“Who is the enemy other?” asked Jeffrey Murer in an openSecurity agenda-setting article. Identifying the ‘enemy’ lies at the heart of security policies and practices, abut who is the enemy and how do we know them?

Over the past year openSecurity has explored these issues in the collection below. Now, Jeffrey Murer reflects on this series and entreats us to find the other in ourselves.


Bitterlemons, the next stage

An innovative Israeli-Palestinian collaboration offering regular analysis of middle-east affairs is ending regular publication after eleven years. Its co-editors, Yossi Alpher and Ghassan Khatib, explain why.

Breivik court verdict: security lessons?

Now that the legal question of Anders Breivik’s sanity has been resolved it should be possible to focus more closely on his political motivation and the security lessons that arise from this case. This should help inform a debate about how best to tackle the growing problem of far right violence in Europe and the US

Stop sanctions against Iranian students in the Netherlands

Iranian students in ‘sensitive’ studies should not be seen as posing a threat. They are usually not secretive nuclear scientists, but scientists, artists, architects, economists. These students, amongst the brightest minds from Iran, find themselves caught up in a broader xenophobic context.

The audit of a political campaign versus Marine Le Pen: Jean-Luc Melenchon in Henin-Beaumont

After a strong showing in the 2012 French Presidential election, Jean-Luc Melenchon took on Marine Le Pen in Henin-Beaumont, a former mining community near the northern town of Lille, in the French legislative elections held in the same year. These were his thoughts as expressed in his popular blog on coming third in the first round.

Challenging the populist right - European precedents

The European left should be the most committed and consistent advocate of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in order to prevent discrimination. But further than that, it should espouse a cosmopolitan politics to manage diversity in a progressive manner. And that politics is inconceivable unless the individual citizen is understood to represent its basic unit.

The long war gets longer: the campaign of violent dissident republicans

Northern Ireland is held up as an exemplary case study of building sustainable peace. Recent violent activity from dissident republicans poses real threats, but isn't likely to establish a 32 county republic. So why continue?

The plight of Afghan refugees in Iran

Decades of war have led to generations of Afghan refugees in Iran. Their treatment under the current regime is worsening, but why now?

Remembering July 1983: 'The holocaust started for me with the death of my father'

Amongst memories of the cataclysmic violence that spread across Sri Lanka and which still marks this time of year as Black July, instances of incredible individual bravery and compassion stand out. But can the government match the honour of its people?

Security threats and the Ukrainian far right

The rise to political power of the Ukrainian far right party, Svoboda, was recently halted by a new electoral law. But there are further security issues connected to the far right's increasing support that have not been stopped in their tracks.

Abandoned to the far right

Specific patterns of ‘hate’ are emerging and the far right is mobilising and making inroads in smaller towns and cities: often rural places, once-industrial, where the experience of marked inequalities and relatively recent demographic change go hand in hand.

Failing to take far right violence seriously

The threat of far right terrorism and political violence ought to be taken at least as seriously as the radical Islamic one. Obstacles include the false belief that far right violence is local and not globally connected.

Norway - one year after: an open wound

Populist right-wing politicians expressing extreme views on immigration, Islam and Muslims, have in general been confronted in the mediated public spheres to a much greater extent than before 22/7, as have extreme-right wingers. But how much else has moved on?

Drone warfare and the heady cocktail of might and right

Although inefficient and unethical, drone warfare is a key element of US military power. Its negative impact also affects the psychology of American citizens and leaders.

Extending European borders? Paradoxes in Balkan politics between EU accession and statebuilding

The western Balkans are caught between internal dynamics acting to couple borders with national myth-making, and post-modern Europeanizing forces hoping to nurture cosmopolitan polities.

Britain's radical right: electoral failure but success on the streets ?

The BNP's latest electoral defeats are no indication that the attraction of its ideology has faded away. New social movements in Britain are seeking to impart change through extra-parliamentary means.

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