COVID-19 has been disrupting people’s lives and forcing governments to take measures rapidly to contain the virus and prevent further deaths. It took governments by surprise and revealed their lack of preparedness, leading them to formulate policy responses which engaged with securitisation.To fight the pandemic, authorities have introduced measures that drastically infringed upon citizens’ personal freedoms, starting with their freedom of movement. They engaged in a process of securitising COVID-19 using these exceptional times as a rationale to enact exceptional measures. A glaring example is the introduction of contact tracing apps: for citizens to be able to move around freely again, governments had to find a way to track the virus by identifying contaminated citizens and their contacts. Seen by some as an open door to governments collecting more health data, this measure is questionable in terms of ethics and privacy. This article argues that the introduction of contact tracing apps is the result of a securitisation process that stems from governments’ desire to show that they are taking action and controlling the situation.

In 2014, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) published a report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA’s) Detainee and Interrogation Program (DIP). The report presents ‘overwhelming’ and ‘incontrovertible’ evidence of torture used against CIA detainees between 2001 and 2009. This, however, should come as no surprise knowing that the CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs). Although EITs merely amount to a euphemism for torture, proponents claim that such methods are simply ‘enhancing interrogation’ and crucial to obtain information from uncooperative detainees in order to prevent imminent terror attacks. The following questions thus remain: What is considered torture? and Does torture work?  

Strategy-making is a process that encompasses a wide range of interdependent variables, from cultural to technological factors. It reflects the way a polity imagines itself and its opponents. It is true that historical contexts are unique; thus, Strategies have varied – in terms of objectives, means, and enemies. Nonetheless, it is worth investigating if immutable tenets shape the Strategy function. Indeed, this inquiry constitutes an insightful analysis to unveil patterns in the way societies, given limited resources, think and use force for political aims. The cases of early theories of air power, the annihilation logics of Germany’s colonial policy in Southwest Africa, and US drone warfare against terrorists provide rich observations to test the existence of recurrent features in Strategy.

Although inequality is one of Brazil’s most pressing matters, as a source for violence and instability, it has never been truly securitised. In contrast, Brazil did consider the issue of drug trafficking at its borders to be an existential threat that required the mobilisation of scarce resources and extraordinary measures. This security issue recently reached the phase of de-securitisation, not as a result of its success, but because of financial and political pressures. It was simply too costly and not feasible to protect the roughly 17,000 kilometres of remote land, water, and air that separate the country from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, South America’s coca sources, and Paraguay, the continent’s main producer of marijuana.

While previous publications by the Security Distillery have provided a general outline and definition of securitization, this article will attempt to contextualize the concept by examining the the fallout of a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) case centered around the legality of sex work in the country. This article examines the subsequent securitizing response implemented by the Canadian government, in an attempt to abide by the SCCs ruling. Though this is not a traditionally securitized topic, it abides by the general principles of securitization theory in that it helps us to understand why and how securitization happens, and the effects of this decision upon those whom it targets.

Emergency Management as a Security Discipline

Emergency Management is a sub-discipline of security relying heavily on planning and co-ordination. Effective emergency management leverages resources during natural disasters and other crises to ensure human security both domestically and internationally. Analysing this field at the United States’ municipal and state-levels allows us to examine the varying command structures and assess how the government ensures its citizenry and critical infrastructure during major incidents.