International Conflicts
Executive Summary
Enhancing human security is vital for the promotion of state and global security. The essay below describes the aspects of human security and how it has evolved over the years with relevant examples from countries that have experienced state conflicts continuously. The article also outlines the sources of human insecurity and offers ways on how they can be eradicated to maintain state security. The aim of the essay is to detail the relevance of human security to state security as well as the future prospects of human security.
Introduction
Human security means recognizing the safety of citizens as vital to attaining and maintaining national security (Newman 79). Human security not only involves protecting people from military threats but also from non-military sources such as drugs, crime, disease and pollution.
The security state of a nation along with territorial and country-wide integrity originated from Westphalia Treaty when empires evolved to states for example the Ottoman Empire. In that period, the nation-state power was enforced which was recorded in the United Nations Charter as the central organizing concept. In the 2nd Article of the United Nations Charter, all states are entitled to political independence and territorial integrity (Thakur 121). Hence, in the 1950s and 1960s, colonial empires disintegrated to new nation-states thus ensuring the crumble colonialism.
The aspect of human security originated from the 19th century Europe that led to the liberalization of society and the emancipation of war and politics. The evolution of human security began to be demonstrated in various global treaties in the 19th century such as the 1899 Hague Convention which indicated pioneer attempts to modify the pre-existing war customs and laws to introduce humanitarian laws and rights into the states’ wars conduct (Burgess 88). The humanitarian law was further advocated by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the UN Conventions against Torture and Genocide. The international bodies campaigned and advocated for the protection of armed conflicts victims of international and non-international protocols. Recently, the process of humanitarian laws has been taken up by the Statute of the International Criminal court that conducts human security negotiations.
Discussion
After World War II that led to insecurity due to inhuman acts, the impetus established a group of practices and law to increase the degree of human rights safety and protection. The evidence is found in articles 55 and 56 of the UN Charter that requires member states to be obligated and take part in individual actions to enhance the global respect for human rights and constitutional freedom to all human beings (Williams 23). Rather than state stability and peace, the implications of the Cold War were more wars, more recovery states, more refugees and disorder. However, the conflicts are currently within the states, which cause colossal victimization of citizens. For example, in the 1st World War, 5% of the affected victims were civilians. Moreover, the Mozambique civil war led to 95% of civilian casualties thus by 1990, 5 million citizens were deceased. Also, in Southern Sudan, 97% of the fatalities were ordinary citizens. Due to increase in population over the years, many people live in disaster-prone regions such as volcano slopes, floodplains, and fault lines and next to ocean shores which are highly susceptible to earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, violent storms, and other virulent epidemics. All these pandemic episodes can be attributed to global warming that causes drastic changes in climatic patterns (Scheffran et al. 47).
Human security measures have been strictly enforced recently because of the development of media communication. Internet connection and live television news such as CNN have played critical roles in enhancing public awareness of distant state disasters hence creating consciousness (Gasper 121). The civil society emerged to survey the development enforced of human security policies. NGOs are also important groups because they not only create social consciousness but also pressure state governments to oversee the implementation of human security laws. A good example is the Ottawa campaign to anti-cadre landmines.
Another factor that fuels the norm of human security is new technology and techniques for example partnerships between different state governments, international media campaigns, INGOs (ICRC) and online communications (Tripp, Myra and Christina 88). Some key players such as corporations which negatively impact human security in nations that are highly prone to conflicts and instability could have drastic effects such as death. Therefore, large enterprises should conduct businesses with social responsibility to prevent conflicts and serve for the protection of human security.
Is Human Security an Alternative to State Security?
According to Williams (24), human security is and should not be considered an alternative to state security. Even with the development of an international cyber, the enforcement of order requires the formulation of rules, the implementation of regulations requires authority in the form of a government, and the power is exercised on behalf of state’s citizens, for instance, the EU commission. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation administration, the Human Rights Universal Declaration and its branches, the International Justice Court and the United Nations Charter all offer the foundation for global order (Howard-Hassmann 88). However, despite the framework of interstate partnerships and associations assisting in international security, they are inadequate to ensure individual state security.
State security and human security can be viewed as two sides of a coin meaning that they both complement each other. However, human security involves establishing security gradually from its foundation. Human security is, therefore, a concept of ‘soft power’ which translates into influence and status (Thakur 122). Soft power can be categorized into values and image which play crucial roles in influencing other states, for example how the American state exercises its influence on millions of people in other countries to desire to live in the U.S.A.
Future Prospects of Human Security in Relation to State Security
The agenda of human security continues to evolve to suit civilian changing requirements and opportunities. The main themes of the human security agenda include safety of the society addressing trans-state threats to the security of citizens for example terrorism, international crime and drug commercialization (Jackson 340). They also encompass humanitarian response decreasing the implications of conflict to humans to enhance the physical and legal protection of citizens. Accountability is also another theme that serves to improve the scope of private and public sector amendment, transparency and corruption. Finally, conflict resolution including coercive and cooperative helps to resolve and prevent conflict through the implementation of local expertise, human rights field movements, the organization of police peace support operations through the cooperation of correction officers, judges, and police (Newman 1739).
In the year 2000, the European Commission implemented the resolution strategy inter alia to establish a checklist to assist members of the Security Council to enforce civilian protection (Howard-Hassmann 88). The UN Security Council in New York created a working faction to oversee the Council’s accession to sanctions and to offer a symposium to promote ways of making assents more sufficient and humane.
Currently, terrorism is the main threat to human security, regional growth, and stability, therefore, making one of the essential agendas in the principles of the United Nations Charter and the international law about human rights and humanitarian law (Jackson 343). The United Nations Security Council is expected to address the risks of trans-state terrorism and to enforce capacity establishment and technical aid efforts in order to meet the collective challenges of human security threat.
Peacebuilding to enhance Human Security
The relationship between human security and peacebuilding should be analyzed with a broad conceptualization of social structures including the following:
Elemental sources of human insecurity: They consist of harmful consequences and neglect of establishment that subvert human security and human rights. The actions include the neglect and politicization of defense forces, the unprofessionalism and insurgent and police forces that were previously a crucial part of the law enforcement system (Burgess 91). Some particular examples of elemental sources of human insecurity are low wages, employees or soldiers going for months without compensation, firing of workers without reason and freeze on hiring. The neglect of institutions can be illustrated by the lack of drugs and facilities in health centers.
Cultural and structural sources of human security: They are the harmful actions and impacts associated with the current modes of thinking and intellect in the state and international society. The sources occur due to the reduction of traditional security systems and the evolution of a neo-liberal morality which is more applicable to the cultures of the developed states. The individual effects of cultural and structural sources are increased tension between groups or tribes within a country and an increase on frontier violence and crimes (Tripp, Myra and Christina 93). Other consequences include increase in infant mortality, low life expectancy and recurrence of old diseases.
Personal sources of human security: They are the practices directed against individuals or property that lead to noticeable and actual effects. The consequences include inter-communal conflicts, lootings, banditry, and others. The elderly, children and women experience the most harmful effects.
Human security involves the comprehension and eradication of insecurity measures at the individual, institutional and structural society levels. It also requires understanding of the nature of gender, ethnic equality, class among other factors. An example of human security measures is disbanding structures to contribute to conflict by implementing short-term processes of controlling ceasefire, disarmament, and demobilization and regulating competitive elections among rival politicians (Scheffran et al. 54).
Efforts to establish peace have experienced various challenges in post-conflict communities throughout the years which create a need to restructure traditional concepts. For example, after Sierre Leone’s post-civil war, peacebuilding would apply not only to reduce the number of post-war casualties but also to experience common expectations, identities, and understanding that improve social order to eradicate pragmatic insecurity, corruption and all forms of exploitation (Gasper 126). The traditional concepts of peacebuilding only advocate for negative peace which prioritizes mechanisms of state building and state security. Countries like Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Liberia are victims of the traditional peacebuilding efforts that failed to translate to long-term peace.
According to studies revealed by the World Bank, the global system has repeatedly failed to restructure the social setting of war-struck states due to the assumption that the political and economic strengthening of a nation will automatically foster long-term that prevails hostilities. Apart from political and economic state stability, other factors that must be considered for the attainment of human security are interethnic interactions, aggregate intentionality, social empowerment, and cultural identity and integrity issues (Newman 1740).
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