| dc.description.abstract | The Norwegian Customs (NC) is the only agency that enforces safety and security regulations for goods at the Norwegian border. It does so on behalf of 19 regulators, and it collaborates closely with an additional 22 agencies. Yet, its role in societal security is not well understood by researchers and practitioners alike.
This thesis has two objectives. The first is to generate knowledge on ways that customs agencies contribute to societal security, particularly outside their own sector of border control. The second is to strengthen the conceptual foundation of societal security, especially the systemic, cooperative aspects.
These two objectives are achieved through a mixed-method study of selected official documents, using systems theory as a lens to study the relationships of the NC with its collaborators. The study builds on cross-referencing of data from a list of the NC’s collaborators with critical functional capabilities in a framework that the government uses to coordinate societal security in the Norwegian public sector (KIKS). The thesis thus contributes both to generic and applied knowledge. The primary method is document analysis of selected government documents. However, to ensure a better understanding of the domain, I have used open sources, freedom-of-information requests, and background interviews with customs officers to be able to see beyond the documents. While these have not been subject to analysis, they have informed the study.
The thesis provides the most thorough and broad documentation for the NC’s contribution to societal security that is publicly available today. The findings offer new insights into the coordination of societal security in Norway which may be useful to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, but also to the NC and their collaborators. Furthermore, the findings give novel contributions to the conceptual development of societal security. This includes a new model that illustrates interorganizational relationships in a system-of-systems between actors contributing to critical functional capabilities, which may offer additional value to the KIKS framework that has guided the coordination of societal security in Norway since 2012.
This is a paper-based thesis, the main parts being an exploration of the basis of the study (‘kappe’), followed by a conference paper that is to be published in the conference proceedings of the European Safety and Reliability Association in September 2023. | |