Programme Updates
ORG Launches New Website To Promote "Sustainable Security"
Sustainablesecurity.org is a new website launched by the Oxford Research Group on September 10th 2009. It is a repository for the best thinking about a new approach to global security, one that concentrates on addressing the root causes of conflict rather than managing their symptoms.
We have launched this website close to the anniversary of 9/11 to highlight the increasing awareness that the approaches taken by the USA and its allies since 2001 have not yielded the hoped for security improvements. The site will provide a ‘one stop shop’ for information from all over the world on creative and workable alternatives.
In a newly published article written to launch the site, John Sloboda, ORG’s Executive Director, wrote: “If sustainable security is to become an end, with the security of humanity in its totality as the goal, then community groups, faith groups NGOs, and many other elements of civil society (including journalists) must co-ordinate their efforts to promote such policies.”
The web site is organised to highlight four interconnected drivers of global insecurity: climate change, competition over natural resources, poverty and marginalisation, and global militarisation. Articles and resources are allocated to one or more of these headings, but the overall emphasis is on the interconnected nature of these threats, and the need for comprehensive, multilateral approaches to them. The site is one part of a larger project on ‘Moving towards sustainable security’ begun by ORG in 2006 which has involved roundtables in different parts of the world, and a series of publications.
Founding site editor Thomas Phipps says, "We will be posting regular new content, including specially commissioned articles, but would welcome input and suggestions from individuals and organisations, so that no significant piece of practically implementable thinking is missed. ”
"Global responses to global security threats"
John Sloboda delivered a paper on ORG's Sustainable Security Programme at the Annual Conference of the Global Studies Association held at Royal Holloway, University of London, on 4th September 2009. The title of his paper was "Global responses to global security threats: regional perceptions, blockages and directions".
Human Security and the Middle East
ORG’s Middle East team has been continuing work on seeking funds. The Norwegian government has now expressed serious interest in a number of our projects, particularly the Palestinian Strategy Group and the Israeli Strategic Forum. Both projects offer a space to think both strategically and long-term about the security issues in the region, in contrast to some of the reactive political decision-making that often serves to exacerbate the conflict. In addition to this, work is also being done on shaping a project around Israeli settlers and their re-integration back into Israel, not as pariahs but as heroes for the security of the state. This is one of the issues that stands as an obstacle to making the two-state solution a reality and requires in-depth and creative thinking on how to make it possible while avoiding a repeat of the Gaza-fiasco scenario.
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