Open Source Investigations in the Age of Google (Security Science and Technology, 4) - Hardcover

Henrietta Wilson; Olamide Samuel; Dan Plesch

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1800614063 ISBN 13: 9781800614062

Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2024

Synopsis

How did a journalist find out who was responsible for bombing hospitals in Syria without leaving his desk in New York? How can South Sudanese activists safely track and detail the weapons in their communities, and make sure that global audiences take notice? How do researchers in London coordinate worldwide work uncovering global corruption? What are policy makers, lawyers, and intelligence agencies doing to keep up with and make use of these activities?

In the Age of Google, threats to human security of every kind are being tracked in completely new ways. Human rights abuses, political violence, nuclear weapons deployments, corruption, radicalisation, and conflict, are all being monitored, analysed, and documented. Though open source investigations are neither easy to conduct nor straightforward to apply, with diligence and effort, societies, agencies, and individuals have the potential to use them to strengthen human security.

This interdisciplinary book presents 18 contributions by prize-winning practitioners, experts and rising stars, detailing what open source investigations are and how they are carried out, alongside the opportunities and challenges they present to global transparency, accountability and justice. It is essential reading for current and future digital investigators, journalists, and scholars of global governance, international relations, humanitarian law, or anyone with an interest in the possibilities and dangers of this new field.

About this title

About the Author

Henrietta Wilson is a freelance researcher and educator. She researches military technologies and global arms regulations, and teaches politics and international relations at UK universities. Originally trained as a physicist, her career spans three decades of collaboration with major NGOs and universities in the UK and Germany including King's College London and SOAS University of London.

Olamide Samuel is a Track II diplomat with a specialist focus on arms control, international security and nuclear politics. He is currently a Research Associate in Nuclear Politics at the University of Leicester, and a Senior Strategic Adviser to Centre de Recherche et d'Information pour le Désarmement et la Sécurité (CRIDS).

Dan Plesch is Professor of Diplomacy and Strategy at SOAS University of London where he leads the Strategic Concept for the Removal of Arms and Proliferation (SCRAP weapons program), and is a 'door tenant' at the legal chambers of 9 Bedford Row in London. His research expertise spans disarmament and human rights.

Edition details

• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1800614063
• ISBN 13: 9781800614062
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 388