Abstract
In his seminal work, Risk Society, Beck (1992) argued that the logic of surveillance, security and risk had permeated society. Such assertion has been supported in political, legal and bureaucratic domains. Many public sector organizations deemed to be irrelevant to this logic have begun to participate in surveillance practices under the security and risk management frameworks. Against this backdrop, surveillance and national security have infiltrated into society as important features of organizing and managing government agencies in a way that mitigates insecurity and risks (e.g. McCulloch and Pickering, 2009). This trend is not only noticeable in the USA and the UK, but also in other western nations such as Canada and Australia. National Security, Surveillance and Terror: Canada and Australia in Comparative Perspective demonstrates how surveillance has become a crucial element in strengthening national security, based on an analysis of political forces and social relations. Additionally, the authors provide readers with theoretical and empirical studies that draw comparisons between Canada and Australia.
This book consists of three parts. Part I addresses how national security and surveillance practices and laws have changed over time. Starting by presenting national security organizations, the first four chapters highlight their expanding roles from legal and political points of view. While Forcese illustrates how judicial arrangements have evolved to address extraterritorial surveillance activities of Canada’s two major national security agencies, Walsh explores expanding developments of Australia’s counter-terrorism laws after the Bali bombing. The chapters by Jochelson and Doerksen and by Murphy and Anderson examine the legal architectures of Canada and Australia, respectively. Overall, the four chapters agree on two ideas: (1) national security and surveillance power have been strengthened; and (2) intrusive procedures that infringe individuals’ rights are not thoroughly examined through judicial and bureaucratic oversight.
Part II is comprised of chapters that hinge upon empirical cases related to national security, corporate security, intelligence community and terrorism. Using Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) as a representative case, Brooks, Corkill and Coole argue that relevant actors within the Australian security continuum do not interpret the concept of surveillance in the same manner because of different languages, reflecting cultural disconnection. Moreover, Walby, Lippert and Gacek shed light on how corporate security practices have crept into the Canadian federal departments. This study contributes to an expansion of surveillance practices by acquiring documents from the federal departments via Access to Information (ATI) requests. Palmer and Warren take a different approach from the previous two chapters by investigating Australian security and intelligence arrangements (i.e. intelligence community) from a historical point of view. The final chapter by Van Brunschot demonstrates the process through which the Canadian government frames fatal events in a way that justifies intrusive measures and arrangements. Van Brunschot suggests other possible interpretations besides a terrorist threat. Based on case studies, Part II brings to light an array of intricacies surrounding the developments of national security apparatus.
The final five chapters discuss the issues and dilemmas of national security, surveillance and emergency management. Molnar and Parsons examine the relationship between Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-facilitated surveillance and ‘counter-law’, noting existing legal tensions. The following two chapters concern border security between Canada and the USA, focusing on different types of borders. While Pratt examines the reconfigured jurisdictional practices in maritime cross-border law enforcement, Muller assesses the implications of the role of Canada–US border as biopolitical checkpoints. Jones casts a fundamental question of whether greater authority of national security apparatus can reduce risks, pointing out a lack of political and legal oversight on police forces. The final chapter by Dafnos, Thompson and French explains how the surveillance of indigenous protest has been justified by the logic of national security. Part III highlights the tensions between conflicting values (i.e. national security, citizens’ safety and crime prevention vs. accountability, privacy and sovereignty) behind the intrusive practices.
Overall, the strength of this book includes its comprehensiveness in delivery of the main themes. It provides a detailed and clear explanation of how relevant security organizations are shaped through their interactions with various external influences, such as private, political and legal actors. The authors constructively capture the complicated course of developments in relation to changing political mandates and legal frameworks. In addition, an invaluable contribution of this book is an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating disciplines such as international relations, criminal justice, criminology, sociology, political science, to name a few. As such, this approach would benefit scholars from criminology and criminal justice to find their own place in security studies. Zedner (2007) acknowledges that criminology needs to adapt to the pre-crime logic of security. A second contribution is that the authors develop their arguments by associating themselves with theoretical underpinnings such as power, authority, accountability, privacy, transparency and sovereignty. This approach is expected to encourage further theoretical debates. Furthermore, practical arrangements such as CCTV, UAVs and the Shiprider programme are used to articulate the theoretical perspectives or the underlying values.
Despite their involvement in Five Eyes, 1 Canada and Australia have not been a focal point in security, risk and surveillance discourse. In this respect, this book adds to the literature by filling such gap. I would recommend National Security, Surveillance and Terror to researchers and policymakers as its contents incorporate theoretical underpinnings as well as historical evidence. However, its content might fall short for the practitioners wishing for practical answers to existing issues in these areas.