anno I, n. 1/2011
Editoriale
National security guidelines in the Obama Administration
Especially in times of crisis, when the threat of terrorist attacks is higher and economic, financial and social problems are greater, it is inevitable that there will be strong tensions between the 'reasons of security' and the protection of fundamental rights. In fact, this tension appears both on the political-factual side, as confirmed by numerous events, and in legal terms, with the approval of rules conflicting with the principles of a Constitutional State and the values and principles of the European Union.
For this reason, the choice made in the past by some EU Member States, such as Italy and the United Kingdom, to follow the guidelines and decisions of George W. Bush's presidency, appears in clear breach of those principles. Bush's guidelines, following the 9-11 attacks, were, to say the least, a little careless in guaranteeing fundamental rights. They had in fact transformed the necessary measures against terrorism into a real 'global war on terrorism'.
These past guidelines of the American administration, and the measures therefore adopted , have led to greater conflicts in the international arena as well as to the weakening of the absolute and binding rules prohibiting torture, to the restraint of personal freedom and to any form of denial of human dignity.
On several occasions national and European courts have had to intervene in the protection of fundamental rights: for example, the Supreme Court of the United States had to intervene concerning the prisoners in Guantanamo, Cuba; the European Court in Strasbourg had to intervene with respect to the incompatibility of some aspects of British anti-terrorism legislation to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The theories and policies in favour of the "global war on terrorism' and 'preventive war' favoured a sort of perpetual war against a deterritorialized enemy and therefore more dangerous, because potentially capable of striking anywhere, thus creating, within 'our borders', a widespread sense of insecurity and fear. Fear is the beginning of tyranny, the negation of democracy and human rights.
It is extremely important to notice how, in the new guidelines for national security, contained in the National Security Strategy, the Obama administration has abandoned the "global war on terrorism" and "preventive war" and has stressed that American influence is not a task assigned mainly to arms, but it depends, above all, on the foundations of a genuine democratic force. This means that to reconstruct American influence, it is considered necessary to start from domestic reforms such as: quality of health care, a better schooling and university system, strong investment in scientific research, etc. In short, it seems that we can say that, in the new guidelines of the Obama presidency, the social character of national security prevails over the military one, and this highlights the close relationship between external and internal security.
From this point of view national security is much closer to citizens' security, and to the concept of security as a fundamental human right, which, of course, has an important tradition in the United States.
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di Claudio Cappellieri*, Angela Catapano*, Italo Cerini*, Fabrizio Mancini* e Giovanni Mandato*
*Primo dirigente della Polizia di Stato
Recensioni
D. Amirante (a cura di), "Altre" democrazie. Problemi e prospettive del consolidamento democratico nel sub-continente indiano, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2010, pp. 213.
di Massimo Rubechi
A. Pajno (a cura di), La sicurezza urbana, Roma, Maggioli Editore 2010, pp. 254.
di Giulia Aravantinou Leonidi
F. Antonelli, Il duro lavoro. Edilizia e culture della sicurezza nel neo-fordismo, Napoli, EdiSES, 2010, pp. 122.
di Valeria Rosato
C. Bassu, Terrorismo e costituzionalismo. Percorsi comparati, Torino, Giappichelli, 2010, pp. XVI-272.
Percorsi comparati
di Valentina Fiorillo
