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81. Controlling Foreigners, Passengers, Citizens : Surveillance and Counterterrorism

Author:
Valsamis Mitsilegas
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Recent years witnessed calls for the intensification of surveillance and the monitoring of people globally. This article will examine this intensification of surveillance in the European Union, by analysing legislation requiring carriers to transmit to immigration authorities passenger data, an agreement between the Community and the US on the transfer of passenger name records (PNR) to US authorities, and EU plans to introduce biometrics in passports and visas and enhance the interoperability of EU databases (such as SIS and VIS). These developments, justified by a 'war on terror' discourse, widen the net of surveillance and raise a number of questions regarding legitimacy, democracy and the protection of fundamental rights in the EU. They also appear to be at odds with the concept of the EU as a borderless area. The article will address these issues by analysing the negotiations, content and implications of these initiatives. Ces dernières années les demandes d'intensification de la surveillance et des contrôles du mouvement des personnes au niveau mondial se sont développées. Cet article examine cette intensification de la surveillance au sein de l'UE en analysant la législation obligeant les transporteurs à fournir les données personnelles des passagers aux services d'immigration, un accord entre l'UE et les Etats-Unis sur le transfert des « passenger name records » (PNR) aux autorités américaines, et les plans européens d'introduction de données biométriques aux passeports et visas et d'amélioration de l'interopérabilité des bases de données européennes (SIS et VIS notamment). Ces développements, justifiés par un discours de « guerre au terrorisme », élargissent le réseau de la surveillance et soulèvent un certain nombre de questions sur la légitimité, la démocratie, et la protection des droits fondamentaux dans l'UE. Ils apparaissent également en décalage avec le concept de l'UE comme espace sans frontières. Ce texte abordera ces questions en analysant les négociations, le contenu et les implications de telles initiatives.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Europe

82. Foreword

Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
In the current context of the "global war against terrorism", the doctrines of national security are being extended to the whole of the world. They are one of the dimensions of the new dynamics of exception putting security in the forefront as the most central value, thus relegating liberty and justice to past times. Through the presentation of the research initiated by three teams of the European programme ELISE (European Liberty and Security), this new issue of Cultures Conflits tries to shed new light on these security dynamics. It tries to rearticulate the relations between practices of exception and logics of enmity and suspicion. This issue replaces the current focus on the analysis of the 9/11 attacks and the finding of an easily accessible explanation by a focus on the understanding of antiterrorist policies and of their consequences on social cohesion. Thus the contributions of this issue shed new and more critical light on these political “responses” that lead some to present as “new” what is not. They show that by adopting a very broad definition of emergency, these responses transform suspicion into a “certainty” and this “certainty” into a proof of guiltiness.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
Europe

83. Foreword: Franco-Brazilian Dialogue on Violence and Democracy

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
In France as in Brazil, violence and its modes of usage are thesubject of vivid and intense debates. The acts of violence inquestion have, however, little in common. The authors of this newissue of Cultures Conflits propose to examine the terms of thesedebates that feature and combine in complex shapes myths of nationaldemocracies, media representations, and the (in)abilities of thestate to effectively regulate the social sphere. These Franco-Brazilian dialogues on violence and democracy are part of a largercultural exchange linking since long Latin America and Europe - as Glauber Rocha and Roberto Rossellini remind us. An asymetricexchange, if any, marked by the feeling of being perpetually trappedin an unfinished development. This has, however, never prevented themto show significant inventive capacities, .Confllictual dialogue, useful when the (re)discovery of self isdeveloped through the mirror of the other.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Europe and Brazil