Contemporary Security Issues

The co-chairs of the organised section on Security Issues, invite proposals for panels and individual papers taking a broad view of security issues, in which "security" is conceived of as ranging from traditional state-centric security issues, to new transnational security threats, to broader issues of human security. In organizing such a section, the co-chairs aim to take account of the fact that interest in security studies has broadened and intensified since the events of 9/11, the commencement of a US led "global war on terrorism", and the recalibration of national interests in light of these developments, while at the same time, the European security environment and European security institutions are being transformed, with the development of a European Common Foreign and Security Policy, the expansion of NATO, and shifts in the transatlantic alliance. The section seeks to examine security as a multi-facetted issue that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and to give scholars interested in a broad range of security issues an opportunity to enter into an intellectually challenging and productive dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches. As such, the co-chairs favour a multi-disciplinary focus for the analysis of the full range of security issues, and for the formulation of a comprehensive approach to the study of both the challenges to, and the sources of, (in-)security and (in-)stability. Possible themes include, but are not limited to, the following security challenges, their sources, and dynamics, as well as the responses to them by states, international and regional organizations, groups, individuals, and actors in civil society: Terrorism and Non-State Political Violence Internal Conflict and Civil War Ethnic/Self-Determination Conflicts State Failure and State Collapse Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Reconstruction Arms Proliferation and Weapons of Mass Destruction Evolution of Security Institutions 'Rogue States' Environmental and other Resource-related Conflicts and Risks Organized Crime Migration, Border Issues and Border Control Human Security Paper proposals should include a brief abstract of no more than 250 words as well as full contact details and institutional affiliation of proposers. Panel proposals should include all this information for each proposed paper as well as full contact details and institutional affiliation of chair and discussant. Panel proposals should be limited to three papers.