Gender and Security in the Mediterranean
Abstract This contribution explores security issues in the Mediterranean from a feminist perspective. Feminists have developed a broad and dynamic understanding of security and insecurity. This approach takes ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ issues as interconnected on the personal, national and international level. This allows for a comprehensive perspective on the basic human need for security. It is argued that EU policies that stress ‘soft’ security issues offer more sustainable and at the same time ‘realistic’ ways of establishing an ‘area of peace and stability in the Mediterranean’ [Barcelona Declaration, 1995] than those that stress ‘hard’ security issues. After discussing feminist and developmental perspectives on comprehensive security concepts, the contribution presents some important indicators of ‘Gendered Human Security’ in EMP countries. It argues that it is important to address the huge gaps in gendered human security in order to strengthen the civil and security dimension of the EMP. The contribution finally explores the possible positive effects of womens’ participation in the armed forces. Will these processes change militarized security cultures and help create a more comprehensive security approach?
She who violates the law of war… Hauptkriegsverbrecherinnen im Hamburger Ravensbrück-Prozess 1946/47
Am 9. September 1946 zeigte die War Crimes Section der Britischen Rheinarmee2 ein Kriegsverbrechen an. Bei den aufgefuhrten Beschuldigten handelte es sich um „the major war criminals of the staff of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp“ (WO 309/683:145ff.). Von der Londoner Justizbehorde des Kriegsministeriums (Judge Advocate General) wurde die Anklage, basierend auf den „United Nations Charges against War Criminals“, ausgearbeitet und am 9. Oktober 1946 in einer offiziellen Anweisung zur Klageerhebung an das Hauptquartier der britischen Besatzungstruppen durchgegeben. Die Beweislage rechtfertige es, die beschuldigten Hauptkriegsverbrecherinnen zu einer Einheit zusammenzufassen und gemeinsam unter folgende Anklage zu stellen: 
„Committing a War Crime in that they at Ravensbruck3, in the years 1939 to 1945, when members of the staff of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, in violation of the laws and usages of war, were concerned in the illtreatment and killing of Allied nationals interned therein“ (WO 309/683:192ff.).
Beyond fear - thinking sensibly about security in an uncertain world
From the Publisher: 
Many of us, especially since 9/11, have become personally concerned about issues ofsecurity, and this is no surprise. Security is near the top of government and corporate agendas around the globe. Security-related stories appear on the front page everyday. How well though, do any of us truly understand what achieving real security involves? In Beyond Fear, Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion. With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. He also believes, for instance, that national ID cards are an exceptionally bad idea: technically unsound, and even destructive of security. And, contrary to a lot of current nay-sayers, he thinks online shopping is fundamentally safe, and that many of the new airline security measure (though by no means all) are actually quite effective. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem- solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits. Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systemssome useful, others useless or worsethat we're being asked to submit to and pay for. Bruce Schneier is the author of seven books, including Applied Cryptography (which Wired called "the one book the National Security Agency wanted never to be published") and Secrets and Lies (described in Fortune as "startlingly lively [a] jewel box of little surprises you can actually use."). He is also Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc., and publishes Crypto- Gram, one of the most widely read newsletters in the field of online security.