Human Security and Securitisation

Question 1

Define securitization

Answer 1

An articulation o fan issue whether t be real or potential as an existential threat to a referent object, thus requiring an emergency response. This is conducted through the process of a speech act and must ten be accepted or denied by the target audience for the process of securitisation to be complete. Often the issue at hand has already become politicised.

Question 2

Strengths of securitization

Answer 2

Understanding the process allows for individuals to better evaluate whether an issue should truly be a security issue as well as allowing them to identify the inherent biases of the securitising actor

Question 3

Weakness of Securitisation

Answer 3

It is State and Eurocentric. It isn’t predictive it is only an understanding theory

Question 4

“War on Terror”

Answer 4

Is an example of securitisation. The emergency response resulted in the US base defense budget increasing from $287 billion in 2001 to $530 Billion by 2013

Question 5

IR Theories and securitisation

Answer 5

Realism: It is strongly linked to the realist notion of the state as the referent object
Liberalism: It acknowledges the role of the individual which is strongly linked to liberalism
Constructivism: Focus on Discourse

Question 6

What is the first step in the process of Securitisation?

Answer 6

1) Non-Politicised issue:
- The state does not deal with the issue
- The issue is not included in public debate

Question 7

What is the second step in the process of securitization?

Answer 7

2) Politicised:
- The issue is managed within the standard political system
- It is part of public policy, requiring government decision and resources allocation or more rarely some form of communal governance

Question 8

What is the third step in the process of securitisation?

Answer 8

3) Securitisation:
- The issue is framed as a security question through an act of securitisation
- A securitising actor articulates an already politicised issue as an existential threat to a referent object

Question 9

Give 3 reasons as to why an issue might be securitised.

Answer 9

• To direct funding and attention to a particular problem
• To increase and consolidate regime and government power
• To legitimise the role of the military in a civilian problem so as to give them power over other government agencies

Question 10

What are the central principles of Human Security?

Answer 10

• The individual is the referent object
• Humans should have freedom from want as well as freedom from fear
• As well as freedom from violence and the threat of violence

Question 11

What report introduced the term Human Security?

Answer 11

The 1994 UNDP report on Human Development

Question 12

What has driven the concept of Human Security?

Answer 12

The idea that states have responsibilities, not just rights along with the humanitarians crises like the Rwandan Genocide

Question 13

What did the UN declare to be a security threat in 2014?

Answer 13

Ebola

Question 14

Is the securitization of health a new thing?

Answer 14

No. It has been happening since before the Westphalian system existed but only in the sense of how it could affect the military.

Question 15

What has brought health security to the forefront?

Answer 15

The UN secretary Generals high-level panel on Threats Challenges and Changes

Question 16

What can fuel Malaria and Dengue fever?

Answer 16

Climate Change

Question 17

What illustrates the change in the prominence of Health Security?

Answer 17

During Clinton’s Presidency, the national strategy only included Health in brief. During Obama’s presidency, a significant portion was devoted to a wide range of health topics.

Question 18

Give 3 potential effects of a health issue to security

Answer 18

• Mass migration
• Effects on the stability and confidence in the state
• High mortality which could pose challenges for the operation of the state

Question 19

When did the UNSC adopt resolutions on HIV and AIDS?

Answer 19

In 2000 and 2011

Question 20

What did the UNSC urge in resolution 1308?

Answer 20

This resolution regards HIV and AIDs. They urged voluntary testing and counselling for peacekeepers and attempted to generate more global action by looking at the potential socio-economic effects, undermined social cohesion, exacerbated inequality and induced human rights abuses it could create. They stressed the necessity of research and the need for a development of a vaccine and stated the UNGA was to take a lead role.

Question 21

What action did France take in regard to HIV/Aids?

Answer 21

They called a conference and proposed a conference with the relevant parties to keep the cost of necessary medication down in order to allow developing countries access to it.

Question 22

What number was the UNSC resolution of Ebola?

Answer 22

Resolution 2177

Question 23

What was the aim of UNSC resolution 2177?

Answer 23

To attempt to get the international community to avoid isolating countries with ebola cases. As well as to ensure states accepted and helped the WHO lead the fight against ebola. This resolution became symbolic of the increasing securitisation of health.

Question 24

Stefan Elbe’s argument in regards to the securitisation of aids.

Answer 24

It could push the response so far into the military category that it could risk dehumanising the response and result in harsh and unjust policies being adopted. It could also dehumanise those with aids which is not the best way to deal with in infectious disease.

Question 25

What is questionable about the relationship between health and security?

Answer 25

That there is very little empirical evidence for the effects on a macro-level

Question 26

What did the 2014 Pentagon report state in regard to Climate Change?

Answer 26

That it posed an “immediate risk to the United States national security.”

Question 27

What is unique about climate change as a security issue?

Answer 27

It poses a threat to many different referent objects

Question 28

The USDoD on Climate Change

Answer 28

They label it a “threat multiplier” and their papers focus on adaptation rather than mitigation.

Question 29

What has fueled the securitization of climate change?

Answer 29

The end of the Cold War

Question 30

What indicates a failure to address Climate change in the US?

Answer 30

The presence of adaptation only strategies rather than mitigation ones.

Question 31

What weakens the human security approach to Climate Change?

Answer 31

The continued inclusion of the state as the key security actor

Question 32

How does food security affect security?

Answer 32

When we don’t have access to food and water we are more likely to go to war to get it. For example, the 2008 food price crisis resulted in riots throughout the world

Question 33

When was the World Food Crisis?

Answer 33

1970s

Question 34

Enzo et al argument on the Columbian food Crisis

Answer 34

In the 1970s, the Colombian government successfully securitised the food issue in the context of a reduction of external food aid and failed land reform.

Question 35

How did Columbia deal with the world food crisis in the 1970s?

Answer 35

They implemented the multi-sectorial approach

Question 36

Define food security

Answer 36

Food security exists when all people, at al times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life

Question 37

What are food problems in Columbia mainly related to?

Answer 37

access

Question 38

How did the issue of food security change on an international level in the 1970s?

Answer 38

It moved from being a health issue to a development issue

Question 39

Where did scholars gather in 1971 to discuss food issues? How did this effect the UN?

Answer 39

MIT. It affected the UN by filtering through to them.

Question 40

What played a key role in ensuring food issues were heard on a global scale?

Answer 40

The Famines in Africa

Question 41

What organisation did the Columbian Government create as a result of their securitisation of food supply?

Answer 41

The National Committee on Food and Nutrition Technology

Question 42

What portion of all children under 5 in Columbia showed signs of undernutrition?

Answer 42

60%

Question 43

President Lopez’s Statement regarding the securitisation of food in Columbia

Answer 43

“The nutritional situation of the Colombian population constitutes without any doubt, one of the most acute social problems of the country.”

Question 44

What depressed local agriculture in Columbia?

Answer 44

Imports being cheaper and hence more attractive to buyers than local produce

Question 45

How did Lopez frame the securitisation of food in Columbia?

Answer 45

As a nutritional problem affecting the capacity of the poor.

Question 46

How much money did the World Bank and Canada pay Columbia for rural development?

Answer 46

$170 million

Question 47

The PAN Food Program

Answer 47

Focused on food production and redistribution, education about nutrition (i.e. school gardens), health care and sanitation.

Question 48

How was Food securitised in Columbia?

Answer 48

In the 1980s the new Turbay govt said that “Undoubtedly the country has registered much progression on the food area through the past years.”