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International security, also called global security is a term which refers to the measures taken by
states and
international organizations
An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states a ...
, such as the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
,
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, and others, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These measures include military action and diplomatic agreements such as treaties and conventions. International and
national security are invariably linked. International security is national security or state security in the global arena.
By the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, a new subject of academic study,
security studies
__NOTOC__
Security studies, also known as international security studies, is an academic sub-field within the wider discipline of international relations that studies organized violence, military conflict, national security, and international ...
, focusing on international security emerged. It began as an independent field of study, but was absorbed as a sub-field of
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
.
[Buzan, B. and L. Hansen (2009). ''The Evolution of International Security Studies''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.] Since it took hold in the 1950s, the study of international security has been at the heart of international relations studies. It covers areas such as security studies,
strategic studies,
peace studies
Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
, and other areas.
The meaning of "security" is often treated as a common sense term that can be understood by "unacknowledged consensus". The content of international security has expanded over the years. Today it covers a variety of interconnected issues in the world that affect survival. It ranges from the traditional or conventional modes of military power, the causes and consequences of war between states, economic strength, to ethnic, religious and ideological conflicts, trade and economic conflicts, energy supplies,
science and technology, food, as well as threats to
human security Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather th ...
and the stability of states from
environmental degradation, infectious diseases,
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
and the activities of
non-state actors
A non-state actor (NSA) are organizations and/or individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or funded by any government.
The interests, structure, and influence of NSAs vary widely. For example, among NSAs are non-profit organizations, ...
.
While the wide perspective of international security regards everything as a security matter, the traditional approach focuses mainly or exclusively on military concerns.
Concepts of security in the international arena
Edward Kolodziej has compared international security to a
Tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages.
According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...
and Roland Paris (2004) views it as "in the eye of the beholder". Security has been widely applied to "justify suspending civil liberties, making war, and massively reallocating resources during the last fifty years".
[Baldwin, D. (1997). "The Concept of Security." ''Review of International studies'' 23: 5–26]
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...
(1944) views security as the capability of a country to protect its
core values
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the central ...
, both in terms that a state need not sacrifice core values in avoiding war and can maintain them by winning war. David Baldwin (1997) argues that pursuing security sometimes requires sacrificing other values, including
marginal values and
prime values
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways ...
.
Richard Ullman (1983) has suggested that a decrease in vulnerability is security.
Arnold Wolfers (1952) argues that "security" is generally a
normative
Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...
term. It is applied by nations "in order to be either expedient—a rational means toward an accepted end—or moral, the best or least evil course of action". In the same way that people are different in sensing and identifying danger and threats, Wolfers argues that different nations also have different expectations of security. Not only is there a difference between forbearance of threats, but different nations also face different levels of threats because of their unique geographical, economic, ecological, and political environment.
Barry Buzan (2000) views the study of international security as more than a study of threats, but also a study of which threats that can be tolerated and which require immediate action. He sees the concept of security as not either power or peace, but something in between.
The concept of an international security actor has extended in all directions since the 1990s, from nations to groups, individuals, international systems, NGOs, and local governments.
The multi-sum security principle
Traditional approaches to international security usually focus on state actors and their military capacities to protect
national security. However, over the last decades the definition of security has been extended to cope with the 21st century globalized international community, its rapid technological developments and global threats that emerged from this process. One such comprehensive definition has been proposed by
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan ( ar, نايف الروضان; born 1959) is a Saudi philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author. He is an honorary fellow of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, and senior fellow ...
. What he calls the "Multi-sum security principle" is based on the assumption that "in a globalized world, security can no longer be thought of as a
zero-sum game
Zero-sum game is a mathematical representation in game theory and economic theory of a situation which involves two sides, where the result is an advantage for one side and an equivalent loss for the other. In other words, player one's gain is e ...
involving states alone. Global security, instead, has five dimensions that include human, environmental, national, transnational, and transcultural security, and therefore, global security and the security of any state or culture cannot be achieved without good governance at all levels that guarantees security through justice for all individuals, states, and cultures."
Each of these five dimensions refers to a different set of substrates. The first dimension refers to
human security Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather th ...
, a concept that makes the principle referent object of security the individual, not the state. The second dimension is
environmental security Environmental security examines threats posed by environmental events and trends to individuals, communities or nations. It may focus on the impact of human conflict and international relations on the environment, or on how environmental problems c ...
and includes issues like
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
,
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and access to resources. The third substrate refers to
national security, defined as being linked to the state's monopoly over use of force in a given territory and as a substrate of security that emphasizes the military and policing components of security. The fourth component deals with transnational threats such as organized crime,
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
, and human trafficking. Finally, the integrity of diverse cultures and civilisational forms tackles the issue of transcultural security. According to this multi-faceted security framework all five dimensions of security need to be addressed in order to provide ''just'' and ''sustainable'' global security. It therefore advocates cooperative interaction between states and peaceful existence between cultural groups and civilizations.
Traditional security
The traditional security paradigm refers to a
realist construct of security in which the referent object of security is the state. The prevalence of this theorem reached a peak during the
Cold War. For almost half a century, major world powers entrusted the security of their nation to a
balance of power among states. In this sense international stability relied on the premise that if state security is maintained, then the security of citizens will necessarily follow. Traditional security relied on the anarchistic balance of power, a military build-up between the United States and the Soviet Union (the two superpowers), and on the absolute sovereignty of the nation state.
[Owen, T. (2004), "Challenges and opportunities for defining and measuring human security", Human Rights, Human Security and Disarmament, Disarmament Forum. 3, 15–24] States were deemed to be rational entities, national interests and policy driven by the desire for absolute power.
Security was seen as protection from invasion; executed during proxy conflicts using technical and military capabilities.
As
Cold War tensions receded, it became clear that the security of citizens was threatened by hardships arising from internal state activities as well as external aggressors.
Civil wars
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
were increasingly common and compounded existing poverty, disease, hunger, violence and human rights abuses. Traditional security policies had effectively masked these underlying basic human needs in the face of state security. Through neglect of its constituents, nation states had failed in their primary objective.
[J. Baylis, (1997). "International Security in the Post-Cold War Era", in John Baylis and Steve Smith (eds), ''The Globalization of World Politics'', Oxford, Oxford University Press.]
In the historical debate on how best to achieve national security, writers like
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influe ...
,
Machiavelli, and
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
tended to paint a rather pessimistic picture of the implications of state
sovereignty
Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...
. The international system was viewed as a rather brutal arena in which states would seek to achieve their own security at the expense of their neighbors. Inter-state relations were seen as a struggle for power, as states constantly attempted to take advantage of each other. According to this view, permanent peace was unlikely to be achieved. All that states could do was to try to balance the power of other states to prevent any one from achieving overall
hegemony
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth ...
. This view was shared by writers such as
E.H. Carr
Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Russ ...
and
Hans Morgenthau
Hans Joachim Morgenthau (February 17, 1904 – July 19, 1980) was a German-American jurist and political scientist who was one of the major 20th-century figures in the study of international relations. Morgenthau's works belong to the tradition o ...
.
More recently, the traditional state-centric notion of security has been challenged by more holistic approaches to security. Among the approaches which seeks to acknowledge and address these basic threats to human safety are paradigms that include cooperative, comprehensive and collective measures, aimed to ensure security for the individual and, as a result, for the state.
To enhance international security against potential threats caused by terrorism and organized crime, there have been an increase in international cooperation, resulting in
transnational policing. The international police
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
shares information across international borders and this cooperation has been greatly enhanced by the arrival of the Internet and the ability to instantly transfer documents, films and photographs worldwide.
Theoretical approaches
Realism
=Classical realism
=
In the field of international relations,
realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
has long been a dominant theory, from ancient military theories and writings of Chinese and Greek thinkers,
Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu ( ; zh, t=孫子, s=孙子, first= t, p=Sūnzǐ) was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period of 771 to 256 BCE. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of '' The ...
and
Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
being two of the more notable, to
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influe ...
,
Machiavelli and
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
. It is the foundation of contemporary international security studies. The twentieth century classical realism is mainly derived from
Edward Hallett Carr
Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Russ ...
's book ''
The Twenty Years' Crisis
''The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations'' is a book on international relations written by E. H. Carr. The book was written in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of World War&nb ...
''. The realist views
anarchy and the absence of a power to regulate the interactions between states as the distinctive characteristics of international politics. Because of anarchy, or a constant state of antagonism, the international system differs from the domestic system. Realism has a variety of sub-schools whose lines of thought are based on three core assumptions:
groupism
Groupism is a theoretical approach in sociology that posits that conformity to the laws/norms of a group such as family, kinship, race, ethnicity, religion and nationality brings reciprocal benefits such as recognition, right, power and security. ...
,
egoism
Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normativ ...
, and power-centrism.
[Wohlforth, W. C. (2010). Realism and Security Studies. ''The Routledge Handbook of Security Studies''. M. D. Cavelty and V. Mauer. New York, Routledge.] According to classical realists, bad things happen because the people who make foreign policy are sometimes bad.
=Neorealism
=
Beginning in the 1960s, with increasing criticism of realism,
Kenneth Waltz
Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of ...
tried to revive the traditional realist theory by translating some core realist ideas into a deductive, top-down theoretical framework that eventually came to be called neorealism.
''
Theory of International Politics
''Theory of International Politics'' is a 1979 book on international relations theory by Kenneth Waltz that creates a structural realist theory, neorealism, to explain international relations. Taking into account the influence of neoclassical e ...
'' brought together and clarified many earlier realist ideas about how the features of the overall system of states affects the way states interact:
:"Neorealism answers questions: Why the modern states-system has persisted in the face of attempts by certain states at dominance; why war among great powers recurred over centuries; and why states often find cooperation hard. In addition, the book forwarded one more specific theory: that great-power war would tend to be more frequent in
multipolarity
Polarity in international relations is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes three types o ...
(an international system shaped by the power of three or more major states) than bipolarity (an international system shaped by two major states, or superpowers)."
The main theories of neorealism are
balance of power theory,
balance of threat
The balance of threat theory was proposed by Stephen M. Walt in his article ''Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power'', published in the journal '' International Security'' in 1985. It was later further elaborated in his book ''The Ori ...
theory,
security dilemma
In international relations, the security dilemma (also referred to as the spiral model) is when the increase in one state's security (such as increasing its military strength) leads other states to fear for their own security (because they do not k ...
theory,
offense-defense theory,
hegemonic stability theory
Hegemonic stability theory (HST) is a theory of international relations, rooted in research from the fields of political science, economics, and history. HST indicates that the international system is more likely to remain stable when a single sta ...
and
power transition theory
Power transition theory is a theory about the nature of war, in relation to the power in international relations. The theory was first published in 1958 by its creator, A.F.K. Organski, in his textbook, ''World Politics'' (1958).
Overview
Accor ...
.
Liberalism
Liberalism has a shorter history than realism but has been a prominent theory since
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. It is a concept with a variety of meanings. Liberal thinking dates back to philosophers such as
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
and
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
, who argued that
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
constitutions produce peace. Kant's concept of
Perpetual Peace is arguably seen as the starting point of contemporary liberal thought.
=Economic liberalism
=
Economic liberalism assumes that economic openness and interdependence between countries makes them more peaceful than countries who are isolated. Eric Gartzke has written that economic freedom is 50 times more effective than democracy in creating peace.
Globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
has been important to economic liberalism.
=Liberal institutionalism
=
Liberal institutionalism views international institutions as the main factor to avoid conflicts between nations. Liberal institutionalists argue that; although the anarchic system presupposed by realists cannot be made to disappear by institutions; the international environment that is constructed can influence the behavior of states within the system. Varieties of
international governmental organization
An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...
s (IGOs) and
international non-governmental organization
An international non-governmental organization (INGO) is an organization which is independent of government involvement and extends the concept of a non-governmental organization (NGO) to an international scope.
NGOs are independent of government ...
s (INGOs) are seen as contributors to world peace.
Some believe that these international institutions lead to neotrusteeship, or postmodern imperialism. International institutions lead to an interconnectedness between strong and weak or post-conflict nations. In a situation such as a collapsed, weak-nation without the means of autonomous recovery, international institutions often lead to involvement by a stronger nation to aid in recovery. Because there is no definite international security policy to address weak or post-conflict nations, stronger nations sometimes face “mission-creep,” a shift from supplying and aiding nations to an escalation of mission goals, when aiding weaker nations. In addition, there is some debate due to lack of testing that international intervention is not the best institution to aid weak or post-war nations. Possible mission-creep, as well as inefficiencies in international intervention, creates debate as to the effectiveness of international institutions in peacekeeping.
Comparison between realism and liberalism
Constructivism
Since its founding in the 1980s,
constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
has become an influential approach in international security studies. "It is less a theory of
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
or security, however, than a broader social theory which then informs how we might approach the study of security." Constructivists argue that
security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...
is a
social construction
Social constructionism is a theory in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory which proposes that certain ideas about physical reality arise from collaborative consensus, instead of pure observation of said reality. The theory ...
. They emphasize the importance of social, cultural and historical factors, which leads to different actors construing similar events differently.
Women in international security
As stated previously on this page, international and national security are inherently linked. Former U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
has been prominent in highlighting the importance of women in national and thus international security. In what has been referred to as "
the Hillary Doctrine
The "Hillary Doctrine" is the doctrine of former United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, particularly in reference to her stance that women's rights and violence against women should be considered issues of national security. The ...
", she highlights the adversarial relationship between extremism and women's liberation in making the point that with women's freedom comes the liberation of whole societies.
As states like
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
grant more rights to women, further liberation and stability within such countries will inevitably ensue, fostering greater security throughout the international realm.
Along the same lines, Secretary of State
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...
stated that "no country can get ahead if it leaves half of its people behind. This is why the United States believes gender equality is critical to our shared goals of prosperity, stability, and peace, and why investing in women and girls worldwide is critical to advancing US foreign policy".
Elevating women to equal standing internationally will help achieve greater peace and security. This can be seen in both developmental and economic factors, as just two examples among many. Built into American foreign policy is the idea that empowering women leads to greater international development due to their increased ability to maintain "the well-being of their families and communities, drive social progress, and stabilize societies."
Female empowerment through economic investment, such as supporting their participation in the workforce, allows women to sustain their families and contribute to overall economic growth in their communities.
Such principles must be propagated nationally and globally in order to increase the agency of women to achieve the necessary gender equality for international security.
There is much consideration within feminist
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
(IR) surrounding the importance of female presence to international security. The inclusion of women in discussions surrounding international cooperation increases the likelihood of new questions being asked that may not be given consideration in an otherwise masculine-dominated environment. As a renowned theorist within Feminist IR,
J. Ann Tickner points out questions that women would likely be more inclined to ask in regards to war and peace. For example, why men have been the predominant actors in combat, how gender hierarchies contribute to the legitimation of war, and the consequences of associating women with peace.
[Tickner, J.A. (2006). ''Feminism meets International Relations: some methodological issues''. New York, Cambridge University Press, p. 23-24.] In general, the main issue of concern to feminists within IR is why in political, social, and economic realms, femininity remains inferior to masculinity, as they see the effects of this transcendental hierarchy both nationally and internationally.
Such considerations contribute significant perspective to the role that women play in maintaining peaceful conditions of international security.
Despite acknowledgment of the importance of recognizing women's role in maintaining international security by Clinton, Kerry, and conceivably many others, the fact remains that women are disproportionately presented as victims, rather than actors or leaders. This can be derived by looking at information and statistics presented in Joni Seager's book ''The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World''. For example, in combat zones, women face heightened risks of sexual assault, and their familial responsibilities are complicated by reduced access to necessary resources.
[Seager, J. (2008). The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World. New York, Penguin Books, p. 100.] In terms of governmental presence, (to support their role as leaders), women have not yet achieved equal representation in any state, and very few countries have legislative bodies that are more than 25% female.
While prominent female politicians are becoming more frequent, "women leaders around the world like those who become presidents or prime ministers or foreign ministers or heads of corporations cannot be seen as tokens that give everyone else in society the change to say we've taken care of our women".
This statement by Clinton reiterates the necessity to confront such on-going challenges to female participation, making such issues pertinent to international security.
Prominent thinkers
*
Nayef Al-Rodhan
Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan ( ar, نايف الروضان; born 1959) is a Saudi philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author. He is an honorary fellow of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, and senior fellow ...
–
Symbiotic Realism
*
Robert Axelrod
Robert Marshall Axelrod (born May 27, 1943) is an American political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan where he has been since 1974. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work o ...
–
Liberal institutionalism
*
Barry Buzan –
Copenhagen School
*
Edward Hallett Carr
Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Russ ...
–
Classical realism
Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.
Origins
The term "Clas ...
*
Robert Gilpin
Robert Gilpin (; July 2, 1930 – June 20, 2018) was an American political scientist. He was Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University where he held th ...
–
Neorealism
*
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
–
Classical realism
Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.
Origins
The term "Clas ...
*
Robert Jervis
Robert Jervis (April 30, 1940 – December 9, 2021) was an American political scientist who was the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. Jervis was co-editor of the ...
–
Neorealism
*
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
–
Kantian liberalism
*
Peter J. Katzenstein
Peter Joachim Katzenstein FBA (born February 17, 1945) is a German-American political scientist. He is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Katzenstein has made influential contributions to the ...
–
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
*
Robert Keohane
Robert Owen Keohane (born October 3, 1941) is an American academic working within the fields of international relations and international political economy. Following the publication of his influential book ''After Hegemony'' (1984), he has beco ...
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Liberal institutionalism
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Machiavelli –
Classical realism
Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.
Origins
The term "Clas ...
*
John Mearsheimer
John Joseph Mearsheimer (; born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, who belongs to the realist school of thought. He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the Univers ...
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Neorealism
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Hans J. Morgenthau –
Classical realism
Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.
Origins
The term "Clas ...
*
Joseph Nye
Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. (born January 19, 1937) is an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book ''Power and Interdependence''. Togethe ...
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Liberal institutionalism
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Kathryn Sikkink Kathryn Sikkink (born 1955) is an author, human rights academic, and scholar of international relations working primarily through the theoretical strain of constructivism. She is currently at professor at Harvard Kennedy School.
Academic career
Ka ...
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Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
*
Thucydides
Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
–
Classical realism
Classical Realism is an artistic movement in the late-20th and early 21st century in which drawing and painting place a high value upon skill and beauty, combining elements of 19th-century neoclassicism and realism.
Origins
The term "Clas ...
*
Kenneth Waltz
Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of ...
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Neorealism
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Alexander Wendt
Alexander Wendt (born 12 June 1958) is an American political scientist who is one of the core social constructivist researchers in the field of international relations, and a key contributor to quantum social science. Wendt and academics such as ...
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Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
Human security
Human security derives from the traditional concept of security from military threats to the safety of people and communities.
[Tadjbakhsh, S. and A. Chenoy (2007). ''Human Security: Concepts and Implications''. New York, Routledge.] It is an extension of mere existence (survival) to well-being and dignity of human beings.
Human security Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather th ...
is an emerging school of thought about the practice of international security. Under The
(OCHA), the Commission on Human Security (CHS), in its final report, Human Security Now defines human security as “…to protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfillment." Critics of the concept of human security claim that it covers almost everything and that it is too broad to be the focus of research. There have also been criticisms of its challenge to the role of states and their sovereignty.
The challenge continues with the debate between responsibility for protection of the international community versus the sovereignty of each state.
Human security offers a critique of and advocates an alternative to the traditional state-based conception of security.
[Arcudi, G. (2006).]
La sécurité entre permanence et changement"
''Relations Internationales'' 125(1): 97–109. Essentially, it argues that the proper referent for security is the individual and that state practices should reflect this rather than primarily focusing on securing borders through unilateral military action. The justification for the human security approach is said to be that the traditional conception of security is no longer appropriate or effective in the highly interconnected and interdependent modern world in which global threats such as poverty, environmental degradation, and terrorism supersede the traditional security threats of interstate attack and warfare.
Further, state-interest-based arguments for human security propose that the international system is too interconnected for the state to maintain an
isolationist
Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entan ...
international policy. Therefore, it argues that a state can best maintain its security and the security of its citizens by ensuring the security of others. It is need to be noted that without the traditional security no human security can be assured.
Human security is more aligned with non-traditional threats of international security. Compared to the traditional security issues, human security "has been related more to nation-states than to people."
[United Nations Development Program. 1994. “Human Development Report.”] Thus, the emphasis on security transitions from territorial security between states to the individual people's security. The two main components includes freedom from fear and freedom from want.
The list of human security threats is broad, but can be narrowed under seven main categories:
economic security
Economic security or financial security is the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future. It includes:
* probable continued solvency
* predictability of the future cash ...
,
food security
Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...
,
health security Health security is a concept that encompasses activities and measures across sovereign boundaries that mitigates public health incidents to ensure the health of populations. It is an evolving paradigm within the fields of international relations and ...
,
environmental security Environmental security examines threats posed by environmental events and trends to individuals, communities or nations. It may focus on the impact of human conflict and international relations on the environment, or on how environmental problems c ...
,
personal security Security of the person is a basic entitlement guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. It is also a human right explicitly defined and guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, th ...
, community security, and
political security.
Some examples include human trafficking, disease, environmental and natural disasters, degradation, poverty, and more.
UNDP human security proposal
The 1994
UNDP
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
Human Development Report (HDR)
proposes that increasing human security entails:
* Investing in human development, not in arms;
* Engaging policy makers to address the emerging peace dividend;
* Giving the United Nations a clear mandate to promote and sustain development;
* Enlarging the concept of development cooperation so that it includes all flows, not just aid;
* Agreeing that 20 percent of national budgets and 20 percent of foreign aid be used for human development; and
* Establishing an Economic Security Council.
The report elaborates on seven components to human security. Tadjbakhsh and Chenoy list them as follows:
See also
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Democratic peace theory
The democratic peace theory posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Among proponents of the democratic peace theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between democratic s ...
*
Global catastrophic risk
A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanen ...
*
Human security Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenges the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather th ...
*
Peace and conflict studies
*
Security studies
__NOTOC__
Security studies, also known as international security studies, is an academic sub-field within the wider discipline of international relations that studies organized violence, military conflict, national security, and international ...
*
Territorial peace theory
The territorial peace theory finds that the stability of a country's borders has a large influence on the political climate of the country. Peace and stable borders foster a democratic and tolerant climate, while territorial conflicts with neighb ...
*
Violent non-state actor
In international relations, violent non-state actors (VNSAs), also known as non-state armed actors or non-state armed groups (NSAGs), are individuals or groups that are wholly or partly independent of governments and which threaten or use viole ...
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World peace
World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth. Different cultures, religions, philosophies, and organizations have varying concepts on how such a state would ...
References
Further reading
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External links
The European Union Institute for Security StudiesEvolution in international security through the United Nations: The presentation of the Eurocorps-Foreign Legion conceptat the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute of International and Development StudiesCenter for International Security StudiesCentre for International Studies (Security, IR)Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - Conflict, Peace and Security
{{DEFAULTSORT:International Security
Political terminology
Security studies
International relations
International relations theory