National Security Culture

On June 2, 2006, in Toronto and its Western suburb, Mississauga, Ontario, hundreds of police officers and security operatives mobilized in simultaneous raids as part of an inter-agency operation dubbed “Project Osage.” This was the single largest terrorism- related sting in Canadian history. It resulted in the largest apprehension of individuals implicated in a “homegrown” terrorist plot that the Western, English-speaking world had ever seen, including the immediate arrest of 15 individuals (including three minors); a further arrest of two other individuals already in prison; and the subsequent arrest of an 18th individual two months later. Notoriously, these 18 individuals became known as the “Toronto 18” and their criminal proceedings as the Toronto 18 trials.

By building upon and going beyond a legal examination of the Toronto 18, this book provides insights and perspectives for academics interested in the social-scientific study of terrorism and political violence, as well as government and security agencies that are tasked with the detection and prevention of acts of terrorism on Canadian soil. Legal practitioners and scholars in the area of terrorism will also find unique and useful perspectives on the practicalities of this complex field, including critical insights that may help guide the courts away from some of their previous mistakes.

The U.S. electrical grid, the largest and most complex man-made system in the world, is highly vulnerable to three types of external threats: 1) natural disasters, 2) intentional physical attacks, and 3) cyber-attacks. The technical community has recommended hardening the grid to make it more resilient to attack by using distributed generation and microgrids. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are an ideal distributed generation technology to provide power for such microgrids. However, both the deployment velocity and the policy of how to implement such technical solutions have been given far less attention than would be normally considered adequate for a national security risk. To address this threat, this paper reviews the technical and economic viability of utilizing defense contracting for the beginning of a national transition to distributed generation in the U.S. First, the technical scale of electrical demand and the solar PV system necessary is analyzed in detail to meet the first level of strategic importance: the U.S. military. The results found that about 17GW of PV would be needed to fortify the U.S. military domestically. The current domestic geographic deployment of microgrid installations in the critical U.S. defense infrastructure were reviewed and compared to historical grid failures and existing and planned PV installations to mitigate that risk. The results showed a minimal number of military bases have introduced solar PV systems, leaving large parts of the Department of Defense electrical infrastructure vulnerable to attack. To rectify this situation, the technical skills of the top 20 U.S. defense contractors is reviewed and analyzed for a potential contracting transition to grid fortification. Overall the results indicate that a fortified U.S. military grid made up of PV-powered microgrids is technically feasible, within current contractors skill sets and economically viable. Policy recommendations are made to accelerate U.S. military grid fortification.

המסמך אסטרטגיית צה"ל הוא פרסום תקדימי בהיסטוריה הצבאית ובשיח הציבורי של מדינת ישראל. הרמטכ"ל גדי איזנקוט הוא הראשון שמציג את "אסטרטגיית צה"ל" במבחן אתגרי ההווה במסמך שמפורסם לציבור הרחב בישראל.

הקובץ הזה מחזיק תשעה עשר מאמרים שכתבו עשרים ושלושה מבכירי החוקרים במכון וכותבים אורחים. אלה מתמודדים עם המסמך הצה"לי הייחודי בכמה מישורים ומזוויות שונות ודנים במה שמצוי בו כמו גם במה שאינו מצוי בו. לצד הבחינה והניתוח מוצגות גם הצעות להרחבת המהדורה העתידית של "אסטרטגיית צה"ל".

המאמרים בקובץ הזה עוסקים בשלושה נושאים מרכזיים: היחסים המורכבים בין הדרג הצבאי לדרג המדיני בהקשר של אתגרי הביטחון של ישראל במרחב, בניין הכוח הצבאי והפעלתו אל מול האיומים המתפתחים וכן היחסים המיוחדים בין צה"ל לחברה הישראלית.

קובץ המאמרים הזה נפתח בדברי הקדמה של מי שהיה רמטכ"ל צה"ל ושר הביטחון, משה (בוגי) יעלון ומסתיים בפרק הסיכום של עמוס ידלין, ראש המכון למחקרי ביטחון לאומי: אסטרטגיית צה"ל – שבחים, הרהורים וערעורים.

This paper analyses the disputed election of President Park Geun-hye and her administration's confrontation of left-nationalist politicians and other social movements during her first year in office. We argue that the Park administration's policies resonate with contemporary discussions of 'post-democratization,' a process whereby social rights are increasingly subordinated to market logics and state power insulated from popular challenges. Under the conservative governments of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, this process has been animated by a mode of confrontation known in South Korea as ‘politics by public security.’ This politics targets social conflict and political dissent as threats to national security and has involved both illegal interventions by state institutions —such as the 2012 electoral interference by state agencies including the National Intelligence Service—and a cultural politics that affirms but revises the narrative of Korean democratization by obfuscating the nature of the democracy movement and by attempting to restore the honour of conservative forces associated with former dictatorships. In order to better understand this conjuncture, we explore its origin within a tacit alliance between both former public security prosecutors-cum-conservative politicians and a movement of conservative intellectuals known as the New Right.