This work continues to develop the concept of ‘sustainable security’ and examine ways of ensuring a greater role for voices from the Global South in articulating the necessary changes to Western security policies over the coming decades.
The project directly follows and builds on the perspectives gained from four regional security consultations that ORG held across the Global South during 2008-2010. Held with partner organisations in each area, these consultations have focused on applying the concept of sustainable security to the specific political and security dynamics of four regions: Asia and Australasia; the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.
The aims of this project are twofold. The first is to build on the perspectives gained from this process and feed the results of the consultations held so far into Western policy making circles – the particular focus would be on ensuring that non-Western perspectives on sustainable security are addressed in concrete policy recommendations. The second is to promote productive and lasting links between analysts, journalists and grass-roots organisations working on sustainable security issues in the Global South with their counterparts in the West (or ‘Global North’).
The project is organised around the production of the following outputs:
Phase one:
A paper will be produced that draws together the analysis of the four regional consultations already held highlighting both the commonalities and differences across the regions.
This will be followed by four research papers that focus on the perspectives of individuals and groups in the Global South working on the following issues:
Paper 1: Climate Change
Countries in the Global South are already becoming the first and worst affected victims of a warming global climate. A recent report from International Alert points to the fact that there are 46 countries – home to 2.7 billion people – in which the effects of climate change interacting with economic, social and political problems will create a high risk of violent conflict in the coming decades. As the climate agenda becomes increasingly ‘securitised’, this paper will explore avenues for non-military solutions to addressing the security implications of climate change for the Global South.
Paper 2: Competition over Resources
The recent global food security crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of populations in the Global South to resource scarcity and fluctuating prices. Rapidly increasing energy prices as well as periodic geopolitical crises have also highlighted the potential for major conflicts over resources in the Twenty First Century. What has been termed the ‘new population bomb’ is set to exacerbate existing trends. This paper will discuss the perspectives of the Global South – those most vulnerable to resource scarcity – in the largely, Western-dominated debate around energy security and examine avenues for mitigating conflict arising from resources.
Paper 3: Poverty and Marginalisation
Divisions between the rich, industrialised North and the ‘majority world’ are being exacerbated by increasing oppression and political exclusion, coupled with a growing sense of marginalisation as a result of improvements in education and modern communication technologies, leading in places to increased levels of political violence. This paper will examine how the latest thinking on the relationship between underdevelopment, poverty and insecurity from those ‘on the ground’ in the Global South with a particular focus on the short-term policy changes in Western aid, foreign and defence policies which could address their concerns.
Paper 4: Militarisation
Global military expenditure has continued to rise (apart from in Western and Central Europe) with serious consequences for those living in much of the Global South. Increases in the availability of a wide range of weapons across increasingly unstable regions coupled with the continuingly militarised ‘war on terror’ pursued by the US and its allies has led to the process of militarisation becoming a key driver of insecurity in the Global South. This paper will examine recent developments in security sector reform, arms control and disarmament and confidence building measures aimed at intervening in cycles of militarisation.
While the main aim of the four papers is to move beyond the broad concept of a holistic approach to security and to delve more deeply into the precise implications of these individual drivers of insecurity for the Global South, the analysis will maintain a focus on the interconnections between the four trends. Each paper will have a specific section towards the end highlighting the ways in which the specific issues discussed are currently, and can be expected in the coming decades, to interact and converge and what this means for security policies today.
This phase of the project will also include an extensive consultation process with key partners across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Each paper will have significant input from people involved in ‘on the ground’ research, analysis and campaigning. Where possible, the papers will highlight work already being done by NGOs and other civil society groups in the Global South that is not receiving significant attention by Western policymakers and analysts.
Phase two:
Workshop: Bridging the North-South Divide: Towards Sustainable Security
Following the publication of the fourth paper, a workshop will be held in a Western capital to bring together government officials in senior decision-making positions, and independent specialists with a high level of expertise in security, development, environmental change, resource governance and diplomacy. Central to the success of this event will be the participation of influential organisations and individuals from the Global South. This will include not only the partner organisations who will have been involved in the consultation process associated with the four papers (ie. those who are already active on these issues), but other groups and individuals working in related areas who have yet to take up the concept of sustainable security in their work but could be expected to do so in the coming years. Using the methods that ORG has developed over many years, this dialogue will enable policymakers and others to step outside their formal positions and concentrate instead on their real interests and concerns – allowing for constructive discussion between constituencies with often competing agendas. The agenda will be based around the findings of the previous regional security consultations as well as the questions raised in the four thematic papers published in the lead-up to the conference.
Following the workshop, a special session of ORG’s UK Policy Group for Sustainable Security will be held to discuss the outcome of the discussions. The group is designed to specifically address the policy implications for the UK of the sustainable security analysis developed by ORG and others and is made up of an influential group of Lords and former MPs, ministers, diplomats and civil servants.
