1. Trick or threat? Implicit understandings within security research and their consequences
Prof. dr. Tom Vander Beken
SRC’10
Research, development and innovation for a
more secure Europe
Societal Security session
Ostend, 23 September 2010

2. Background & focus
Reflections on the conclusions from the Workshop on 'Societal security' in security research and development of 1 July 2010 in Brussels.
Background & focus: security and criminal policy reseach

3. Research on implicit understandings
… of what the threats to Europe really are. Many projects and tasks consider these threats as given. Few research makes them explicit and provides transparency about the way they are defined;
… of the concepts used and their utility and relevance. Threats, risks, harms and vulnerabilities are different concepts;
… of the availability of knowledge about threats and risks. How to assess them in an uncertain (and thus uncalculable and unpredictable) world?
… of the consequences of a resilience based approach and anticipation of high impact events?
… of the consequences of these epistemological problems on the transparency and accountability of the European security policy. What is the evidence base for preparatory, preventive and repressive action?