Shifting Roles in Security Governance: The Case of Border Checks in Turkey

Abstract

Globalisation facilitated greater mobility of commercial services but also crime. The rise of new forms of threats and the blurring of internal and external security concepts compelthe modern state not only to cooperate internationally, but also to involve private sector for certain tasks in security sector. Border management concept has also changed –trade facilitation and security to be ensured at the same time in the framework of new notion of integrated border management. These transformations challenged the classical meaning of sovereigntyand led to changes in the understanding of the state. This phenomenon appears in different shapes depending on the motivating factors of a given state to survive efficiently. Part of the literature on privatisation of security covers military type of border protection at post-conflict states and post-authoritarian states. With respect to the transformation inthe developed countries, the handing over to the private sector is mainlylinked to the innovation and theincreasingneed to utilise the information technologies. Another important motivation valid also for developing states like Turkey is the compelling provisions of international regulations to improve the trade facilitation,while at the same time ensuring secure flow of goods and persons. In the new era of the borderless world, states have the means to grow stronger in combating the new security threats by making intelligent use of non-state actors, mainly the private companies. Regardless of the level of involvement of the private sector, it is still the states retaining the power to take policy decisions and holding the monopoly to regulate the security.