an ideological one on the international stage. She expla principles, such as international law or sovereignty, are interpreted in different ways in situations, and thus indicate a significant discrepancy between discourses and practices o policy which is currently very difficult to predict. That, in her view, makes the future o abroad" highly uncertain. ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: City as a Battleground ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 26/05/2015 Cities always were and continue to be strategic sites for military engagement. In this bri Svitkova explores recent developments in strategy and tactics of urban operations. She con while military-technological edge is imperative to achieve tactical success, securing citi term requires maintaining healthy circulations that keep urban systems going, something th capacities of even today's most advanced militaries, and in the future, police and militar going to be increasingly intertwined. Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-svitkova_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: Israel and Lawfare ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 11/05/2015 Jakub Zahora argues in this new security brief that following the election late in March, to face ever increasing threat of "lawfare" and will continue to alienate even traditional international community, including the United States. The case of Iran's nuclear programme how Israel's international image and its security and military policies are inseparable. W being realised in Israel, the brief concludes, the response against these efforts may turn counterproductive, eventually influencing Israeli leaders to contemplate actual change in Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-zahora_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: Disarmament Politics and Biotechnologies ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 06/05/2015 In another addition to our security briefs [ URL "DSS-33.html "] series, Dagmar Rychnovska at how the debate on novel biotechnologies enters the realm of disarmament politics. She f current development related to the Biological Weapons Convention and points out the proble biological disarmament to a broader scope of societal risks posed by modern life sciences. concludes by arguing for more inclusive and balanced debate on governing biotechnologies t restricted by the language of security and institutions of disarmament and that would allo understanding of the problem and its potential solutions. Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-rychnovska_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * The More the Merrier ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 06/05/2015 At three minutes to midnight on the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists [ URL "http://thebulleti Doomsday Clock, the time has come to consider constructive steps on the multilateralizatio arms control negotiations that lead toward disarmament, the Centre's Michal Smetana and On argue in the Bulletin's newest issue [ URL "http://thebulletin.org/current-issue"] . After context of and existing obstacles to such a multilateral turn, they propose constructive b steps: first, initiating a debate on a reduction-cum-freeze deal that would include unilat moratoria on new nuclear weapons by lesser nuclear-armed states alongside further arsenal the United States and Russia; and second, preparing the institutional ground by moving for over arms control terminology, trust-building, and development of verification measures, n nuclear weapon states but by non-nuclear weapon states and civil society organizations as Read the article here [ URL "http://bos.sagepub.com/content/71/3/30.abstrac ****************************************************************************************** * Security Brief: Cyber Threats ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 27/04/2015 In the first of Deutsch Security Square security briefs [ URL "DSS-33.html "] , short poli current security issues, Nikola Schmidt seeks to straighten the perspective that is used i cyber security environment. He argues against overestimating the threat which leads to ove terms of strenghtening current or developing new institutions to tackle cyber threats, and striving to better understand what the cyber threat in fact is; how does it develop; chang the cyber capabilities are detectable and thus predictable; and why we are wasting time by scenarios that might never fulfill. Read the brief here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-schmidt_brief.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Introducing Karl Deutsch, by Richard Ned Lebow ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 27/04/2015 We are proud to present an exclusive essay introducing Karl Deutsch and his intellectual h Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory at King's College, London a the advisory board [ URL "DSS-5.html "] of Deutsch Security Square. Read the essay here [ URL "DSS-1-version1-lebow_essay.pdf"] . ****************************************************************************************** * Welcome to the Square ****************************************************************************************** DATE: 27/04/2015 We are pleased to announce today the launch of the Deutsch Security Square website. Explor to learn more about our new research centre, its mission, team, and projects and publicati invite you to read more about the Centre's core mission in an introductory essay [ URL "DS ditrych_essay.pdf"] by Ondrej Ditrych, Deutsch Security Square coordinator. You may also follow us on Facebook [ URL "http://www.facebook.com/deutschsquare"] and Twit "http://www.twitter.com/deutsch_square"] .