The world around us seems increasingly filled with mechanisms to enhance protection and minimise risks yet, paradoxically, the level of fears and anxieties is rising across our societies, with a tendency to fixate on the most sensational, direct, and violent sources of risk. Identifying where the true threats lie is a challenging but crucial enterprise and the Green European Journal contends that progressive forces around Europe need to take the question of security seriously. This edition provides contributions that look beyond today’s politics of fear, towards a politics of hope.
Articles in this edition
Editorial: In a Europe with a changing political landscape, the future of the Union– and incidentally that of the Greens in 2019 – will be largely played out over the question of security.
Read moreWith a shifting global balance of power, former German Foreign Minister and Vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer talks about the EU's role and how it can promote global stability.
Read moreIs our response to the threat of Islamic State merely aiding their rise by unwittingly contributing to their strategy?
Read moreDespite Edward Snowden's revelations of widespread surveillance, increasingly intrusive measures are being adopted in Europe in the name of security - but do these actually lead to a more effective prevention of attacks?
Read moreHow should Greens respond to the very real sense of insecurity felt by many European citizens today? Four Green leaders from around Europe discuss how a Green security policy might look, and how to communicate it.
Read moreWhy is the spectre of social (in)security haunting Europe despite it being richer than ever before?
Read moreAre the giants of the agro-industry who claim they are determined to "Feed the world" in fact fostering food insecurity through exploitation and environmental degradation?
Read moreFrance's long and troubled relationship with Islam, and its connexion to a sense of insecurity, is unpacked by Olivier Roy and Esther Benbassa, who also explore the current role of religion in politics in general.
Read moreIn the face of rising national populism, rather than seeking to combat these forces on their own terms, Green and progressive politicians can instead turn to a far more effective rhetorical tool.
Read moreA review of Frederic Gros's book - The Principal Security - which outlines his increasingly pertinent concept of biosecurity.
Read moreTo foster real security in Europe, global environmental factors must be taken into account and integrated into security-building practices.
Read moreThe Baltic Sea region is a precarious and sensitive area - and increasingly so due to the competing influences and power games playing out between various actors in the region.
Read moreThe democratic right to political protest faces a two-fold threat: a broadened definition of terrorism alongside an increasingly militarised form of policing, justified by a state of perpetual emergency.
Read moreBy playing upon fears linked to social insecurities and loss of national identity, as well as threats to national security, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán seeks to position himself as the sole protector of his nation.
Read moreAre some of the measures to promote energy security doing more harm than good, by creating a distraction from the real steps needed in light of climate change and increasing instability?
Read moreHow can we account for the perception among Slovenia’s general population that migrants pose a threat?
Read moreTreating the current crises effectively shouldn't undermine a long-term effort to cement stability and peace through smart and soft power, through avenues such as international development.
Read moreNew technology developing at breakneck speed has left laws behind and increasingly puts not only our privacy but our immediate safety at risk.
Read moreThe sense of security in a society is closely bound up with its institutions; the cases of the Nordic countries demonstrate that these feelings of security can be enhanced by fostering inclusive institutions.
Read moreThe term 'security' is used as though it were neutral, but in fact it is underpinned by assumptions and prejudice, with some regarded as worthy of protection while 'others' are seen as threatening.
Read moreThe late Bauman was known for his searing commentaries on the modern world, including his view of security discourse and its "latent and manifest functions".
Read more