Topic: Europe

A necessary naïveté (in Norwegian)

From Morgenbladet 5 August 2011

Den tidligere lederen til det franske høyreradikale partiet Front National Jean-Marie Le Pen skal ha sagt denne uken at én årsak til terrorangrepet 22. juli var at nordmenn har vært ”naive” om terrortruslene de står overfor. (Aftenposten 31.07). Med dette mener han trolig at nordmenn har vist et uansvarlig mangel på innsikt og erfaring overfor det forferdelige som kunne skje. Hvor ellers kan man kjøre en bilbombe opp til Statsministerens kontor for så å sprenge den i luften? Eller spasere uhindret rett under soveværelset til Kongerikets statsoverhode?

Le Pen og andre stemmer i debatten mener at Norge har levd med falske illusjoner om mulige terrorfarer. Hadde nordmenn vært mindre ”naiv”, sier kritikerne, så ville de ha satset mer på pålitelige, harde, beskyttende sikkerhetstiltak. I Norge er vi vante til å leve med ubevæpnete politi, ingen form for paramilitær tilstedeværelse, fravær av militærlignende sikkerhetstiltakk omkring regjeringsbygninger og Slottet, og relativt minimal overvåkning sammenlignet med andre land i verden. Er det ”naivt” å mene at vi er trygge uten de harde sikkerhetstiltak mot terrorangrep vi ser andre steder i verden? [ More… ]

Leave a comment »

What is societal security?

[Speech held for the European Security Research Programme Workshop Security research and Europe’s societal challenges: What do citizens want?, Oslo, 8 June 2011].

1
Among the many successes of the European Security Research Programme is the growing wisdom and insight into what security actually means in our day. Most prominently this can be seen in the growing awareness of the importance of society in the security equation.

European research in the framework programmes has long been aware of the important link between science and society. Indeed the last few programmes have developed a dedicated rubric for this function alone.

Yet among the new insights that have emerged through the first half of the 7th Framework Programme is the meaning of security in society and the notion that security is in fundamental ways societal.

What does this mean? An answer to this question begins by asking another, even simpler, question: What does it mean to make Europe secure? [ More… ]

Leave a comment »

Europe: The travel advisory

U.S. State Department issued last Sunday a Terrorism alert aimed at American citizens traveling or planning to travel in Europe until roughly the end of the year. The alert which urges ‘extra caution’ but ‘does not discourage Americans from visiting Europe’, does not actually mention Europeans. Nonetheless it implicates them massively.

The advisory is remarkable if only in its semantics: Americans in Europe, and by extension Europeans in Europe, you are under threat: globally, homogeneously, without nuance or distinction. Complete, full, integral threat. Threat without specification or detail, without determination or differentiation, without prescription or framing. Simple, perfect threat.

Europe, the proud homeland of any number of universal Enlightenment principles, universal rights, liberties and privileges, meets itself in the door: universal threat. No matter who you are, where you are, what you are, you are equally under threat. [ More… ]

Leave a comment »

We are all Roma!

French officials have declared themselves ‘astonished’ after European Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights, Viviane Reding, described as ‘appalling’ the French practice of mass expulsion of Roma groups from French territory. Reding’s comments were a reaction to a 5 August French internal directive instructing police authorities to target Roma for expulsion. The leaked directive was quickly superseded by a new one that dropped all reference to Roma.

To the degree that they are citizens of the European Union, individuals of all ethnic and racial backgrounds enjoy the same rights and privileges (and obligations) as all European citizens. These include, in general terms, a right to non-discrimination and, more particularly the right to free mobility with the external borders of the Union. In short, they have the same right to camp in Loir-et-cher as a gaggle of Brits in the Black Forest. [ More… ]

Leave a comment »