| 1. |
- Borg, Stefan
(författare)
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In search of the common good : The postliberal project Left and Right
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Journal of Social Theory. - 1368-4310 .- 1461-7137. ; 27:1, s. 3-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes to an understanding of the backlash against liberalism by reconstructing the emergence and development of an increasingly influential strand of Anglo-American thought that challenges liberalism, known as postliberalism. The central diagnostic claim of postliberalism is that the two dominant forms of post-WW2 liberalism, market liberalism and social liberalism, instead of being somehow opposed, have coalesced around an all-encompassing sociopolitical project that above all else seeks to maximize individual autonomy. As a result, postliberals hold, the liberal order has become increasingly unable to cultivate the communal resources on which human sociability depends and erodes the values liberalism purportedly defends. The article argues that a central, albeit not necessarily insurmountable, challenge for postliberalism lies in moving from a critique of liberalism to proposed remedies for its perceived deficiencies, without slipping into a political project with clear illiberal rather than merely non-liberal implications.
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| 2. |
- Borg, Stefan, 1978-
(författare)
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Cult of irrelevance or broad church? Responsiveness, diversity, and intellectual pluralism in the academic study of security
- 2023
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Ingår i: European Political Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1680-4333 .- 1682-0983. ; 22:4, s. 511-532
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While traditional and non-traditional issues of security are at the very top of the policy agenda, security studies has been subject to much criticism. These concerns have often been framed in terms of challenges to the field’s relevance. This paper seeks to further the debate on relevance in security studies. Specifically, the paper examines the field in three major dimensions of relevance: responsiveness, diversity, and intellectual pluralism. Unlike previous disciplinary investigations, which have solely focused on United States (US) security studies, this paper examines trends pertaining to relevance in security studies in the USA as well as in Europe. The paper finds some evidence of responsiveness, a slight trend toward a more equitable share of female authors, and conflicting evidence when it comes to intellectual pluralism. The paper suggests that the field appears more as a ‘broad church’ than ‘irrelevant cult’ when its output in the USA, as well as in Europe, is taken into account.
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| 3. |
- Markussen, Håvard Rustad
(författare)
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Smartphone security : The smartphone as a security device and the public/private production of security
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the smartphone as a security device through a comprehensive summary and four independent papers. The thesis starts from the observation that a central and yet underexplored characteristic of contemporary security politics is that the smartphone, as one especially important piece of consumer technology, is increasingly being transformed into a security device. Given the smartphone’s close connection to the human body and self, and the device’s dominant influence across societal domains, it is crucial to account for how the device operates in security settings and with what consequences. Combining an ‘analytics of security devices’ with the theoretical concepts of materialisation, co-production and inscription taken from Science and Technology Studies (STS), the thesis’ papers address the problem of how to understand the implications of the smartphone’s operation as a security device by providing background on the commercialisation of intelligence and surveillance (paper I), and by offering three different conceptualisations of the smartphone as a security device (papers II, III and IV). The papers also explore and illustrate these conceptualisations through empirical analyses of the smartphone’s role in the Black Lives Matter protests (paper II), the United Kingdom’s Covid-19 track and trace programme (paper III), and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky’s communication through selfie-videos (paper IV). These case studies examine three important security practices that are enabled by the smartphone – surveillance, resistance and communication – and therefore also highlight how the smartphone mediates relations between a multitude of security actors: states, tech companies, citizens, politicians and audiences. Through these studies, moreover, the thesis shows that the smartphone produces security by (re)locating the practice of security and the negotiation of competing security interests to the human body, and thus makes security dependent on consumerist behaviour. This is politically significant because it entails a redistribution of agency and authority in the security domain, both between humans and machines and between public and private sector actors, which challenges the limits of what a democratic politics can do and what it can mean.
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| 4. |
- Svahn, Ola, et al.
(författare)
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Assessment of full-scale 4th treatment step for micro pollutant removal in Sweden : Sand and GAC filter combo
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 906
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study focuses on the 4th treatment step in Degeberga WWTP treatment plant, the first full scale GAC filter in Sweden installed in April 2020 for removal of micropollutants. The two GAC filters, containing two different carbon types, has operated flawlessly for three years (30,000 bed volumes) without requiring backwashing. The results indicate that the sand filter provides effective protection to the carbon filters, preventing solids from reaching the carbon and reducing the growth of organic matter. Additionally substantial biodegradation was observed for several substances. During the first year of operation, the two filters (at 8500 and 5700 bed volumes respectively) achieved >98 % removal of 24 substances. By the end of the second year (at 19,000 and 12,600 bed volumes respectively), fluconazole and sulfamethoxazole broke through completely, and the number of compounds below 80 % removal increased. The average removal of micro pollutants decreased over time. Compounds with positive charges generally exhibited higher adsorption capacities, while negatively charged compounds had lower removals. On average the investigated 24 compounds was removed by 89 % in the 4th treatment step over three years. The study suggests that biodegradation may contribute to the removal of some micropollutants in GAC filters, similar to observations made in the sand filter. Both Swiss and suggested EU regulations aim for at least an 80 % removal in micropollutant concentration. The study evaluated the performance of the filters based on this guideline and the presented technique is after a total of eight years of investigation and evaluation a proven performer. Overall, the 4th treatment combination of sand and GAC filters in WWTPs has shown promising results in removing organic micropollutants, addressing the need for efficient treatment strategies targeting these emerging pollutants. Degeberga WWTP serves as an example of successful implementation of advanced treatment for improving water quality and protecting human and aquatic health.
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| 5. |
- Borg, Stefan, 1978-
(författare)
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Meeting the US Military’s Manpower Challenges
- 2022
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Ingår i: Parameters. - : United States Army War College Press. - 0031-1723 .- 2158-2106. ; 52:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Concerns raised over the impact of changing demographics, domestic polarization, and the return of near-peer competition on US military manpower challenges are overstated. Drawing on open-source materials and interviews, this article discusses factors often neglected in conversations on this topic and provides leadership and policymakers with a scholarly overview of an important yet understudied issue facing the US armed forces.
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| 6. |
- Borg, Stefan
(författare)
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Assembling Israeli drone warfare : Loitering surveillance and operational sustainability
- 2021
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Ingår i: Security Dialogue. - : SAGE Publications. - 0967-0106 .- 1460-3640. ; 52:5, s. 401-417
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones as they are more popularly known, have changed practices of Israeli warfare. In order to do so, the article proceeds in three steps. First, it traces the emergence and development of the Israeli UAV programme. Second, it examines the main factors that have enabled its expansion. Third, it turns to some of the main implications of UAVs for the way in which the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) wages war. The article argues that the combined tactical use of UAVs employed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks has amounted to a strategic effect: by dramatically enhancing the field of perception, UAVs have enabled the IDF to better control the battle rhythm. UAVs in the Israeli context have enhanced the IDF’s operational sustainability, since one’s own casualties have been virtually eliminated and civilian casualties have been stretched out over, rather than concentrated in, time. Throughout the article, the changing character of the UAV is emphasized. To capture this change and to unravel the interactions among technology, warfare and broader societal forces, the article draws on actor-network theory.
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| 7. |
- Borg, Stefan
(författare)
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Cancelling the West. Transatlantic relations in the era of culture wars
- 2021
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Ingår i: Global Affairs. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2334-0460 .- 2334-0479. ; , s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes to the debate on long-term trends in Transatlantic relations. It does so by examining some of the ways in which the central ideational foundation of the Transatlantic area, namely “the West”, has become increasingly contested in a highly polarized US domestic discourse. By drawing on, and contributing to, the constructivist scholarship on Transatlantic relations, which argues for the importance of collective identities for long-term foreign policy orientation, the article examines how the notion of “the West” became increasingly politicized under Trump’s presidency. The article then examines the Democrats’ understanding of the US place in the world and shows that the US commitment to Europe is premised and contingent upon a joint commitment to democracy, rather than an imagined ethnonationalist bounded community. As an identity-conferring concept between the US and Europe the paper shows, “the West” no longer fulfils a unifying function in US mainstream public discourse.
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| 8. |
- Bremberg, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
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Ambiguous power? A relational approach to how the EU exercises power in Morocco and Tunisia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of International Relations and Development. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1408-6980 .- 1581-1980. ; 24, s. 128-148
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article addresses the question of how the EU exercises power in international politics and, in particular, whether or not there is anything distinctive about the ways in which it does so. Taking a relational approach to power, where the focus is on practical knowledge and perceptions of self and other, the paper departs from the assumption that such a question has to be evaluated in specific settings. Extrapolating from the EU's attempt to influence outcomes in Tunisia and Morocco following the Arab Spring, this paper proposes that the power of ambiguity captures some of the distinctiveness of the EU as a global actor. The paper highlights the ambiguity of what the EU is in the eyes of others, which opens up avenues for exercising power that others lack, not necessarily in accordance with a well-defined agenda, but understood as the production of effects in delimited settings.
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| 9. |
- Borg, Stefan
(författare)
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Below the radar : Examining a small state’s usage of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles
- 2020
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Ingår i: Defence Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1470-2436 .- 1743-9698. ; 20:3, s. 185-201
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is an extensive and rapidly growing body of literature on armed Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) focused on the US War on Terror. However, smaller Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for military use, or what this paper refers to as tactical UAVs utilised by small states, have received much less scholarly attention ̶ despite their rapid proliferation in the last decade. In order to start rectifying this dual neglect of more limited UAVs employed by small states, the paper makes an empirical contribution to the study of tactical UAVs. Drawing on a substantial number of interviews and studies commissioned by the Swedish Armed Forces, the paper examines the Swedish UAV program, which is in certain ways representative of a smaller state’s efforts to incorporate UAVs into its armed forces. The paper argues that it is crucial to think in terms of systems rather than the UAV as a free-standing resource to be used on its own. If utilized along with other ISR assets, tactical UAVs may have a significant role to play in asymmetric conflicts.
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| 10. |
- Rafat, Sonja, et al.
(författare)
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Oral Health Among Swedish Patients with Substance Use Disorders : A Comparative, Cross-Sectional Study
- 2020
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Ingår i: Oral Health & Preventive Dentistry. - : Quintessence. - 1602-1622 .- 1757-9996. ; 18:2, s. 229-237
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: This study explored the oral health of individuals with substance use disorders and examined the relationship between oral health and type and number of years of substance use disorder. Materials and Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study comprised patients with one of four groups of substance use disorders - alcohol, cannabis, central nervous system stimulants (CNSS), and opiates. All participants underwent a dental examination and were included in the study based on their clinical findings. Results: Of 95 participants, 79 (83%) were male and 37 (39%) were homeless. Statistically significant difference between the groups was observed in 6-12-mm periodontal pocket depths (p <0.05), as were differences in oral mucosal changes (p <0.001). Statistically significantly lower proportions were observed in the cannabis group for Mob G:0 and Mob G:1 and Furcation G:1 compared to the CNSS and opiate groups; the proportion of Furcation G:0 was significantly lower in the alcohol group compared to the cannabis group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed statistically significant between-group differences in age, number of years of substance use disorder, number of teeth. and decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT). When controlling for age and gender, substance type was found to be a statistically significant predictor of number of teeth (B = -4.4: 95% CI: -8.1 to -0.38; p = 0.03) and DMFT (B = 2.1; 95% CI: 0.86 to 3.3; p = 0.001). Conclusions: These results indicate poor oral health among individuals with substance use disorders. It seems that oral health problems are lower among abusers of cannabis than of CNSS, alcohol and opiates.
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