Open research questions in Global Security and Public Health
131 gap statements mined from Global Security and Public Health papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,177 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
The research highlights the need for a systematic comparative framework for understanding legal and institutional arrangements in public safety governance.
Foreign Legal Frameworks in Regulating the Maintenance of Public Safety and Public Order at the Regional Level · 2026 · DOIThe AI Act must balance the need to mitigate risks with the need to foster innovation and competitiveness.
Securitizing the algorithm: a quantitative analysis of liberalization and securitization logics in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act · 2026 · DOIThe underlying political rationale structuring the AI Act's provisions remains underexplored. There is a need for a replicable framework for analyzing securitization in regulatory texts.
Securitizing the algorithm: a quantitative analysis of liberalization and securitization logics in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act · 2026 · DOIThe article also identifies the challenge of balancing the need for narrative stability with the need to acknowledge and address ontological insecurity.
Future research could explore the use of analogies and metaphors in leader narratives in other contexts. Future research could also investigate the impact of ontological insecurity on leader decision-making and policy outcomes.
This sort of post-deportation confinement is unprecedented, and especially egregious for the lack of evidence given for the designation of CECOT deportees as actual cartel members.
The need to consider the ontological security needs of actors and the potential impact of actions on others' security.
The lack of comprehensive policy frameworks that incorporate ontological security theory.
The paper highlights the challenge of responding to ontological threats in a way that is consistent with the state's self-narrative. The paper notes the challenge of balancing the need to maintain an idealized image of oneself with the need to respond to changing circumstances.
Life narrative and the possibilities of self: South Africa’s position on Gaza and Ukraine through an ontological security lens · 2026 · DOIFuture research could examine how other states respond to ontological threats using a life story approach. Future research could explore the implications of the paper's findings for the development of foreign policy and international relations. Future research could investigate the role of narrative analysis in studying the social world.
Life narrative and the possibilities of self: South Africa’s position on Gaza and Ukraine through an ontological security lens · 2026 · DOISurvivorship bias can lead to misleading performance metrics. Survivorship bias can result in faulty resource allocation. Adaptive operational tactics are needed to react to changing methods of illegal border crossings.
The gap is related to the lack of consideration of unsuccessful outcomes in border security operations.
Few studies have used the UNGDC to track sustainability-related topics over time. The study addresses this gap by exploring how sustainable development has been discussed in UNGDC speeches.
The study highlights the need to examine the shift from isolated-incident framing towards a broader campaign logic in which sabotage and disruption are treated as cumulative, networked, and strategically meaningful.
Russian-Linked Sabotage in Poland: Attribution, Legal Resilience, and Public–Private Infrastructure Security · 2026 · DOIThe study highlights the need for a human security approach to address infectious disease threats in the Skouw border area.
Identifies the need for integrating youth policy into national security and resilience strategies. Highlights the gap between existing strategic documents emphasizing societal resilience and practical implementation.
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF NATIONAL SECURITY: YOUTH POLICY AS ANINSTRUMENT OF SOCIETAL RESILIENCE IN THE BLACK SEA REGION · 2026 · DOIIt highlights the need to examine the institutional and ideological factors that have shaped China's approach to international scientific cooperation.
Creating State Secrets: China, Foreign Policy and Sharing of Epidemiological Data, 1949–1979 · 2026 · DOIThe study of death has become sensationalized by the focus on mass killings, decapitations, rapes, castrations, tortures, and kidnappings. The connection between visual necropolitics and social death is rarely made in IR. The article addresses the gap by investigating the multiple modalities and operations of death-making power in the context of Russia's war on Ukraine.
The US's withdrawal from the WHO is a major setback for global health security and governance. The EU has struggled to demonstrate leadership, including during the WHO Pandemic Agreement negotiations.
In this context, EU policy more explicitly includes elements of human-centered security, but their implementation is often limited by the interests of member states and political realism.
The reflection of migration policy in the security strategic documents of the usa and the eu: a political science perspective · 2026 · DOIThe UN General Debate Corpus (UNGDC) is widely adopted in research on diplomatic affairs and economic topics, but few studies have used it to track how sustainability-related topics have changed over time.
The Skouw border area has different characteristics from ordinary administrative regions because it functions as a cross-border mobility space, a trade space, a social interaction space, and a basic service point for border communities. The area is vulnerable to infectious disease transmission due to ecological conditions, cross-border mobility, limited health-seeking behavior, and institutional constraints.
The study identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between political regime type and the adoption of AI-based digital surveillance systems.
Beyond Digital Authoritarianism: State Capacity and the Functional Convergence of AI Surveillance in China and the United States · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in understanding the role of Swedish secret services in shaping national security policy. The analysis aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of these services on Sweden's neutrality and security strategy.
Further research into the impact of youth policy on societal resilience - Analysis of the effectiveness of co-management systems in fostering democratic resilience - Study of the role of media literacy and civic education in preventing hybrid…
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF NATIONAL SECURITY: YOUTH POLICY AS ANINSTRUMENT OF SOCIETAL RESILIENCE IN THE BLACK SEA REGION · 2026 · DOI
Most-cited papers in Global Security and Public Health
- The surveillant assemblage · British Journal of Sociology · 2000 · 1,437 citations
- Security and Immigration: Toward a Critique of the Governmentality of Unease · Alternatives Global Local Political · 2002 · 1,392 citations
- The Implications of Framing Effects for Citizen Competence · Political Behavior · 2001 · 903 citations
- Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics · International Studies Quarterly · 2003 · 677 citations
- The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies · American Journal of Sociology · 1906 · 562 citations
- COVID-19 and emergency eLearning: Consequences of the securitization of higher education for post-pandemic pedagogy · Contemporary Security Policy · 2020 · 549 citations
- The Renaissance of Security Studies · International Studies Quarterly · 1991 · 458 citations
- Health security capacities in the context of COVID-19 outbreak: an analysis of International Health Regulations annual report data from 182 countries · The Lancet · 2020 · 447 citations
- Special Section: Transnational Public Sphere: Transnationalizing the Public Sphere · Theory Culture & Society · 2007 · 424 citations
- ‘Securitization’ revisited: theory and cases · International Relations · 2015 · 349 citations
Most recent work
- Protecting global health in the era of the America First Strategy · The Lancet Global Health · 2026
- U.S. withdrawal from WHO and aid programs: implications and opportunities for Africa’s global health security · Globalization and Health · 2026
- Global health security and pandemic preparedness: Europe’s leadership challenge · BMJ · 2026
- Unknowing the future: Speculative foresight in international institutions and the unexpected ‘origins’ of expertise · Review of International Studies · 2026
- From the Ground to the Stars: The Vertical Politics of the EU Drone Wall and Airspace Defence · JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies · 2026
- Research security by roundtable: analysis of Germany’s committees for the ethics of security-relevant research · Science and Public Policy · 2026
- How Fragmented Are Global Policy Debates on Health Data Sharing? Studying Fragmentation Through Discourse Network Analysis · JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies · 2026
- Algorithmic security vision: Diagrams of computer vision politics · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · 2026
- The logic of migratory crisification: a conceptual proposal for analyzing contemporary discourses and practices · Frontiers in Political Science · 2026
- The securitization of the Peruvian-Chilean border and the criminalization of the migrant in the discourse of Sin Fronteras (Tacna, Peru) · Frontiers in Political Science · 2026
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