The Concept of International Security in the Global Era - Term Paper Example

International Security in the Global Era The present work is devoted to the discussion of the question of international security in the global era. The main question to be answered is whether the concepts of international security should be expanded beyond the notions of military force. To answer this question, the main global threats and theoretical concepts will be described and considered. The notion of ‘security’ is closely connected with the category of international security. Moreover, the second notion is the derivative of the first one. Security is called to provide the guarantees of invulnerability of the basic vital interests of the global community, the interests, for protecting of which it will rather start the war, than look for compromises. In other words, global security is a strategy, directed at providing the vitally important interests of the global community. This is the classical realistic approach to the issue. (Buzan 2003, p. 11) It should be reminded, that from the viewpoint of political realism, international relations always exist in the shadow of the war. Thus, the main means of achieving and protecting international security in realism and neorealism is supposed to be force (in its military and political dimension) and the main instrument for guaranteeing international security – is the balance of forces. (Lawrence 1998, p. 49) There also exists and is developed the understanding of the international security based on the liberal-idealistic paradigm. One of the central notions of this paradigm is the idea of international cooperation, based on universal values and general human interests. From these positions, the threat is presented by those participants of international relations, which refuse from cooperation and break the generally accepted moral and legislative norms. Collective security is the only way for overcoming the security dilemma, which goes through creation and strengthening of international institutions, further improvement of international law and following the generally accepted moral norms. (Buzan 2003, p. 44) The notion of collective security is the main and the most operational in the total security complex. Collective security is the situation, under which all members of certain community refuse from applying force in relations with each other and agree to give any assistance to each participating state, which has been attacked by any state of the mentioned community. International security at present time should meet a number of conditions, which are very difficult to accomplish. They may be divided into five groups, among which are: moral, legislative, institutional, system and situational. (Graham 2005, p. 3) Moral principles refer to the rules of non-usage of force in the conflicts, which arise between the countries, as well as indivisibility of the world as the main state of international relations, together with the impartiality of the ‘third party’. Legislative conditions unite real powers of the General Assembly and the UNO Security Council, about following the UNO principles by all states, as well as the effectiveness of International Court’s activity. Institutional principles include strengthening and improvement of UNO’s activity as the world security organization, its institutions and military forces as well, together with successful solution of peacemaking. So, the main question is, whether the present concepts and actions in relation to the global security go far beyond simple military notions? The answer is, yes, they do, as for example, if we take NATO, which always asserts that it is more political, than military organization, the main aim of which is preventing and solution of crises, the fact remains that it is hardly adapted for participation in rescue and humanitarian operations in case of natural calamities and natural catastrophes, and not display any interest for such participation. (Graham 2005, p. 4) Meanwhile, the biggest part of the modern challenges and threats to the international security need new, non-military approaches for their solution. This relates not only to the economic problems’ solution and the environment degradation, but to the mutual search of the legislative solution for the controversy between the striving for self-government and group self-identification, and keeping the state integrity, between the separatism and inviolability of the borders, etc. It can’t be but agreed that the war creates more problems, than solves. In order to understand, why the notion of international security in our days goes far beyond military obligations, it is necessary to clarify, what the main challenges of the international security are. The main challenges are connected with the global crisis of political and social systems, and ideological foundations. One of the challenges lies in the state’s changing position in international relations. The most concerning is incompetence and ineffectiveness of states in their interaction with the new participants. (Blank 2001, p. 270) The situation is becoming more serious as a cause of the growing anti-state tendencies. The influence of mass media leads to the breach between the citizens’ expectations and the capabilities of states. The possibilities of mass media go far beyond the state borders. They offer people some kind of ‘the best world’, and the new transnational and electronic media are trying to distract people from the negative consequences of globalization and national civil tasks, destroying the people’s loyalty to their states. The floating of capital through the state borders exerts destabilizing influence on states. The shadow economy breaks the business activity of the state on the social and international levels. The symbiosis of criminal groups with state structures is observed more and more often. There appear interacting structures, which carry out social control, the distribution of wealth together with the state, and thus, demand loyalty. The geography of such structures rarely coincides with that of the state. This is accompanied by the spreading of financial crimes in transnational business circles, the workers of the biggest world banks, with the turnover exceeding billions dollars. (Berdal 2002, p. 39) There are formed archaic communities on the base of tribal, ethnic and religious identification. This carries in itself the threats of separatism, and religious ethnic extremism. It is not seldom that such communities fuse with terrorism and use terrorist achieving of their goals. Thus there exists the threat of local wars and regional conflicts. Another group of challenges is connected with the growing economic gap and social differences between the states, nations and social groups. About 1 billion of people all over the world are involved into unemployment or partial employment. There exists the risk of exclusion of the poorest countries on the roadside of the world development. There appear the tendencies of human migration from the poorest to the richer states. The latter try to shut themselves off through making the border control tougher. (Midgley 1996, p. 23) One more challenge for international security is related to the causes of the science and technical revolution. The latest discoveries in the sphere of genetics open the broadest opportunities for manipulating the life and conscience of people. The growing number of the Internet users, which is becoming the main channel for the distribution of information, knowledge, ideas and goods, causes the human conscience to come out of the global political and separate state institutions’ influence. Simultaneously, the new forms of addictions are born: a computer virus, created by a Philippine student, has caused a damage of $10 billion to the world financial and private companies. (Berdal 2002, p. 70) And the last challenge of the international security is connected with the scarcity of resources in the conditions of planet’s overpopulation. The growth of urbanization leads to the destruction of traditions and foundations of the society. As far as people are not satisfied by their position, this leads to violence. (Freedman 1998, p. 60) The changes in the sphere of security are characterized by the growth of non-military threats and the structural transformation of security as a notion. At the relative decrease of military and protective components’ role, there happens the growth of threats to the life-support at state and global levels. International security in its traditional interpretation has lost its principal meaning. In such situation, the more evident is the necessity for the theoretical base, which exists in the international political science. There has arisen the need in new conceptual structures, which would allow critical reconsidering the changing realia, and would fulfill the role of operational instruments of influencing them for decreasing risks and uncertainty, with which international participants have met. (Freedman 1998, p. 60) Global ecological problems World press of the recent time is filled with sinister astrological forecasts of the coming ‘end of the world’. The interest to the problem of apocalypses has greatly increased. The concern is not fully groundless: for a long time there has existed the global threat for the humanity to die in the nuclear war. With the end of ‘cold war’ and the considerable decrease of the nuclear weapons, this threat has somewhat decreased, but the danger of global ecological catastrophe has taken the first place. The humanity started to understand the depth of the threat. The environmental contamination and the continuous exhausting of natural resources and other factors have evoked global ecological crisis, putting the existence of humanity itself under the threat. It is necessary to understand that the humanity is included into the nature and is opposed to it at the same time. The ecological threat is so big today, that it can easily be compared to that of nuclear war. Many scientists suppose that the clocks of the ecological catastrophe have already started to work. Ecological crisis includes: the scarcity of the main natural resources, possible natural and geological cataclysms, dangerous consequences of the nature's contamination for human health, new destructive forms of economic and social-ecological conflicts. (Bruntland 2003, p. 470) In 15 out of 22 world states, ecology is included into the main three problems, economic problems being the most frequent. In answering the direct question, what is more important – environmental protection or economic growths, all states, except for two, have replied in favor of environment. Such attitude is characteristic to all world regions, except for Eastern Europe, where political and economic problem are very urgent nowadays. (Freedman 1998, p. 56) Nuclear threat to the international security It is necessary to note, that nuclear threat is not only connected with nuclear weapons, but also with the work of nuclear electric stations. Breaking the technical rules may lead to the consequences similar to these of nuclear war. Nuclear contamination may lead to the death of millions people, to the deep environmental damage. Sp, today people must consider, in what future they want to live, and should this future be connected with the use of nuclear technologies. Terrorism – the global world threat Terrorism today is the most powerful weapon and an instrument, used not only in the struggle for authority, but very often, by the authorities themselves for reaching their goals. Modern terrorism exists in the form of international terrorism, inner political terrorism, criminal terrorism, the goals of which are purely mercenary. Terrorism appears when the society goes through deep crisis, first of all, the crisis of ideology and state legislative system. (Blank 2001, p. 270) The task of terrorism is to involve a huge mass of people, for whom terrorist aims are so high, that justify any means of realization. The main pathway of financing terrorism is criminal activity, and drugs play this financial role today. (Blank 2001, p. 271) The main strategic conditions of fight against terrorism are: the reconstruction of the stable global peace, preventing terrorism in its initial stage and giving no concessions to terrorists. New international security concepts As it has been said before, the research arsenal, connected with considering the problems of security and the development of theoretical base and practical solutions in this sphere, appeared to be non-adapted to the new reality. There has appeared an urgent need in developing new and more effective conceptual means, which will be able to overcome this disadvantage. A number of experts and professionals, such role could be played by cooperative and human security conceptions. More attention is now being attracted by the theory of democratic peace. (Graham 2005, p. 8) The concept of cooperative security is based on liberal-idealistic paradigm, and has two main varieties. The first relates to international institutions and legislative norms, the other insists on the universality of moral norms and following the rights as the main criteria of international security. Measures, directed at supporting cooperative security, should be based on agreement, and not be obtrusive by force. Such measures should also be inclusive, which means that every state should have the right to join them. Cooperative security should not take the form of separate political regime or an agreement for arms control. The concept of human security is based on the primary role of individual in international security. But this concept includes two moments, which are of questions here. The first one is related to the sharp opposition of individual security to the security of the state. The second moment is connected with legislative status and consequences of military intervention into in-house conflicts. (Buzan 2003, p. 89) The concept of democratic peace is based on the close interrelation between the international peace and democracy. On the one hand, the more democratic the state is, the fewer conflicts it is involved in. But on the other hand, these assertions need further research. The countries which are in their transitive state towards democracy are the clear evidence of the fact that such transition may cause conflicts. So, obtrusive spreading of democracy is only favoring the development of military conflicts in the international community. Conclusions The concept of international security in the global era does far beyond the notions of military protection. The global environmental, terrorist, economic and social threats need new solutions, others to military ones. The environmental threat, being one of the most important to the global security, hardly can be solved through application of military means. It needs the development of concepts and theories together with practical suggestions. The problem of international security is the central in the theory and practice of international relations. Any question of international policy is connected with it. International environment is still anarchic, and this is caused by the unsolved security problems. The problem of international security becomes more urgent in the conditions of economization, informatization and democratization of international relations together with other globalizing processes. These processes give unprecedented opportunities for development, but at the same time, they make the whole system more vulnerable for terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and information weapons. The structure of international security is drastically changing at the present time, becoming filled with challenges of non-military character, which need urgent considering and solution. The development of new concepts and reconsidering the old ones might become the main pathway for responding to the existing security problems. The main conclusion is that really, concepts of modern international security should go beyond the limits of military solutions, providing humanity with effective means of struggling for survival and guaranteeing social, economic and environmental security. References (1) Berdal, Mats. 2002. Transnational Organized Crime and International Security: Business as Usual? Boulder: Lynne Rienner. (2) Blank, Stephen. December, 2001. 'Narcoterrorism as a threat to international security'. World and I 16: 265-75 (3) Bruntland, Gro Harlem. 2003. 'Global health and International Security'. Global Governance 9: 417-425 (4) Buzan, Barry. 2003. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 (5) Freedman, Lawrence. 1998. 'International security: changing targets'. Foreign Policy 110: 48-60 (6) Graham, Kennedy. 2005. 'A global-regional security mechanism: An emerging vision of global security'. New Zealand International Review 30: 2-11. (7) Midgley, James A. 1996. The Challenges to Social Security: An International Exploration. Westport: Aubum House Read More