This chapter has explored the security community framework, firstly discussing the origins of the concept introduced by Karl Deutsch in 1957. Deutsch argues that there are two types of security community, which is amalgamated and pluralistic security community. Nevertheless, the origins concept of security community is no longer relevant to contemporary world politics due to the fact that the dynamics of international politics have changed after the end of the Cold War. While still agreed with some of the conceptual foundation, Adler and Barnett have established a refined definition of security community framework to conform with current circumstances with some additional works. Adler and Barnett have introduced the distinction between tightly and loosely coupled pluralistic security communities, as well as developed three stages model for the formation of security community. Furthermore, Adler and Greve also delineates six repertoire of practice which help to keep security community mechanism in place.
Security community practices have been widely diffused in the Mediterranean region, in this case it can be demonstrated through cooperation building in the Mediterranean Sea between NATO, EU and the Mediterranean countries either regionally or internationally. The concept of security community is an attempt to find a remedy for the insecurity of states in international arena. In other words, the security community aims to provide a collective security for members through the implementation of mutual actions and cooperation. According to the repertoire of practices delineated to sustain security communities’ mechanism, these attributes are evidently demonstrated within the maritime operations in counter-terrorism and counter-migration and ultimately demonstrate how the cooperative security has been implemented in managing maritime security issues in the Mediterranean Sea. The security community in this context also implies how it has developed a comprehensive and strong community based on the practice of self-restraint, the elimination of the possibility of war among themselves but with a focus on mutual cooperation.
51
This chapter explores the essential conceptual foundation for the thesis and offers a framework to assess the relations between security community practices and maritime security operations. The correlation between the concept of security community and repertoire of practices demonstrates that practices are certainly an important source of community building. The chapter specifically analyses the extent to which the security community process is exhibited in maritime security operations, which at the same time addresses the main research question of the thesis. In order to demonstrate how the security community framework can be used to answer the research questions, the next chapter delves into the methodology conducted to analyse the case studies of counter-terrorism and counter-migration in the Mediterranean Sea.
52
CHAPTER 3
Research Design and Case Selection
3.1 Introduction
The previous chapter explored the security community framework, the foundation of the framework and the repertoire of practices of the security community mechanism. This chapter explains the research design of the thesis. Specifically, the chapter analyses adoption of qualitative approach as a research method for the thesis, the rationale for case study selection and details the methods used for the collection of empirical data. The essential point here is the use of the security community framework to explain the spread and expansion of security community building in the Mediterranean Sea. This can be demonstrated through a linkage of the concept of security community, in particular security community practices, with maritime security practices.
The research design adopted for the study focuses on the concept of security community as a framework in this research. The adoption of qualitative research methods and case selection are made to determine the presence of maritime security threats and to aid with analysis of security community practices in the Mediterranean Sea. The essence of the framework is that the elements and mechanisms enable us to evaluate the security community evolution through the implementation of counter-terrorism and counter-migration initiatives in the Mediterranean Sea. Specifically, the framework assists to determine the direction of this research, allows for the mapping of maritime security and enables us to answer the research question of what actors deal with security threats in the maritime domain. In so far as the security community framework has never been employed in a maritime context, the thesis plays an important role, bringing new insights into the dynamics of security community research.
That being said, this chapter explores the rationale of adopting qualitative research approach for this research. Also, I analyse the reason behind the selection of the empirical case studies and discuss why the thesis focus only on terrorism
53
and irregular migration instead of other potential maritime threats in the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, the chapter explores the methods used throughout the study for data collection, that is textual analysis and interviews. The section focuses on a discussion of selected empirical material and the process of conducting interviews in order to acquire additional information for the research. The discussion intended to explicate how the empirical materials were used to answer the research objectives and research questions of the thesis.