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I discuss the case of Hassan Almrei, one of the five Arab men detained as suspects who have the potential to engage in terrorism. Hassan Almrei's detention arises out of a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of Canada that authorizes security certificates. A security certificate permits the detention and expulsion of non-citizens who are considered to be a threat to national security. Detainees have no opportunity to be heard before a certificate is issued and a designated judge of the Federal Court reviews most of the government's case against the detainee in a secret hearing at which neither the detainee nor his counsel is present. The detainee receives only a summary of the evidence against him. I discuss this legal situation as a state of exception that is part of a legal structure in which non-citizens have fewer rights than do citizens. Two conceptual tools shape my understanding of security certificates and their use in the “war on terror”: race thinking and the state of exception. The five detainees are more than simply victims of racial profiling. Their Arab origins, and the life history that mostly Arab Muslim men have had, operate to mark them as individuals likely to commit terrorist acts, people whose propensity for violence is indicated by their origins. When race thinking, the belief in the division of humanity into those prone to violence and those who are not according to racial descent, is accompanied by the idea that there must be two different, hierarchical legal regimes for each, and when we begin to grow accustomed to places without law and to people to whom the rule of law does not apply, we enter the terrifying world of the colonies and the concentration camp. This article examines how a space where law is suspended operates in the “war on terror” and it attends to the work that ideas about race do in the environment of the exception.

The GATT/WTO regime based on these four basic principles has played a reasonably productive role in the development and governance of global trade. However, as observed at the outset, the focus of the GATT/WTO regime has so far been the expansion and continuation of market access already negotiated. This, in other words, meant a focus on import control measures.

Purpose – This chapter highlights how counter-radicalization, as a manifestation of diffuse securitizing, impacts the work of Muslim civil society organizations (CSOs) in Canada.

Methodology – The author presents how Muslim communities and their civil society representatives experience and adapt to the pressures from counter-radicalization policies. Data for the analysis are drawn from 16 semi-structured, anonymized interviews with managers and board members of prominent Muslim CSOs that are based in urban centers in Canada with high density of Muslim populations.

Findings – Though counter-radicalization policies are advanced under the rubric of community-orientedness and risk governance, security discourse and practice constructs radicalization as a problem within Muslim communities treating them as suspects who are “potentially radical.” Despite this framing, Muslim CSOs are cooperating with state security agencies in counter-radicalization efforts but are doing so cognizant of the immense power the state exerts over them in such “partnerships.” CSOs are raising questions about the selective nature of security practice which views Muslims as dangerous and violent but fails to fully acknowledge their reality as victims of Islamophobic violence. CSOs are using anti-racism, anti-oppression, and rights-based frames to call out the discriminatory treatment of Muslims under national security.

Originality/Value – The author’s study contributes to a community perspective in counterterrorism and counter-radicalization research that is dominated by analyses from “above.” By sharing the experiences of Canadian Muslim CSOs under counter-radicalization, the author illustrates the practice of “diffuse securitizing” and how it limits the work of civil society in liberal democracies.

Governments throughout the world have sought, and are seeking, to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and, for that purposed, have liberalized their national regulatory frameworks for FDI and established a strong international investment law regime. However, there are signs that, as a result of a number of important developments (which are being discussed in some detail in this chapter), governments are re-evaluating their stance toward FDI, or at least certain types of it. This re-evaluation has found its expression in a number of regulatory changes that may eventually lead to a regime that balances the rights of investors and host countries in a manner that places more emphasis on maintaining policy space for host-country governments while still protecting foreign investors.

The use of offsets is one of the main characteristics of international defence trade. The rising costs of defence equipment and the significant contraction of defence spending have resulted in an environment that favoured the use of offset policies, the latter becoming increasingly demanding in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The chapter analyses the role of offsets on the process of integration of defence equipment markets, with a specific focus on the EU. Particular attention is given to the offset-relevant regulation and practice and to their recent evolution in the EU following the adoption of European Directive on defence and security procurement (81/81/EC). Offsets play a dual role with regard to the integration of defence industries: on one hand they can be trade-distorting and contribute to the survival of inefficient suppliers in arms importing countries; on the other hand, they can contribute in overcoming barriers that may otherwise prevent some potentially efficient suppliers from accessing the supply chains of the big system integrators. The chapter draws the attention on the need to complement the regulatory evolution by further initiatives aiming at improving the access of non-incumbent suppliers to the supply chains of the large defence system integrators.

Purpose: This study is concerned with media representation of crime in the Israeli press. It examines the pattern of offenses reported in two daily newspapers of seemingly different characteristics, the “elitist” Haaretz and the “popular” Israel Hayom. Methodology/approach: Crime reports appeared in the news pages during November 2016 were content analyzed in both newspapers by using a coding scheme, which operationalized several variables relating to type of crime, characteristics of offenders and victims, and court proceedings. Findings: Violent and sex offenses featured disproportionately in the news reports in both newspapers, while conventional property offenses were under-reported relative to their prevalence in official crime statistics. In terms of the characteristics of offenders and victims, the vast majority of offenders portrayed in crime stories were adult Jewish males. Women were more likely to appear as victims of crime rather than perpetrators, and more likely to appear as victims of sex offenses rather than other offenses. Research limitations: This study was based on an analysis of crime stories which appeared in two newspapers during one-month period of time. Future research should extend the sample size and collect data from a longer period of time and from additional media outlets. Originality/value: Media coverage of crime stories has not yet been researched in Israel. Beyond the interest in the Israeli case or the potential contribution to comparative global knowledge, the value of the study may lie in expanding the lens of scholarship of media’s construction of crime.

Since the end of the cold war, the arms industry has been experiencing a deep structural transformation. The logical consequence of such short-term and structural evolutions is that companies in the arms industry are looking to access markets beyond national borders. Such transformation becomes a policy concern, since the core regulatory framework has been built on a national basis and there are very limited structural and regulatory means for dealing with an international, or even a transnational, industry in such a sensitive activity as weapons development and production. This chapter wonders whether it is possible to qualify such transformation of the arms industry as an internationalisation process and whether it can be compared to the globalisation of commercial activities. It compares what has happened and continues to happen in the arms industry with the globalisation experienced by commercial industries.

Purpose – Because businesses conducting e-commerce are often able to set up off-shore to avoid regulation, taxation, and other aspects of corporate responsibility, the developed-developing divide which tends to inform World Trade Organization (WTO) policies is especially an impediment to future global e-commerce. This chapter explores the particular accountability challenges represented by WTO e-commerce policies.Design/methodology/approach – The framework of inquiry focuses on a policy research study of relevant WTO e-commerce policy documents, especially the ones related to the negotiations under the WTO Work Program on Electronic Commerce and the GATS Agreement.Findings – The virtual nature of e-commerce interactions means that businesses are often able to circumvent the national boundaries and controls of conventional commerce. Because of this, the WTO and its e-commerce policy are crucial to the responsible and accountable development of future global e-commerce. Such policies need to be significantly improved as a matter of urgency to overcome current omissions and inadequacies.Research implications – Accountability gaps within WTO’s e-commerce policies provide a basis for companies from developed countries to set up off-shore to avoid their corporate social responsibilities. A constructive critique of international agency policy documents is able to provide a basis for recommending change and improvement to the overall WTO framework.Practical and social implications – Companies should profess genuine rather than merely surface commitment to global as well as local corporate social responsibilities. Likewise the WTO should also aim to practice deep rather than “shallow” accountability by aiming to rectify omissions and inequities in its e-commerce policies.

At the turn of the century, the developing world is experiencing the largest-ever generation of children and youth. Around 1 billion people – one out of every six on the planet – are between 10 and 19 years of age, 85% of them in developing countries. Because of the considerable drop in fertility rates, in the next 15–20 years, the children of today will constitute the largest generation-ever of active population. This is perhaps the greatest opportunity the world cannot afford to miss. This paper claims that the trends keeping the majority of the children in poverty and limiting their development are not irreversible, that the world has enough information, technology and financial resources to defeat these trends.