HOMELAND SECURITY

The criminal group was suspected of facilitating the illegal entry into the EU of migrants mainly Syrian via maritime routes from Turkey to Greece

Copyright: www.europol.europa.eu – Publication Date on RIEAS (www.rieas.gr) 23 March 2015

On 10-11 March 2015, Greek law enforcement authorities, with the support of Europol, dismantled an organized criminal group suspected of facilitating the entry of irregular migrants - mainly Syrian nationals - into Greece from Turkey via maritime routes. The group also smuggled victims from Greece to other EU Member States through a range of methods, and was involved in the production and distribution of forged travel documents and their trading to other organized criminal groups. The criminal network operated in Greece and was formed of members from several countries including Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Romania...Read more

Ioannis (John) M Nomikos
(RIEAS Director)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 11 January 2015

Since 2005, RIEAS has extensively written on the need for the European Commission to consider the establishment of a new service focused on European Intelligence matters. Moreover, intelligence and security analysts in the European Union member states who promote the idea of a European common intelligence policy argue that the toughest challenge for the European Union has been the highly sensitive area of intelligence-sharing.

Dr. Ruth Delaforce
(Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, working on the Fragile States and Transnational Actors projects. She completed her PhD on private military and security companies at Griffith University, Australia).

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The ongoing revelations by private contractor, Edward Snowden, have focused attention on the extensive scope of global intelligence gathering by the United States (US).

Zhyldyz Oskonbaeva
(RIEAS Senior Advisor & Eurasian Liaison)

Copyrights: www.rieas.gr

The more followers you have, the stronger is their belief in you. The more believers you have, the greater your chances of getting elected. With both you can rule the nation. The difference between the two is that believers will fight for their cause. This forms the basis for real power (From author).

The influence of religion is such that power, order and government perceive their effects as a stabilizer on society as well as the legitimation of their rule. Depending on the history, the state depends on a society that is moral, consistent and trusting in their institutions.  As decision makers, real power ensures that their decisions will be both supported and followed by society. From the very beginning of society, religious institutions fought for “believers-parishioners.” As a result, politics borrows from religion in that it is a secularization of bureaucratic competencies formally entrusted to an absolute ruler ‘personally’ chosen by a supreme being and counseled by his representative on earth – embodied as the senior religious leader.  Sometimes this symbiotic relationship is equal, sometimes dependent upon the other but always it is both visual and implied.  What both understand is that power is expressed in numbers which is something they both need. 

Stathis Katopodis (MA)
(RIEAS Research Associate)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) - www.rieas.gr – based in Athens, Greece (Date of Publication: 25 January 2014)


National Security is one of the ingredients of safeguarding peace and prosperity within a society. However, as the Global Village grows, new threats and challenges emerge and the fight against them is nothing less than constant. With international terrorism rising, 9/11 and the bombing attacks in Madrid and London were the events that called for immediate security changes in the transatlantic world..... Read more

Sofia Tzamarelou
(Postgraduate Researcher, Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, Brunel University (UK).

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

The tensions between intelligence and democracy can never be entirely resolved.  In new and relatively new democracies like Greece, the relationship between the state, the intelligence organisations and democracy appears to be delicate.