Infrastructuring International Security: A comparative analysis of algorithmic passenger security (INFRASEC)

In 2024, 9.5 billion people boarded airplanes to fly across the world. Passengers do not fly alone,
though. Each is accompanied by digital records that contain information about their personal details,
itinerary, travel preferences, and other data needed to book a trip. In the last two decades, several
governments have become keen on harvesting and processing these information for security
purposes. While this is a major infrastructural endeavour in the field of algorithmic security (outside
the domain of warfare) and affects millions of people, we know little about how it happens in
practice, and its socio-political effects at international level. Exploratory studies show that algorithmic
passenger security requires much work, in organisational, computational and governance terms.
These processes raises issues and frictions, especially about the set-up of travel intelligence units
and expert platforms, the design of advanced data processing tools (including Artificial Intelligence),
or the definition of accountability mechanisms and regulatory frameworks. INFRASEC maps and
explores these processes and frictions through the conceptual lens of ‘algorithmic infrastructuring’,
and carries out in-depth fieldwork and comparative analysis of two supranational cases. In times of
geopolitical turbulence, the project offers a much-needed understanding of the relation between
infrastructure, algorithmic security and politics, and offers insight how to enhance its democratic
governance.