Connectivity

Book Project: [Working Title] Complexity & Security

Editors: Effie Charalampaki (IDIS, Athens Greece) & Robert Lummack (Royal Military College of Saint-Jean, University of Ottawa)

If you are interested, please submit an abstract of approximately 400 words, along with a short biography by February 15, 2022. Please send abstracts to Effie Charalampaki, effie15235@yahoo.com AND Robert Lummack, rlumm104@uottawa.ca

Call for book chapter proposals:

Security in the 21st century is volatile and multifaceted evident in new forms of interconnectedness of people, process, technology (PPT). Evolving and emergent security challenges exhibit new complexities which challenge the ability of academics, policy-makers and practitioners to fully understand security phenomena. Resultantly, new forms of theorization are needed to understand security challenges in deeper ways.

This proposed edited volume addresses current security challenges and attempts to explore future trends. It desires to go beyond stating that 21st century security is complex and argues that complexity theory and related concepts are increasingly relevant but remain so far under-theorized. We desire to fill a gap in the literature and be forward-looking, investigating new occurrences and exploring new uses and imaginations for complexity theory in the context of security. 

The book aims at uniting theorists and practitioners from diverse geographical locales, academic backgrounds and institutional cultures who use complexity theory in heterogeneous ways. In so doing, we seek to contribute to the development of the complexity science paradigm by demonstrating the range of depth of complexity’s core ontological concepts and methodological applications in the production of knowledge. This book will be useful to students and academics seeking new modes of understanding, and policymakers and practitioners actively intervening within them. 

The book will bring together theoretical and empirical contributions addressing 21st century security challenges along two main themes: understanding and governance, which admittedly may overlap. We welcome all methodological approaches.

Understanding

For understanding, what forms of complexity theory or sub-concepts, applied or reimagined, assist in understanding security phenomena – traditional and novel?

Understanding – theoretical:

How does complexity theory allow us to better understand novel security phenomena and what does this imply? For example, how can complexity-derived insights assist in understanding threat recognition, inform societal and organizational conceptions of risk and logics of security governance and intervention? How does complexity allow us to understand the significance of new forms of warfare, technologies and evolution within actor strategy? 

Understanding – empirical:

What specific security phenomena illustrate the need for complexity theory, or demonstrate its utility? Here, specific case studies are sought about conflict situations, deployments of weapons systems (drones, hypersonics, cyber weapons, AI) and conflict resolution strategies. 

Governance

The governance theme follows from the first and examines how security actors (state and non-state) formulate ‘action’ in response to emergent security challenges. How does complexity inform strategy development, cooperation capabilities, risk management, strategic foresight, forms of decision-making and operational effectiveness within (security) organizations? 

Governance – theoretical: 

How can vulnerabilities be minimized and opportunities recognized from vast amounts of data, while balancing the need to pragmatically produce action products which are simple enough to be feasible?  How can complexity’s insights inform strategies of hard and soft intervention: conflict resolution, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, post-conflict reconstruction, humanitarian intervention, war-fighting, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism?

Governance – empirical: 

What specific examples of intervention or products are informed or need to be informed by complexity? Here, specific case studies are sought with respect to actor invention at different levels (foreign policy, international institutions (IOs), sub-state security organizations, regional mechanisms and non-state actors). The analysis can also revolve around the interventions within different sectors (political, military, economic, social, intelligence, information) and their combined forms.

If you are interested, please submit an abstract of approximately 400 words, along with a short biography by February 15, 2022. Contributions which blend the focuses of the book or which do not immediate fit, will also be considered. We welcome forward thinking and innovative contributions. Accepted abstracts will be submitted to Springer Nature. Chapters are desired to be approximately 8000 words (inclusive of references). Final deadlines will be established in accordance with the publisher thereafter.

Please send abstracts to Effie Charalampaki, effie15235@yahoo.com AND Robert Lummack, rlumm104@uottawa.ca