CIAO DATE: 12/2014
Volume: 30, Issue: 3
September 2013
Secrecy + Security (PDF)
David A. Andelman
For as long as there has been a need for security, there has been a parallel and equally pressing need for secrecy. Imagine the Trojan Horse unmasked before it was hauled into Troy. Or the flight from Egypt by Moses and the Israelites uncovered by the Pharaoh's agents. More recently imagine D-Day and the first Omaha Beach landing point revealed to Hitler's stormtroopers or the veil lifted on Japan's plans for Pearl Harbor. How history might have been transformed at each turn.
The Big Question: What should governments keep secret? (PDF)
Chong Ja Ian, Dieter Dettke, Adil Najam, George O. Liber, Frank Vogl, Maximilian C. Forte, Rick Falkvinge, Nada Alwadi
With secrecy a daily preoccupation of governments who
routinely weigh security concerns over disclosure of covert operations, the balance of these two priorities becomes an ever more pressing national debate. We asked our panel of global experts what, if anything, they believe governments
should or must keep secret.
From Inside the Bubble (PDF)
Sir Richard Dearlove
Anatomy: Security Leviathan (PDF)
G4S is the world's largest private military and security company, and the third-largerst private employer, trailing only Walmart and FoxConn. Over the last two decades, the industry has boomed as governments increasingly outsource core security and military tasks to private firms.
Drones: A 360 Degree View (PDF)
Neil Jacobstein
Drones belong to a broad class of accelerating technologies that are increasing in capabilities as they decrease in cost. Driving this acceleration of technical capability is the exponential growth of information. Computer hardware and software, advanced aircraft materials, and imaging technologies such as high-resolution video cameras are all benefiting from lower costs and higher performance. For some applications, what used to take a $1 million drone can now be accomplished with a drone that costs less than $1,000.
Russia's Surveillance State (PDF)
Andrei Soldatov, Irina Borogan
In March 2013, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security at the U.S. State Department issued a warning for Americans wanting to come to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia next February: Beware of SORM. The System of Operative-Investigative Measures, or SORM, is Russia’s national system of lawful interception of all electronic utterances—an Orwellian network that jeopardizes privacy and the ability to use telecommunications to oppose the government.
Afghanistan: Withdrawal Lessons (PDF)
Jack Devine, Whitney Kassel
Afghanistan: J.E.I.D.D.O. The withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in 2014 is likely to be followed by a civil war between a predominantly non-Pashtun security apparatus and Pakistan-backed Taliban forces. As we confront this reality, we would be wise to look closely at the experience of the Soviet Union following its occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1980s.
In His Own Words: Jordan's Security BackboneThe Thoughts of His Majesty King AbdulahII of Jordan (PDF)
Abdullah Hussein II
Since the creation of the modern Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the monarchs King Hussein and his son, the current ruler King Abdullah II, have presided over a nation that has served as a model of tranquility and security, moving steadily toward an increasingly democratic system of government.
La Cienega: Ecuador's Childless Village (PDF)
Santiago Arcos Veintimilla
Latin Justice: A New Look (PDF)
Thea Johnson
The prosecutor stands to deliver her opening statement in the case. She wears a tight, electric-blue dress that comes to midthigh. Standing on her matching stiletto heels, she turns toward the three-judge panel at the front of the room and lays out her case against the defendant. The defendant, she begins, had cut down an ancient and valuable tree, thereby committing a crime against the property owner and the state.
Don't Shoot the Ambulance: Medicine in the Crossfire (PDF)
Jason Cone, Françoise Duroch
LANKIEN, South Sudan—The wounded started arriving in the evening. A rusted-out pick-up truck dropped off four young men with gunshot wounds, two with life-threatening wounds to the abdomen and the others with leg injuries, at the 100-bed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital here. Just hours earlier, the hospital’s team and local residents had been playing volleyball as the sun began to set on a 106-degree day.
From Disease to Pandemic (PDF)
Amy Lieberman
MANGALSEN, Nepal—Most locals walk here, journeying hours or days to reach a smattering of tea shops and convenience stores or an ammonia-washed health clinic. Outsiders access the western Nepali district of Achham either by helicopter or the single road clinging precariously to the rocky corners of the Himalayan Mountains. People in Achham have no choice but to eat the little that sprouts from their stubborn land.
Bangladesh: A Labor Paradox (PDF)
Edward Bearnot
DHAKA, Bangladesh—Color floods the main roads of this mega-city’s industrial belt. Saffron scarves flutter in the hot, dusty wind, billowing against green and fuchsia salwar kameez—products of the textile mills that line these streets for miles. A sea of people shuffle along sunbaked, garbage-strewn roads wearing plastic flip-flops, the crowd thick with young faces packed 10 across and hundreds deep. Some are smiling, some are sullen, and most are women
The Somali Question (PDF)
Mwaura Samora
NAIROBI—Throngs of traders haggle and jostle for goods along busy streets, constantly interrupted by the hooting of matatus, local public transport vehicles, and the shouting of pushcart drivers, known as mkokotenis. This neighborhood is no place for the squeamish. The matatus and the mkokotenis make their way through deep, water-filled potholes, splashing thick, dark liquid onto crowded sidewalks.
A Cacophony of Dissonance (PDF)
David A. Andelman
TIRANA, Albania—In the last national elections here in June, there were 66 political parties, many with names so similar that the banners stretching across streets in even the humblest of villages, identified not only the name of the party and its standard-bearer, but the party’s number on the ballot. “Vote #44,” the banners for the Democratic Party of incumbent Prime Minister Sali Barisha screamed in blue and white. “Vote #29,” pleaded the red and white banners of the Socialist Party and its challenger, Edi Rama. But they were only the most prominently and widely displayed. A kaleidoscope of other numbers and politicos vied for attention.