Human Security: Concept and Critiques

Question 1

2 definitions of security

Answer 1

• “A speech act [that] moves the particular case into a specific area; claiming a special right to use the means necessary to block this development.”
• “measures the absence of threats to acquire values.. and the absence of fear that such values will be attacked.”

Question 2

2 important things to remember about security

Answer 2

• prefixes and referent object are very important
• can be defined negatively or positively, using an external element or it can be more ephemeral or about groups with a state

Question 3

What are the Three Dimensions of Security?

Answer 3

referent object, nature of the threat, means to attain security

Question 4

Lockean concept of security

Answer 4

State doesn’t see freedom as a threat, state is established to protect our freedom from others

Question 5

maximalist state

Answer 5

• preserve the state to give other forms of security

- The state is something of its own, not just created by individuals, doesn’t matter if clash between state and citizens

Question 6

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 6

• ideal state has a monopoly on force due to the state of nature= chief threat to individual security is freedom
• So need to agree to a covenant amongst members of a state to protect each individual from the violence of others

Question 7

Barry Buzan

Answer 7

• key in redefining security
• argues that we are trapped in te idea of needing the state to protect itself from the international realm- to ensure its people are secure. This is not necessary.
• argues that state isn’t the only referent object as it lives in tension with people’s lives
• HS good as it reduces the risk of reductionism

Question 8

Examples of Buzan’s nonmilitary threats

Answer 8

• Political (stability, regime)
• Economic (access to resources, finance, welfare)
• Societal (cultural, language, identity, custom)
• Envionmental

Question 9

Minimalist state

Answer 9

State not much more than the sum of its parts, clashes between state and citizens should be avoided; national and international security all about individual security

Question 10

What are the 2 possible ways to determine between minimalist and maximalist states in reality?

Answer 10

• civil disorder

- dispropotionate security appartus

Question 11

4 categories of threats individuals might face from the state according to Buzan

Answer 11

• domestic law making and enforcement
• administrative or political action by the state against individuals or groups
• struggles over control of the state machinery
• that states external policies

Question 12

3 key points from Buzan reading

Answer 12

• individual security distinct but still subordinate to the higher level structures
• individual security affected positively and negatively by the state
• Individual pursuit of security can affect the security of the state

Question 13

4 key points about human security

Answer 13

• state can be a threat
• the individual is the referent object
• looks at non-military threats that can affect people and by extension the state in which they live in
• considers non-military solutions to non-military problems

Question 14

What are the Two key debates regarding Human Security?

Answer 14

• How broad should it be? What is too broad to be useful?

- Is the concept useful, radical or ‘safe’?

Question 15

1970s oil shocks

Answer 15

Key in the formation of Human security and making people think about energy security and the economic links

Question 16

1983 Palme Commission

Answer 16

Formed the concept of “common security”

Question 17

Japanese Government and HS

Answer 17

-use the concept ‘comprehensive security’ meaning “all measures that threaten human survival”

Question 18

Canadian government and HS

Answer 18

-use the concept “cooperative security” meaning “freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, safety or lives

Question 19

1994 UN Human Development report

Answer 19

-“The concept of security must change- from an exclusive stress on national security to a much greater stress on people’s security through armaments to security through human development, from territorial security to food, employment and environmental security.”

Question 20

Roland Paris definition of human security

Answer 20

“…safety from such chronic threats as hunger, disease, and repression. And second, it means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the matters of daily life-whether in homes, jobs or communities.”

Question 21

Roland Paris

Answer 21

• argues that the definition of HS makes it difficult to set a policy agenda-> if everything is important then nothing is
• ambiguity used to securitise and convey urgency to get resources etc
• does HS have any practical use for academic research or government policy making
• don’t need to treat everything equally-> this is the big trap that HS has fallen into

Question 22

According to Roland Paris what is the challenge with HS for policy makers and academics

Answer 22

to move beyond the all-encompassing and focus on specific solutions to specific political issues/ no clear direction as to what academics should be studying

Question 23

What does Roland Paris suggest should be done with Human Security?

Answer 23

-Use it as a broader category of research within security studies that is primarily concerned with non-military threats to safety of societies, groups, and individuals as this would be less encumbered by political terminology

Question 24

Name the 7 facets of Human Security

Answer 24

• economic security (freedom from poverty)
• Food security
• Health security (freedom from disease
• Environmental security (freedom from pollution, depletion)
• Personal security (physical threats)
• Community security (cultures, ethnicity)
• Political security (civil rights, freedom from oppression)

Question 25

Freedom from Fear approach to Human Security

Answer 25

• focus on organized violence, conflict and identifying the perpetrator
• aims to restrain violence in conflict and promote new behaviour norms
• distinction between combatants and non key
• Canada and Norway key

Question 26

Examples of Freedom from fear approach measures

Answer 26

• R2P
• ICC
• ICJ
• NATO
• Soverignty as responsibility

Question 27

Examples of Freedom from fear approach instruments

Answer 27

Peacebuilding architecture, Kimberly process, Land-mines treaty

Question 28

4 critiques of the Freedom from fear approach

Answer 28

• nothing exists to hold individuals/states accountable
• Does this truly capture environmental threats like CC
• too narrowly focused on violent conflict and ignores the wider threats are potentially more deadly
• violence not the only issue

Question 29

Freedom from want model

Answer 29

• about people, not states, focuses on non-military threats and peace dividends; e.g. economic, food, environmental, job, health security
• “Forgotten were the legitimate concerns of ordinary people who sought security in their daily lives”

Question 30

4 instruments of the Freedom from want model

Answer 30

• redistribution of wealth
• increased humanitarian and development assistance
• the shift from armaments to sustainable development
• MDGs/SDGs

Question 31

Four critiques of the freedom from want model

Answer 31

• kitchen sink theory= prioritization: if its everything its nothing
• dangers of securitising these issues i.e. development
• What about causal confusion e.g. Climate Change
• Can’t assume that changing the referent object will make people change their approach

Question 32

David Chandler

Answer 32

• Argues that HS is not the paradigm we think as by securitising development we reinforce old state structures (rhetorical dimensions)
• freedom from fear is dangerous as can undermine what meant to defend
• better to remove the paradigms and just get on with it

Question 33

Why does Chandler argue that HS approaches have been so “easily and willingly integrated into the mainstream”?

Answer 33

because they have

• Sought to exaggerate new post-CW security threats
• locate these threats in the developing world
• facilitate short-term policy making in the absence of clear strategic policy visions

Question 34

Taylor Owen

Answer 34

• HS= a broad theoretical church- not a critical project, it doesn’t need to be- nor ever meant to be- a critique of realism or state-centric security approaches
• HS not necessarily tainted by convergence with national security interests

Question 35

Taylor Owen on HS exagerating new post-Cold War security threats

Answer 35

• most security threats that have been magnified since the end of the cold war have been traditional rather than human in nature
• WMDs, terrorism, 9/11

Question 36

Taylor Owen on threats being located in the developing world

Answer 36

• this is where threats are most severe

- it is an empirical reality not an ideologically driven theory

Question 37

Taylor Owen on HS facilitating Short term policy in absences of clear FP visions

Answer 37

definitions should treat all threats to individuals objectively and prioritise FP on an objective assessment of threat severity. This is the opposite of what Chandler suggests

Question 38

Trumps Budget

Answer 38

• The anti-HS budget as it sees security as a physical threat with a military solution
• Dollar for dollar cut to the human security approach
• strategic interest vs greatest need

Question 39

What percentage of a cut in budget does Trump’s Budget propose for US diplomacy and foreign aid?

Answer 39

-28% cut particularly targeted at teh UN, Climate Change, and cultural exchange programs

Question 40

What percentage reduction does Trump’s budget propose for USAID?

Answer 40

28%

Question 41

How much of an increase in military spending does Trump’s budget propose?

Answer 41

$54 million

Question 42

What does Trumps budget eliminate?

Answer 42

The US Global Climate Change Initiative

Question 43

5 key arguments against Trump’s Budget?

Answer 43

• the budget makes people’s everyday lives harder -> this will backfire
• Takes a clean up the mess approach rather than dealing with the potential causes of future conflict
• development aid creates viable markets to trade with, by stopping this you consequently limit your own economic opportunities
• Short term approach that will be detrimental long terms
• lays the ground for an internal insurgence