Due to the widening content of the concept of “security” in recent decades, it is no longer possible to talk about security in general terms in a meaningful way. Instead, more specific approaches are needed. This issue of JASS is a very good example: it contains articles that range from a traditionally formulated context of security, to identity, collective security and ontological security. In particular, the context of security through demilitarisation is highlighted in some articles, while in other a more explicit or implicit comparative perspective is taken. Åland, with its international regimes of demilitarisation and neutralisation, is put in perspective in relation to Svalbard as well as to Nagorno-Karabakh. An equally important dimension is the possibility to link security to human rights, or vice versa – something that is developed in an article on North Korea. Finally – and in between all of this – stands an article analysing the development of the identity and ontological security of the Åland Islands.
The Vol. 2 Issue 2 of JASS includes the following contributions:
Aspects Regarding the Svalbard Demilitarisation in Relation to Norway Joining the Atlantic
Alliance in 1949, and Reflections on the Åland Islands’ Demilitarised and Neutralised status in
the Event of a Finnish NATO accession
Åsa Gustafsson
The French Perspective on the Åland Islands: A Cyclic Interest? Between Geopolitics,
Historiography, and a Case Study
Matthieu Chillaud
The Nexus Between Arms Control and Human Righs in the Case of North Korea
Katja Creutz
The Future of Ålands’ Identity
Pertti Joenniemi
Comparing the Åland Islands Precedent and the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
Kamal Makili-Aliyev
What is the Essence of the Institution of Demilitarisation? Reflections upon Completion
of the Research Project “Demilitarisation in an increasingly militarised world – International
perspectives in a multilevel framework: the case of the Åland Islands”
Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark
The issue can be found at www.jass.ax.