(MINERVA FY-21) GLOBAL SECURITY PROGRAM: CONTESTED CROSS-BORDER SPACES, ILLICIT FLOWS, AND ORDER IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Abstract
What drives global security threats and how are they related to contested governance in border areas? This project sheds light on a critical blind spot in US national and global security thinking: contested cross-border spaces. These spaces are transnational borderlands where state actors and violent non-state actors (VNSAs) such as criminals, insurgents, and terrorists cooperate and compete in governing territory, (illegal) economic transactions, and populations. Situated at the states’ margins, we know little about these alternative cross-border governance dynamics that cannot be captured by state-centric analytical approaches. We know even less about how they influence national and global security. Still, preliminary research suggests a strong connection, with potentially devastating effects. Therefore, we seek to explain under what conditions governance dynamics in contested cross-border spaces facilitate the emergences of global security threats. As we argue, global illicit supply chain networks that span contested cross-border spaces embedded in unstable regions are crucial in turning local security risks into a globally relevant phenomenon. We study how this mechanism works, and how it helps proliferate criminal violence, strengthen VNSAs, and shift the global balance of power toward so-called hostile states. We expect that, together, these intersecting dynamics undermine global security.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 20, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502210338
Entities
People
- Annette Idler
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Oxford