Global Security Revision Paper, Paige Ferreira

Paige Ferreira

Global Security Studies

Professor Shirk

18 December 2017

    In my original security essay, I argued that security is a multi-layered, complex causal concept that on one level ensures the preservation and fulfillment of nationalistic and political ideologies with the ultimate goal of achieving ontological pursuits.  On another level security should protect the citizens of a nation from forces of evil and threats.  After taking this class, I am now arguing that sometimes those forces of evil are within one’s own country and sometimes governments beset with corrupt leaders threaten the security of those they are elected to protect.  Human Security is still a major threat globally as many civilians lives become endangered by corrupt leadership, lack of education, gender inequalities, and inadequate public health policies. In essence, the social and political decisions of greedy and corrupt governments are the greatest negative ramifications that weaken human security.

    After learning and researching various cases in and outside of class, I still hold human security as the biggest threat globally as the need to securitize human rights and preserve individual freedoms are at the forefront of any society. Many of the cases researched dealt with civilians in underdeveloped countries. Specifically, these nations undermined access to education, provided inadequate medications to children, and instituted faulty regimes as sources of authority. The major downfall of these societies is undemocratic governments controlling natural resources and unsolicited power holders usurping authority of citizens’ individual liberties.

    For example, within Sierra Leone, the self interests of a corrupt government supercede the welfare of the country’s citizens. The RUF’s (Revolutionary United Front) stampede on Sierra Leone professed the goal of creating democratic institutions and promoting civilian involvement in the government; yet, these decrees evolved into the extremes of mutilation, death, and child soldiers with the true intention of protecting the jewel of the land: diamonds. The conflict created inequalities, injustices, and war crimes innumerable at the latter part of twentieth century. Sierra Leone, a nation rich in resources and a society strong in patriarchy, presents a dynamic not only within African countries, but also within developing regions as a whole. Corruption, essentially, undermines the protection of a nation’s citizens and foregoes their human rights and liberties.

      Secondly, an ineffective government could not protect against the pandemic of Ebola in 2014; the human security of many Africans was compromised as global fear and instability ran through streets of West African villages. The pursuit of combating the disease by WHO and UNSC ultimately allowed the West and developed countries to supercede and facilitate control over these areas. Many of these villagers, uneducated of the impending dangers and death facing them, became careless in caring for themselves and families which became a greater goal of these western organizations. Essentially, pandemics are a greater source to human security as locating a source of illness and containing those affected become challenging and uncontrollable. What constitutes Ebola as a human security threat is the “global intervention... required when a human security threat is pervasive—impacting several areas of human security simultaneously—and when state-level capacities are insufficient” (Deloffre).

      Lastly, within some Asian countries, the case of human trafficking becomes a threat to human security as unsolicited coercion is used in gaining control of others for exploitation. These governments have done little to curb this crime.  Specifically, within the case of sex trafficking, many young girls are confined to misogynistic “businesses” or brothels where the use of drugs combined with non consensual sex disregard a women’s privacy and impede on her own security. Sex trafficking undermines a women’s rights to her own body and devalues her as nothing more than a object of desire. Globally, this crime serves as a universal issue necessary to combat in order to protect humanity from the evils of desire and from being a ‘product’ of an illegitimate business.

      I am continuing to argue for human security because the protection of individuals and the security of human rights lies as the most important attributes necessary in a society. Rebuilding a society to work for the people rather than against must remain a prerogative for western nations towards those underdeveloped. To avoid corruption and avoiding infringement upon a person’s rights means eliminating corruption and authoritarianism from regimes and implementing democratic institutions. This helps build a nation’s policies in favor of its citizens and prevents radicalism from encroaching on individual freedoms. Furthermore, by the protection of individuals and the security of national ideologies by use of diplomacy and rational projections of peace, should be the prerogatives of any nation. Securing necessities and resources for all citizens upholds human rights and the cultural identity within a society and among individuals to ensure global unity and strategic harmony.

     

http://www.e-ir.info/2014/10/25/human-security-in-the-age-of-ebola-towards-people-centered-global-governance/