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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Defence strategy, planning & research > Civil defence
At the turn of the twenty-first century, resilience has become a 'buzz-word' within fields as diverse as network engineering, ecosystems management, child psychology and military training programmes. Uniting these fields is a common problematic-how to provide security within environments characterized by radical contingency? Resilience has emerged as a response to this problematic. At its most general level resilience is understood as the capacity to absorb, withstand and 'bounce-back' quickly and efficiently from a perturbation. It is considered to be both a natural property and a quality which can be improved within a broad array of complex systems including critical infrastructures, ecosystems, societies and economies through proper governance. Utilizing empirical research to inform a biopolitical genealogy, this book represents one of the first systematic studies of resilience in the field of Security Studies. Rather than treating resilience as either a unified concept or technique of governance this book analyses resilience as an emergent security value.Utilizing a biopolitical analytic, this book demonstrates that the value of resilience has appreciated alongside transformations in the order of power/knowledge enacted by apparatus of security. Zebrowski argues that resilience was not lying in wait for the march of science to provide the conditions for its recognition. Nor was it concealed by the distortions of ideology which lifted with the culmination of the Cold War, that in fact there is nothing natural about resilience By drawing attention to the complex historical processes and significant governmental efforts required to make resilience possible this book aims to open up a space through which the value of resilience may be more critically interrogated.It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, security studies and conflict resolution.
This work provides an introduction to the range of potential disaster scenarios, covering the issues and organizational relationships of importance to the student of consequence management. These include the roles, responsibilities, and coordination requirements of first responders, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the military.
The very real threat of the invasion of Britain in 1940 initiated a huge military construction program. Around the vulnerable coasts of the country, as well as inland, were built thousands of pillboxes, anti-tank barriers and other obstacles to defeat or delay the invader. The end of WWII saw much cleared away but sufficient still remains, and this book guides the curious in identifying the remaining defensive structures and features which once formed part of the military landscape. Although, to our eyes, the survivals might seem randomly placed, there was always a considered plan and the book describes how these plans worked. Previously little appreciated, a national project (The Defence of Britain) has now identified many of the sites and there is a growing movement to protect what remains.
Critical acclaim for William B. Breuer "A first-class historian." Top Secret Tales of World War II "A book for rainy days and long solitary nights by the fire. If there were a genre for cozy nonfiction, this would be the template." "Perfect for the curious and adventure readers and those who love exotic tales and especially history buffs who will be surprised at what they didn’t know. Recommended for nearly everyone." Daring Missions of World War II "The author brings to light many previously unknown stories of behind-the-scenes bravery and covert activities that helped the Allies win critical victories." Secret Weapons of World War II "Rip-roaring tales . . . a delightful addition to the niche that Breuer has so successfully carved out."
The 2011 Arab Spring is the story of what happens when autocrats prepare their militaries to thwart coups but unexpectedly face massive popular uprisings instead. When demonstrators took to the streets in 2011, some militaries remained loyal to the autocratic regimes, some defected, whilst others splintered. The widespread consequences of this military agency ranged from facilitating transition to democracy, to reconfiguring authoritarianism, or triggering civil war. This study aims to explain the military politics of 2011. Building on interviews with Arab officers, extensive fieldwork and archival research, as well as hundreds of memoirs published by Arab officers, Hicham Bou Nassif shows how divergent combinations of coup-proofing tactics accounted for different patterns of military behaviour in 2011, both in Egypt and Syria, and across Tunisia, and Libya.
National Service (NS) is one of Singapore's foundational public policies. First implemented by the British in 1954, amended in 1967 to provide a means to defend a fledgling independent nation, and codified into its present form in 1970, NS is a key pillar of Singapore's defence. Its significance, however, goes beyond defence. With over 1 million male Singapore citizens and permanent residents having served NS, and consequently involving many more - family members, friends, employers and colleagues - in different ways, NS is deeply woven into Singapore's political and social fabric. This volume brings together a range of scholarly perspectives on NS which explore its past, present and future in four sections: The history of NS, NS in practice, debates on NS and an international perspective. Comprising chapters by individuals from varied backgrounds, National Service in Singapore offers a broad account of one of Singapore's oldest public policies.
National Service (NS) is one of Singapore's foundational public policies. First implemented by the British in 1954, amended in 1967 to provide a means to defend a fledgling independent nation, and codified into its present form in 1970, NS is a key pillar of Singapore's defence. Its significance, however, goes beyond defence. With over 1 million male Singapore citizens and permanent residents having served NS, and consequently involving many more - family members, friends, employers and colleagues - in different ways, NS is deeply woven into Singapore's political and social fabric. This volume brings together a range of scholarly perspectives on NS which explore its past, present and future in four sections: The history of NS, NS in practice, debates on NS and an international perspective. Comprising chapters by individuals from varied backgrounds, National Service in Singapore offers a broad account of one of Singapore's oldest public policies.
Published in 1999, this book focuses on organized crime as a worldwide phenomenon that has taken great advantage of enabling technology in banking, communications and transportation to build what is probably the first true 'virtual' corporation in the world. It looks at organized crime as a threat to national and international security ironically stemming, in part, from the collapse of the Soviet empire that provided an already thriving, ruthless and well-organized system of graft, corruption and crime with a new lease of life and also unleashed it on to the world scene. Organized crime is also seen as a system of transnational alliances with the potential to destabilize democratic values and institutions; distort regional, if not worldwide, economies; and subvert the international order by allying itself with terrorist organizations, rogue states and developing countries in search of rapid industrialization and market dominance.
The 2011 Arab Spring is the story of what happens when autocrats prepare their militaries to thwart coups but unexpectedly face massive popular uprisings instead. When demonstrators took to the streets in 2011, some militaries remained loyal to the autocratic regimes, some defected, whilst others splintered. The widespread consequences of this military agency ranged from facilitating transition to democracy, to reconfiguring authoritarianism, or triggering civil war. This study aims to explain the military politics of 2011. Building on interviews with Arab officers, extensive fieldwork and archival research, as well as hundreds of memoirs published by Arab officers, Hicham Bou Nassif shows how divergent combinations of coup-proofing tactics accounted for different patterns of military behaviour in 2011, both in Egypt and Syria, and across Tunisia, and Libya.
Contesting Security investigates to what extent the 'logic of security', which underpins securitization, can be contained, rolled back or dismantled. Featuring legitimacy as a cement of security practices, this volume presents a detailed account of the "logic" which sustains security in order to develop a novel approach to the relation between security and the policies in which it is engraved. Understanding security as a normative practice, the contributors suggest a nuanced, and richer take on the conditions under which it is possible, advisable or fair to accept or roll back its policies. The book comprises four sections, each investigating one specific modality of contesting security practices: resistance, desecuritization, emancipation, and resilience. These strategies are examined, compared and assessed in different political and cultural habitats. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, securitisation theory, social theory, and IR in general.
Sea and freshwater ports are a key component of critical infrastructure and essential for maintaining global and domestic economies. In order to effectively secure a dynamic port facility operation, one must understand the business of maritime commerce. Following in the tradition of its bestselling predecessor, Port Security Management, Second Edition continues to supply readers with this understanding. This fully updated edition covers the latest in continuously changing legislation regarding federal mandates, securing vessels, cargo security, and granting employee credentials. Focusing on best practices, it details real-world solutions that law enforcement authorities and security management professionals can put to use immediately. Assuming little prior knowledge of the industry, the book examines port security in the context of global transportation systems. It supplies practitioners and educators with a framework for managing port security and details risk assessment and physical security best practices for securing ships and ports. The book explains how the various stakeholders, including port management, security, government, and private industry, can collaborate to develop safe and secure best practices while maintaining efficient operations. Addressing the legislative measures, regulatory issues, and logistical aspects of port security, the book includes coverage of cruise ships, cargo security, CT-PAT, and emergency operations. Complete with a new chapter on intelligence, this book is ideal for anyone with a vested interest in secure and prosperous port facilities who wants to truly understand how to best tackle the management of port security.
"Kenneth Rose's One Nation Underground explores U.S. nuclear
history from the bottom up--literally. . . . Rose deserves credit
for not trivializing this period of our history, as so many
retrospectives of the Cold War era have tended to do." "Important . . . One Nation Underground is an elegant account of
the issues involved in the nuclear age." "This is a fine compilation of a massive amount of research,
well founded in the existing literature, and presented in a
readable narrative." "A readable short history of the fallout shelters and the
broader political debate over civil defense. . . . Mr. Rose is a
good storyteller, and One Nation Underground is engagingly writen,
with an array of evocative photgraphs." "Rose writes well, with a good eye for the telling phrase and revealing example."--"Journal of Social History" For the half-century duration of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was a curiously American preoccupation. Triggered in 1961 by a hawkish speech by John F. Kennedy, the fallout shelter controversy--"to dig or not to dig," as "Business Week" put it at the time--forced many Americans to grapple with deeply disturbing dilemmas that went to the very heart of their self-image about what it meant to be an American, an upstanding citizen, and a moral human being. Given the much-touted nuclear threat throughout the 1960s and the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans expressed a preference for nuclear war over living under communism, what's perhaps most striking is how few American actually built backyard shelters. Tracing theways in which the fallout shelter became an icon of popular culture, Kenneth D. Rose also investigates the troubling issues the shelters raised: Would a post-war world even be worth living in? Would shelter construction send the Soviets a message of national resolve, or rather encourage political and military leaders to think in terms of a "winnable" war? Investigating the role of schools, television, government bureaucracies, civil defense, and literature, and rich in fascinating detail--including a detailed tour of the vast fallout shelter in Greenbriar, Virginia, built to harbor the entire United States Congress in the event of nuclear armageddon--One Nation, Underground goes to the very heart of America's Cold War experience.
Our understanding of civil war is shot through with the spectre of quagmire, a situation that traps belligerents, compounding and entrenching war's dangers. Despite the subject's importance, its causes are obscure. A pervasive 'folk' notion that quagmire is intrinsic to certain countries or wars has foreclosed inquiry, and scholarship has failed to identify quagmire as an object of study in its own right. Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war. In a rigorous but accessible analysis, he explains how quagmire can emerge from domestic-international interactions and strategic choices. To support the argument, Schulhofer-Wohl draws upon field research on Lebanon's sixteen-year civil war, structured comparisons with civil wars in Chad and Yemen, and rigorous statistical analyses of all civil wars worldwide fought between 1944 and 2006. The results make clear that the 'folk' notion misdiagnoses quagmire and demand that we revisit policies that rest upon it. Schulhofer-Wohl demonstrates that quagmire is made, not found.
Nuclear forensics is the science of determining the history of a sample of radioactive material through the study of the material's characteristics. While nuclear forensic analysis has normally been associated with investigations and prosecutions in the context of trafficking of nuclear materials or nuclear terrorism, it has wider applications in various national security contexts, such as nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control. The New Nuclear Forensics provides a survey and an analysis of the scientific discipline of nuclear forensic analysis, and the way it is applied to specific issues of international peace and security, from the 1940s to the present day. This book describes the various methods used in nuclear forensics, giving first a general introduction to the process followed by details of relevant measurement techniques and procedures. In each case, the advantages and limitations are outlined. It uses a language and methodology that opens the issue of nuclear forensics and its potential applications to a non-specialist readership.
Dad built a bomb shelter in the backyard, Mom stocked the survival kit in the basement, and the kids practiced ducking under their desks at school. This was family life in the new era of the A-bomb. This was civil defense. In this provocative work of social and political history, Laura McEnaney takes us into the secretive world of defense planners and the homes of ordinary citizens to explore how postwar civil defense turned the front lawn into the front line. The reliance on atomic weaponry as a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy cast a mushroom cloud over everyday life. American citizens now had to imagine a new kind of war, one in which they were both combatants and targets. It was the Federal Civil Defense Administration's job to encourage citizens to adapt to their nuclear present and future. As McEnaney demonstrates, the creation of a civil defense program produced new dilemmas about the degree to which civilian society should be militarized to defend itself against internal and external threats. Conflicts arose about the relative responsibilities of state and citizen to fund and implement a home-front security program. The defense establishment's resolution was to popularize and privatize military preparedness. The doctrine of "self-help" defense demanded that citizens become autonomous rather than rely on the federal government for protection. Families would reconstitute themselves as paramilitary units that could quash subversion from within and absorb attack from without. Because it solicited an unprecedented degree of popular involvement, the FCDA offers a unique opportunity to explore how average citizens, community leaders, and elected officials both participated in and resisted the creation of the national security state. Drawing on a wide variety of archival sources, McEnaney uncovers the broad range of responses to this militarization of daily life and reveals how government planners and ordinary people negotiated their way at the dawn of the atomic age. Her work sheds new light on the important postwar debate about what total military preparedness would actually mean for American society.
Counterterrorism: Mission Critical Skills helps current and future counterterrorism specialists develop skills that are vital for their professional success. The book provides readers with a well-researched argument as to why a particular set of soft skills are indispensable to counterterrorism specialists. It underscores the need for best practices and proficiencies among the extensive network of agencies and entities that fight terrorism. The opening chapter explores the various counterterrorism entities in the United States, highlighting their interconnectedness and illuminating the need for entities to work collaboratively toward a shared goal. Each of the remaining chapters profile a mission-critical soft skill and offer learning demands for guidance, first-person quotes from professional counterterrorism experts, and operational vignettes to demonstrate the importance of each skill. The skills presented include teamwork, imagination, strategic consciousness, cultural mindfulness, discernment, empathy, mutuality, and operational adaptability. Counterterrorism equips readers with the soft skills that, when paired with the hard skills counterterrorism specialists are required to learn, will help them develop into highly capable, well-rounded, and efficient counterterrorism professionals.
In his 1933 inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Yet even before Pearl Harbor, Americans feared foreign invasions, air attacks, biological weapons, and, conversely, the prospect of a dictatorship being established in the United States. To protect Americans from foreign and domestic threats, Roosevelt warned Americans that "the world has grown so small" and eventually established the precursor to the Department of Homeland Security - an Office of Civilian Defense (OCD). At its head, Roosevelt appointed New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt became assistant director. Yet within a year, amid competing visions and clashing ideologies of wartime liberalism, a frustrated FDR pressured both to resign. In Defenseless Under the Night, Matthew Dallek reveals the dramatic history behind America's first federal office of homeland security, tracing the debate about the origins of national vulnerability to the rise of fascist threats during the Roosevelt years. While La Guardia focused on preparing the country against foreign attack and militarizing the civilian population, Eleanor Roosevelt insisted that the OCD should primarily focus on establishing a wartime New Deal, what she and her allies called "social defense." Unable to reconcile their visions, both were forced to leave the OCD in 1942. Their replacement, James Landis, would go on to recruit over ten million volunteers to participate in civilian defense, ultimately creating the largest volunteer program in World War II America. Through the history of the OCD, Dallek examines constitutional questions about civil liberties, the role and power of government propaganda, the depth of militarization of civilian life, the quest for a wartime New Deal, and competing liberal visions for American national defense - questions that are still relevant today. The result is a gripping account of the origins of national security, which will interest anyone with a passion for modern American political history and the history of homeland defense.
As the bombs fell on Guernica, the Blitz terrorized Britons, and atrocities were reported from Nanking-even before Pearl Harbor-Americans watched and worried about attacks on their homeland. In 1941, US mayors urged President Franklin D. Roosevelt to form a federal agency to focus on mobilization and citizen protection. In May of that year, FDR established an Office of Civilian Defense to protect Americans from foreign and domestic threats. As its head, he appointed New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, elected leader of America's most vulnerable city. As the assistant director, he appointed First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt In this book, Matthew Dallek, historian, journalist, and speechwriter, narrates the history of the Office of Civilian Defense. He uses the development of the precursor of "homeland security" as a way of examining constitutional questions about civil liberties; the role of government in propagandizing to its own citizens; competing visions among liberals and conservatives for establishing a plan to defend America; and federal, state, and local responsibilities for citizen protection. Much of the dramatic tension lies in the preparation of communities against attack and their fears of Japanese invasion along the Pacific Coast and Nazi invasion. So too there was a clash of visions between LaGuardia and Eleanor Roosevelt. The mayor argued that the OCD's focus had to be on preparing the country against German and Japanese attack, including conducting blackout drills, preparing evacuation plans, coordinating emergency medical teams, and protecting industrial plants and transportation centers. The First Lady believed the OCD should also promote social justice for African Americans and women and raise civilian morale through the building of nursery schools, old-age homes, housing projects, and physical fitness centers. Their clashes frustrated FDR, who pressured them both to resign in 1942, and led to the appointment of James Landis, commissioner of the SEC, who created a semi-military operation that involved grassroots citizen mobilization, including dimming house-lights to prevent German subs from spotting American ships on the Atlantic, planting Victory Gardens, and building the Civil Air Patrol. Over twelve million volunteers joined civil defense under his leadership, making it the largest volunteer program in World War II America. This dramatic story of the wartime homefront will interest readers attracted to New Deal and wartime domestic history, those who read about both Roosevelts and Fiorello LaGuardia, and those interested in the history of civil defense and Homeland Security.
The spotlight is suddenly on India Paramilitary and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). There are huge, varied, nuanced national security challenges at India doorsteps. Some of these challenges have confronted India for as long as its independence, if not earlier. Some have evolved over decades to now peak into criticalities viz, the Naxalite menace and the China Pakistan two front threat, where for the first time, both of India neighbours have joined hands in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. India PMF and CAPF, therefore, are now the pivot and lodestar of India counter to its gargantuan national security challenges.
The State Partnership Program (SPP) is a Department of Defense security cooperation program run by the National Guard. It also serves as a mechanism for training National Guard personnel. Since the program began in 1992, it has expanded to the point where nearly every state National Guard participates, including Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. The SPP relates to several areas of potential interest to Congress, including improving the capabilities of partner nations to protect their citizens; strengthening relationships with partners to facilitate cooperation, access, and interoperability; improving cultural awareness and skills among U.S. military personnel; and fostering the integration of reserve and active component forces into a "total force." This book provides an overview of the origin and development of the program; summarizes its unique aspects; and outlines its statutory basis, funding mechanisms, organization, and activities; with a focus on recent legislative and executive branch actions.
Even before September 11 2001, congressional policymakers have expressed concern about the safety and security of facilities possessing certain amounts of hazardous chemicals. The sudden release of hazardous chemicals from facilities storing large quantities might potentially harm many people living or working near the facility. Chemical facilities engaged in security activities on a voluntary basis. Following September 11, 2001 some states enacted laws requiring additional consideration of security at chemical facilities. Congress debated whether the federal government should regulate such facilities for security purposes to reduce the risk they pose. This book provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities with a focus on policy issues and options for congressional consideration.
Explores the pre-historical defensive architecture in Crete by discerning four types of architectural feature: enclosure walls, tower-like structures; 'guard houses' and guardrooms.
Violent conflict can spell catastrophe for developing countries and their neighbors, stunting and even reversing the course of economic growth. Recent World Bank research on the causes of conflict and civil war finds that the countries most likely to be blighted by conflict are those whose economies depend heavily on natural resources. Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Options and Actions first explains the links between resource dependence conflict and then considers what can be done to help reduce the risk of civil war in these nations. In this collection of previously unpublished essays by experts in the field, contributors consider the risks of corruption, secessionist movements, and rebel financing. They also consider the roles played by government, the development community, and the country's population and propose an agenda for global action. Focusing on what we can do collectively to diminish the likelihood of civil war, contributors to this volume suggest practical approaches and policies that could be adopted by the international community-from financial and resource reporting procedures to commodity tracking systems and enforcement techniques, including sanctions, certification requirements, and aid conditionality. A fascinating look at the results of important new World Bank research, this book represents an important addition to the dialogue on development.
"Kenneth Rose's One Nation Underground explores U.S. nuclear
history from the bottom up--literally. . . . Rose deserves credit
for not trivializing this period of our history, as so many
retrospectives of the Cold War era have tended to do." "Important . . . One Nation Underground is an elegant account of
the issues involved in the nuclear age." "This is a fine compilation of a massive amount of research,
well founded in the existing literature, and presented in a
readable narrative." "A readable short history of the fallout shelters and the
broader political debate over civil defense. . . . Mr. Rose is a
good storyteller, and One Nation Underground is engagingly writen,
with an array of evocative photgraphs." "Rose writes well, with a good eye for the telling phrase and revealing example."--"Journal of Social History" For the half-century duration of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was a curiously American preoccupation. Triggered in 1961 by a hawkish speech by John F. Kennedy, the fallout shelter controversy--"to dig or not to dig," as "Business Week" put it at the time--forced many Americans to grapple with deeply disturbing dilemmas that went to the very heart of their self-image about what it meant to be an American, an upstanding citizen, and a moral human being. Given the much-touted nuclear threat throughout the 1960s and the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans expressed a preference for nuclear war over living under communism, what's perhaps most striking is how few American actually built backyard shelters. Tracing theways in which the fallout shelter became an icon of popular culture, Kenneth D. Rose also investigates the troubling issues the shelters raised: Would a post-war world even be worth living in? Would shelter construction send the Soviets a message of national resolve, or rather encourage political and military leaders to think in terms of a "winnable" war? Investigating the role of schools, television, government bureaucracies, civil defense, and literature, and rich in fascinating detail--including a detailed tour of the vast fallout shelter in Greenbriar, Virginia, built to harbor the entire United States Congress in the event of nuclear armageddon--One Nation, Underground goes to the very heart of America's Cold War experience. |
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