This program area aims to understand and assess the security practices of various actors in different local spaces. A security practice can be broadly defined as any social activity that articulates and engages perceived threats in a coordinated manner and over a prolonged period of time. The program rests upon the assumption that efforts to 'govern' security can take many different forms and are usually exercised within and through complex networks composed of multiple agents. Moreover, it takes these networks to embody, reflect and constitute particular principles of socio-political order-the modern idea of the 'state' being just one among many potential possibilities. Given this underlying perspective, all projects within the framework of the program address, in one way or another, one or more of the following questions:

• How can contemporary networks for governing security be described or 'mapped'? What types of actors are involved? What do they do and how do they relate to each other? What concepts and strategies of security do they propose and pursue?
• What kinds of social and political order do security practices construct? How do these differ from one another? In which ways do they become constituted?
• How can security practices and their concordant principles of formation be normatively assessed? What distinguishes a 'good' from a 'bad' security practice?
• Which concrete recommendations for policymakers can be gained from a comprehensive analysis of security networks?

The program area relates to and integrates a great many projects at BICC-past, present and planned-searching for and generating policy recommendations. It includes issues as diverse as private security companies, security sector reform (SSR), disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DD&R), human security, traditional conflict resolution, terrorism and piracy.