Borders, Human-to-Military Security Database
The ongoing migration crisis in Europe and North America is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. It is forcing Europeans and Canadians to face past and future issues; and the decisions they are taking will have long-standing impact on values (and integration) in the Union and in Canada. Our fundamental assumptions are that in the face of current events the European Union policy answers are leading the way worldwide, and need to be documented, researched and studied comparatively, and also brought to classrooms, and that such work requires a sustained dialogue between the academic world and policy-makers across the networks of our partners in EU cross-border regions. Our networks’ hypotheses are that responses to this crisis are shaping Europe’s internal and peripheral border policies, that from the perspectives of a human-to-military security policies continuum they impact and reshape European integration efforts, and value frameworks, and they have to be studied in comparative perspective and context to illustrate emerging policy complexities.
Our network partners (Universities in Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, North Ireland, Poland, and two non-governmental organisations, the Association of European Border Region (AEBR) and Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT)) are bringing together tremendous expertise to research, study and compare, and train students. Our core activities focus on building multiple data-sets, and indexes, on the internal and external borders/dyads to contrast and compare human to military security policies in the EU and Canada.
Description:
This Jean Monnet Network studies borders along the continuum of human-to-military security issues in the pan European Union context and compares these with Canada. All borders in the EU and its periphery are included, broken down into individual state-state segments, or dyads.
Network Activities:
Our concrete objectives are:
(1) To develop a database of EU internal and peripheral border dyads, along a continuum of policies concerning human security and state security, so that systematic comparison of all EU border region is possible with Canada (and by extension the rest of the world).
(2) To engage graduate students and younger researchers and professors among all nine policy and research partners of the network.
(3) To create a new open-access course that will address how EU security policy has adapted with regard to borders and human mobility both within the union and across its frontiers.
Team at UVic:
Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (Lead)
Helga Kristin Hallgrimsdottir
European Team:
Gulya Ocskay, Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI), Hungary
Martin Guillermo Ramirez, Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), Berlin, Brussels, Madrid
Birte Wassenberg, University of Strasbourg, France
Katy Hayward, Queen’s University Belfast, N. Ireland
Jean Peyrony, Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT) France
Hynek Böhm, University of Opole, Poland
Bernard Reitel, University of Artois, France
Gregory Hamez, University of Lorraine, France
Joachim Beck, University of Kehl, Germany
Introduction To Our Jean Monnet Network Workshop/Schools
ONLINE (because of Covid-19)
Our workshops’ prime activity is launching the Network. This requires training in consistency of methods and data-collection for the members of the network and our students. The Workshop series will (1) host our partners and invite them to propose specific indicators or variables for the database based on their own work and specializations,and (2) allow us to connect with a wide range of local, regional and national partners, including non-academic organizations, with an interest in developing this research and training.
WORKSHOP #1 - JEAN MONNET NETWORK WORKSHOPS
Our Network hypothesizes that EU responses to crisis are shaping policies with implications for human and state security, and that these responses are often exemplary as international models though not implemented with consistency across the EU.
To assess this situation, our Jean Monnet Network Team Human-to-Military Security Data Base is discussing ideas/proposals for the development of database indicators at our first workshop.
Our core research focus is to challenge the well-established conception that borders are primarily territorial boundaries that emerge out of international treaties and thus that security issues should naturally be dealt with at the boundary line. Our contention is that contemporary borders in our era of globalization are processes that are in many instances ‘a-territorial’ (de-territorialized) because the border is ultimately carried out on individuals, goods and/or information on the move. Bordering processes have moved away from the boundary line and are individualized to persons and goods, occurring at sites in countries of origin, across transit countries, and within their country of destination.
Our methodology relies on the construction of datasets concerning the interplay between border policy and human/state security, with emphasis on instances of cooperation and collaboration straddling border internal and external to the European Union. We include maritime borders as well as borders within the EU and along its periphery. Specifically, research topics may include:
- EU border security policies before and after 2014
- Securitization and border controls in Europe in a comparative perspective
- Military security and human mobility in comparative perspectives
- Human security and human mobility in comparative perspectives
- Cooperation and collaboration across borders and borderlands
- Dyadic measures of cooperation and collaboration across borderlands
- What border policies for the 21st century – human or military? Security for who or for what?
To learn about what this JMNetwork is doing, watch these introductory videos:
Introductory
Video #1 is a general presentation of the works of the Network:
Video #2 is a short presentation of the methodology, the database, the dyadic research:
Video #3 is a short presentation of the MySQL data base format and construction:
Video #4 is “Preparing Dataset” a short presentation of the fundamental research work necessary to develop the database i.e. from a classic library information collection to its standardization into the database:
Advanced
Video #5 is “What is a Relational Database?” exploring the basics of relational databases and explaining frequently-used terminology with examples from the BiG Dyads database:
Video #6 “How to Input Data?” exploring the rules and standards for preparing clean data in order to input them into a relational database:
Video #7 is “How to Query a Database” explores the relational database language (SQL) and its usage to query a database, with examples: