1. International Security and Peace
Changed Nature of Intl Security, Human Security, and Securitization
Jaechun Kim

2. Changed Nature of International Security Today…
How can we define “security”?
Freedom from threats… freedom from wants?
Traditional concept of (intl’) security
Focus was on the security at the national level
Focus was on the “national security” largely defined in “military” terms…
That is, focus was on the military capabilities that states need to deal with the threats coming from outside… Why??

3. Because of high frequency of interstate wars…
Enemy states had been the primary source of security threats…
But is it still true in contemporary era?
Security threats are not coming from other states…
Now many pundits claim that wars between major industrialized countries are becoming a relic of the past…

4. Frequency of interstate war has decreased dramatically… one of the key characteristics of international security in contemporary era – decreased frequency of interstate wars
However, domestic armed conflicts and civil wars continue to increase… increased frequency of intrastate wars

5. Decline of civil wars that are classified as “ideological” or “class-based”… and the concomitant rise of conflicts classified as ethnic…tribal…
Warfare is becoming increasingly communalized…
Individuals and groups are making wars
e.g., Al Qaeda
Wars = Crimes… e.g., tribal wars in sub-Saharan African states… read Robert Kaplan’s Coming Anarchy

6. Income and Civil War Risk
Inverse relationship…
Per capita income is the single best predictor of a country’s odds of civil war outbreak
This is a better indicator than ethnic or religious diversity
 need to build viable statehood and to provide developmental aids to failed states…
Failed statehood is the primary source of all the bad things…

7. Absence of War between Leading Powers
Get back to the issue of decreasing interstate wars…
The US, Japan, and Western Europe have formed “security community.”
The major concern of IR has been war and the possibility of war among the great powers  greatest discontinuity
But do you agree with this claim?
This does not mean that there won’t be any conflicts between these leading countries…
Churchill: “People talked a lot of nonsense when they said nothing was ever settled by war. Nothing in history was ever settled except by war.”

8. Explaining the Obsolescence of Major Wars
Realist Explanation
Skeptical of this claim…
American Hegemony (HST)
Nuclear Weapons
Liberalism
Democracy
Economic Interdependence
Cobden: “Free Trade is God’s diplomacy and there is no other certain way of uniting people in bonds of peace.”
Frederick Bastiat: “If goods cannot cross borders, armies will.”
International Organization and International Law

9. Constructivism Role of ideas and changed identity…
Through interactions and processes – socialization – they came to adopt norms relating to sovereignty, territory, borders, and conquest….
It became their inter-subjective (shared) understanding….

10. Human Security
Growing obsolescence of interstate wars… rather, people feel insecure because of other reasons…
Now people feel insecure because of new types of threats such as…
The process of Globalization brings in new risks and dangers. As globalization accelerates in the 21st century, such threats are internationalized…. Such threats are transnational in nature…

11. These threats to security are largely outside the control of nation-states.
They are not being sufficiently addressed through the traditional framework of national security.

12. The origin of the concept goes back to the publication of the Human Development Report, issued by UNDP 1994, which argued that “ human security is not a concern with weapons, it is a concern with human life and dignity”.
Since then, the concept has provoked intellectual debates as to what purpose it should serve and how…
The concept underwent quite a few modifications…

13. Environmental Degradation Under- Development; Failed Statehood
Intl
Terrorism
Environmental Degradation
Under-
Development; Failed
Statehood
New patterns of
security threats of 21st century
Natural
Disasters
Refugee
Problem
Transnational Disease
Intra-state Wars
Drug Trafficking
Organized Crime

14. Several Characteristics of Human Security
According to 1994 UNDP Report…
Focus has to be on the individual human beings, not on nation states… referent object is individual or group… Are we secure?
Human Security has the characteristic of universality just like Human Rights: it is applicable to individuals everywhere…equally…

15. Very overarching concept!
The concept is not limited to human survival; it includes the right of people to exercise choices safely and freely… and that they can be fairly confident that the opportunities they have today will not be lost tomorrow.
Safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression.
Protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life - whether in homes, in jobs or communities. Such threats exist at all levels of national income and development.
Very overarching concept!
States may well continue to invest in traditional defense, but they are not able to deal with new problems properly…

16. Tensions between the Schools of Human Security
The Narrow School
HS – ‘the protection of individuals and communities from war and other forms of violence’ (Human Security Center: 2005)
Freedom from Fear vs. Freedom from Want (cf. UNDP)
The role of state is still very important…
The Broad School
Freedom from Want (1994 UNDP Report)

17. Underdevelopment is real threat!
Alkiri (2004: 360) – HS is “to protect the vital core of all human lives in ways that advance human freedoms and human fulfillment.”
Underdevelopment is real threat!
Underdevelopment is source of violence
Skeptical about the role of state…

18. Evolution of HS (Human Security) Concept
HS expanded the traditional concept of security horizontally and vertically…
Horizontal dimension – issue areas: not just military security, but non military security as well… economic, environmental, educational,… etc.
Vertical dimension – referent objects: no longer state, but groups, individuals, etc.

19. UNDP – the broadest… Human Development Report 1994
Horizontal dimension – All the threats – freedom from want!
Vertical dimension – all the people in the world
Means – non state actors!

20. CHS (Commission on Human Security)
Human Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People, 2003
UNDP Report is too radical and unrealistic… impractical…
Certain threats - Freedom from Violence!
Referent Objects - Not all humans equally, but the priority should be given to some people…
It should be given to people in under-developed parts of the world

21. Means - State should provide human security… cf
Means - State should provide human security… cf. UNDP – skeptical of states’ role, calling for new global governance
Offers a more realistic solution to HS problem…

22. UNESCO Human Security: Approaches and Challenges, 2008
Similar to CHS’s notion of HS…
Referent Objects – people with extreme poverty in under-developed countries

23. Human Security: Report of the Secretary-General, 2010, 2012
Concept - HS supplements traditional concept of security, not replacing it…
Referent object – all humans
Means - Only state can provide HS…

24. Commission on Human Security
UNDP
Commission on Human Security
UNESCO
Report of the
Secretary -General
Referent Objects
All Humans
People in under-developed countries
People with extreme poverty in under-developed countries
Security Provider
Non-state actors
State actors, IOs, NGOs, Civil Society
State
Sovereignty No
Provisional
Absolute
Role of the State
Source of Threat
Security Provider & Source of Threat
Security Provider &
Sources of Threat

25. Commission on Human Security
UNDP
Commission on Human Security
UNESCO
Report of the
Secretary -General
Means
New Forms of Global Governance
Under the existing sovereign state system
Only under the sovereign state system
Priority
Economic Security-Food Security-Environment Security-Civil Security-Political Security
Political Security-Civil Security-Environmental Security-Institutional Security-Economic Security-Health Security
Civil Security-Economic Security-Political Security-Institutional Security-Cultural Security-Environmental Security
Unnecessary

26. Can “human security” be an alternative (that is, alternative to traditional conception of national security) way of conceptualizing international security in the 21st century?

27. Securitization The Copenhagen School invented this concept
Wideners (Broad School): the definition of security should encompass five different sectors – military, political, societal, economic and environmental security
Allows for non-military matters to be included in security studies, but it also seeks a coherent concept of security...Coherent analytic tool…

28. Any specific matter can be non-politicized, politicized, or securitized…
An issue is non-politicized when it is not a matter for state action, and when it is not included in public debate
An issue is politicized when it is a “part of public policy, requiring government decision and resource allocations…” (Buzan, Waevaer, De Wilde 1998: 23).
A politicized issue is managed within the standard political system (or processes)….
An issue is securitized when it requires emergency actions beyond the state’s standard political procedures…

29. Securitizing process
An issue can be securitized; it can be framed as a security issue and moved from the politicized to the securitized end of the spectrum, through an act of securitization.
A securitizing actors (usually elites in gov., military, civil society, etc.) claim that an issue constitutes an existential threat to a referent objects (state, groups, individuals, or to sovereignty, ideology, economy, etc.)

30. To deal with the existential nature of the threat, the securitizing actors assert that it has to adopt extraordinary means, means that go beyond the ordinary norms of the standard political process.
Securitization is the “move that takes issue beyond routine politics, beyond the established rule of the game…” (Buzan, Waevaer, De Wilde 1998: 23)

31. Non-politicized Politicized Securitized the state doesn’t
cope with the
issue.
the issue is not included in public debate.
the issue is managed within the standard political system.
the issue is framed as a security problem through securitization.
the issue is understood as constituting external threat.

32. Speech Act
Securitizing actors use speech act to articulate a problem in security terms… to articulate it as an existential threat to security…
Discursive representation of a certain issue as an existential threat to security…
* Fiscal crisis can be articulated as national security crisis! (Read Robert Kagan’s piece)

33. Desecuritization
Securitizing actors reconstitute an issue as no longer an existential threat, then the issue moves from the securitized realm into the ordinary public arena.
Desecuritization is the reverse process of securitization. It shifts the issue from emergency mode into the normal political sphere…

34. Some thoughts on securitization
Security is a socially constructed concept! It is a shared understanding of what constitutes a threat to a society…
What constitutes security to a given society depends on intersubjective understanding between securitizing actors and referent objects (it has to be accepted by referent objects!!!) as to what constitutes existential security threats!
It’s not predetermined!!! It cannot be imposed!!!

35. Security threats do not exist independently from the discourse
Security shouldn’t be idealized…
Securitization process can be abused by securitizing actors… in the name of providing security!
It does seem to provide a coherent logic as to what constitutes security… how one issue becomes a security issue…