CONF 735: GLOBAL CONTEXT OF CONFLICT
Professor Ho-Won Jeong
George Mason University
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
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Burundi and Russia Lecture
What is security? (A Post-Cold War Context)
The end of the Cold War (Cold War Security Studies was about states) and
ensuing philosophical debate about security studies pose questions to traditional
security studies and its state centric assumptions. Previously, 'security was
equated with military security' (ex.- nuclear deterrence, arms control, war,
etc.). In traditional security studies, usually called Strategic Studies or
National Security Studies, the security of individuals was subsumed under the
ambit of the state and often sacrificed to the demands of realpolitik.' As a
consequence, the products of such security studies were comprised of information
of and for the state, not for 'the people' (constituents).
Critical Security Studies (CSS) has been presented as being a capable vehicle
for greater 'human emancipation' which their proponents describe as 'transformation
of prevailing patterns of power and domination in favor of those who are currently
disempowered and disenfranchised'.
Broadening and extending the concept of security has been considered necessary,
as a narrowly militarized understanding fails to grasp the complexity of the
new issues on the security agenda -- refugee flows, famine, identity politics,
etc.
Whereas the conceptualization of security has begun to include political, economic,
social and environmental concerns since the late 1980s, some are concerned that
such issues cannot be adequately addressed within a state-centric paradigm.
Others may argue that this broadening moves us away from the zero-sum game,
which has dominated international relations and produced greater insecurity
thus far.
Internal Conflict and Security
Traditional paradigms stress the state's security over individuals' security.
Such state-centric focus 'privileges the role of the state in world politics,
regarding it as the sole legitimate focus for decision making and loyalty'.
The power of the state was justified and rationalized on the ground that it
provides security for its people. In many internal conflicts (for example, seen
in Burundi and Rwanda), often it is the state that is jeopardizing the safety
and security of its own people. In their article 'Burundi: A Critical Security
Perspective', Eli Stamnes and Richard Wyn Jones cite that 'ever since Burundi
gained its independence in 1962, the state has been the major source of insecurity
for the greater proportion of its population' and that 'any attempt to privilege
the state as the provider of security is simply grotesque' (43, 45).
As ethnic identity becomes a critical element of the security problematique, privileging 'it as the referent object for security is merely to reintroduce all the problems identified with the privileging of the state at another level' (46).
Security Studies and Conflict Resolution
Development of a stronger civil society can be regarded as part of an overall
conflict resolution and security process. 'Focusing on individual security as
the ultimate referent object ... inevitably opens up a broader conception of
security as well, for it is not only issues related to military security which
impinge upon any individual security situation' (47). Security studies can be
made with compatible with conflict resolution in generating "knowledge
which can assist ... in emancipating the men and women ... from the insecurity
and fear in which they find themselves' (49).