Open Participatory Security: Unifying Technology, Citizens, and the State

(Hardback)

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Our modern security systems have recently come under a lot of criticism: as too bureaucratic and unadaptable, too secretive and untrustworthy, and too obsessed with information technology rather than human needs. Yet listing failures is easy; security is never perfect. The question is why current approaches fail and whether there are viable alternatives. The root of their shortcomings is in the interaction of the very pillars of our security system in the contemporary context. While our enemies have adopted the technologies of the Information Age, changing how they organize and fight, these same technologies have only created more vulnerabilities for states. Governments have been generally unwilling to maximize their use of these technologies because it would require the wider release of information and the opening of organizational structures to include society in security making. Yet countering diffuse modern threats striking deep into our states and across our economies requires mobilizing the diffuse skills and variation of modern society. Open approaches for mobilizing participation and coproduction have the capabilities needed to improve contemporary security policy making, problem solving, and provision. Moreover, open participatory security can be effective not only for technical security, but also for restoring trust among the citizens and rebuilding the legitimacy of the state.

Reviews

Open Participatory Security is a necessary book. It is part of a new body of literature that fixes a key problem in cybersecurity thinking by reintroducing society and human conflict to a topic often reduced to the artifacts of the threat and the fear they produce, forgetting the sociotechnical nature of the internet and the way internet technologies make the world a better place. Anybody who cares about our internet culture, including but not limited to cybersecurity, will benefit from understanding what an open participatory security model will do for our internet enabled civilization. -- Rodrigo Nieto Gmez, professor of internet, society, and cyberconflict, Center for Homeland Defense and Security, Naval Postgraduate School
Jesse Lehrke offers a whole new way of thinking about technology and security in the 21st century. Today, governments hold their technological secrets close, and most ordinary citizens see little reason -- and have little ability -- to engage seriously in discussions about security policy. The result We have bureaucratized state-centric technologies that are often ill-suited to today's security challenges, and a populace that views the challenges of ensuring security as someone else's problem. But with the right architectures -- and a "perpetual beta" approach to design -- new and emerging technologies can enable a more open, participatory, crowd-sourced approach to security, one capable of marshaling a far wider range of human talent and bridging the vexing gaps between citizens and the state. If you care about security, or technology, or the future of open, democratic societies, you need to read this book. -- Rosa Brooks, professor of law, Georgetown University

Author Bio

Jesse Paul Lehrke is a Research Fellow at the German Research Institute for Public Administration in Speyer, Germany.