The term ¡°human security¡± was coined to shift
the focus of security from the state to the individual, to
emphasize freedom from fear and want. But I would like to depart
from the familiar dichotomy between security as the defense of
states and security as a personal right, and offer a different
perspective, viewing this question through a wider lens, a lens
which captures the full gamut of interpersonal, community-oriented
and culturally founded relationships which take place between the
levels of individual and state. This lens is the one with which I
am the most familiar, and the lens which I believe gives us a way
to frame and implement effective and collective action toward the
advancement of human security.
It would seem obvious that we must frame the meaning of security
within an expanded context, that human security must now contain
the imperative of human survivability and resilience. Imbalances
between nations ¡ª population growth, poverty, food,
resources, ecology, migration, energy, money, peace and cultural
understanding ¡ª are pivotal security issues. They have
the capacity to impact individual lives exponentially in all places
across the world. As transnational issues, they are multipliers of
human security ¡ª either for widespread stability or
instability ¡ª and these multipliers can provide a new
foundation for human security as a responsibility of the global
commons.
I will explain what I mean by briefly reviewing current global
conditions.
Population Security
The world population is now 6.6 billion, and we are adding 220,000
new people each day. Our enlarging global population ¡ª
combined with rising wages, purchasing power and consumption in the
emerging economies ¡ª has escalated the demand for food,
commodities, oil and other resources. If the world is going to
carry 9 billion people by 2050, we must all have the right to
population security, ensuring that the resources available on this
planet are sustainable in relation to our population growth and
consumption per person.
Food Security
As the world grows more populous, many nations are also becoming
more prosperous overall. Some two dozen states from the emerging
South have enjoyed economic growth and have become more dependent
on one other¡¯s growth, but the poorer states of the
developing South are just as dependent on demand from the North as
they were 30 years ago. One billion people still live in extreme
poverty, 70% of whom are in Africa. Unbearable poverty continues to
afflict major regions of Asia and Latin America. Three-quarters of
the world¡¯s poor live in rural areas, where food
accounts for more than half of a family¡¯s
spending.
Tightening food supplies and rising food demand are now resulting
from:
* poor harvests;
* lack of fresh water and fertile
soil;
* rising prices for seeds and
fertilizer;
* the use of food crops for
bio-fuels;
* increases in the land needed for meat
and dairy production (displacing grain production for
people);
* rising oil and transportation
prices;
* trade-distorting subsidies on
agriculture; and
* food export restrictions.
As demand soars, supplies are unable to keep pace. Food aid, health
services and medicinal supplies also decline as the price of food
goes up, pushing hundreds of millions into hunger and malnutrition,
economic depression and social unrest. It should be clear by now
that water and food, which are essential to life, are human rights
reflecting the personal dignity, common needs and well-being of
humanity.
Resource Security
Non-renewable resources are also being depleted at a rapid rate. As
population, industrial output and consumption continue to rise,
more and more capital and energy are needed to grow food and to
locate, extract and process the remaining resources. Major new
investment is being diverted both into agriculture and the
extraction of non-renewable resources. While this increasing
financial speculation in food and resources is decisive in meeting
human needs, it is also draining the money that would otherwise be
going into industrial production and basic capital growth.
This misallocation of investment ¡ª which is further
distorted by uneven terms of trade ¡ª diminishes the
quality of life and security for local populations across the
world. Obviously, the inequitable distribution of world resources
has a profound impact on human security. Each of us should have the
right to an adequate supply of goods based on our interdependence
with one another, the interests of our future welfare and that of
our descendants.
Environmental Security
Rising temperatures and extreme climate patterns are also having an
enormous impact on human security. Many people ¡ª
especially the poor in some of the world¡¯s most crowded
and marginally productive areas ¡ª are affected by:
* a lack of water for drinking and
irrigation;
* a decline in agricultural
production;
* increased resource scarcity;
* loss of supportive wildlife;
* widespread disease from mosquitoes and
other pests;
* declining health;
* economic losses caused by hurricanes,
tornadoes and cyclones;
* volatility in economic output and trade;
and
* increasing poverty.
The harmful impact of these climate extremes on human livelihoods
and living conditions, combined with heightened competition for
scarce resources, has triggered disputes over territory, food and
water supplies, social and cultural traditions, and tribal and
religious differences. Fundamental and unresolved issues of
territoriality, identity and movement1of peoples lead to sectarian
and ethnic violence, armed conflict, mass migration and the spread
of infectious disease. The health, well-being and rights of those
who are forced to leave their homes and communities through
external disruptions must be given particular attention. We usually
think of migrants and refugees fleeing political conflict, but
increasingly they are also victims of the menacing effects of
global warming. We are currently witnessing many instances of this
kind of temperature-driven civil strife and social displacement in
parts of Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin
America.
Environmental stability, including the protection of displaced
persons, is an essential human right that flows from our commitment
to human dignity, our connectedness with all living beings and our
responsibility to the Earth.
Energy Security
In addition to food, resource and environmental instability, there
is growing anxiety about whether the world has enough oil to meet
its future energy requirements. An energy disruption in one area of
the world has an immediate impact on prices and energy security in
other areas.
The national security dangers arising from dependence on foreign
oil, combined with aggressive competition for strategic reserves of
fossil fuels, will likely lead to further degradation of natural
resources, continued global warming and major economic instability,
particularly in the world¡¯s most impoverished regions.
And this is likely to further inflame extremism and terrorism in
some places, particularly where rising energy costs severely impact
human livelihoods ¡ª which is why legal empowerment of
the poor through improved access to justice, the rule of law, and
property, labor and business rights is now so critical.
Access to reliable and affordable supplies of clean energy is an
essential human right based on the responsibility of the world
community to empower the poor to meet their material needs, to fuel
economic productivity and to ensure the quality of life for people
everywhere.
Monetary Security
The rising demand for food, energy and other resources, which is
now causing significant declines in supply, has also become a
source of macroeconomic instability. Although emerging and
developing states have been decoupling from the United States
financially for several years, they are still closely linked
monetarily. If oil producers and states that peg or manage their
currencies against the U.S. currency decide that the long-term
value of the dollar is unsustainable, they may shift their funds
into other currencies. The U.S. would be forced to 1) reduce its
massive current account deficit (its trade flows and other
international payments) through a significant drop in the value of
the dollar; and 2) increase its savings, either through a huge
decline in consumer and corporate spending or by slashing its
federal budget deficit drastically.
These two fiscal adjustments ¡ª especially if combined
with the continuing inflation of food, commodity and energy prices
¡ª would send shockwaves across the world. It would
produce volatility in exchange rates, currency instability,
disruption of global capital flows, a disorderly unwinding of
global debt payments, and increased protectionism. National
budgets, trade balances, economic growth, jobs, income and
political stability would all be affected.
That is why monetary security is vital now for everyone, especially
the poor. Our purchasing power, which directly affects the ability
to feed our families, pay our bills, save and invest, is an
essential social entitlement. The right to stable currency rates
¡ª as an expression of our collective cultural values,
personal livelihood and self-worth ¡ª is particularly
important as we enter this uncertain period of adjustment.
Cultural Security
Money, energy, resources and materials are necessary but not
all-encompassing attributes of the human experience. Cultural
security, a critical but often forgotten multiplier of human
security, sets the stage through which all other forms of security
ought to be defined and understood. One cannot feel secure without
mutual understanding and cultural integrity, a reality which has
become increasingly apparent among both the developing and
developed worlds.
Perceptions of too-rapid cultural change or ¡°cultural
invasion¡± spurred by globalization and migration have
strained interpersonal and international relationships. Lasting
security for the individual and the nation necessitates a practical
approach which understands culture as a pivotal component of human
experience and political dialogue.
Preventive Security
There is an additional multiplier of human security which is
closely related to the others. In states vulnerable to genocide,
ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity, as all may
indeed be, there is an obvious need to protect individuals from
atrocities before they are committed. The concept of states having
a ¡°responsibility to protect¡± (R2P) citizens
of all nations, debated in recent years by the United Nations in
response to escalating violence, remains more heightened and
ideologically colored than such issues commonly are.
The question today is whether intervention in the affairs of a
state is a moral duty of the international community or a violation
of state sovereignty, yet there is no forward reason why
sovereignty could not be shared to reflect the realities of an
interdependent world. Preventive security demands that we prepare
for potential local and regional conflicts to protect people at
risk of grave harm, and this becomes decisive as we face the grim
prospect of mass hunger, large-scale environmental disruption and
clashes over increasingly scarce resources like oil and water in
some areas. The right to preventive security arises from our
collective responsibility to guarantee political stability, protect
the defenseless and ensure human betterment, based on the unique
value of every person.
State and Market Security
The final two human security multipliers are so familiar they
scarcely need to be emphasized. I am referring to states, which
have the responsibility of providing political security to the
people within their borders, and, of course, to free markets
¡ª including labor, production and finance ¡ª
which provide a vital basis for economic security. States and
markets are the cornerstones of modern civilization, and I could
not possibly enumerate all of their many virtues in providing
essential goods and services to consumers and protecting the
welfare of citizens. But I also think we overestimate their
importance to human security. Because they exist virtually
everywhere, there is a tendency to assume that only governments and
markets can solve the world¡¯s problems, or that
governments and markets are the sole agents of human security.
Indeed, most of us are conditioned to see the world this way, which
is a very limiting point of view.
As we ponder the global challenges we are facing, it becomes
increasingly clear that there are few foreign policy or commercial
solutions that will ensure the common security of humanity.
Strategic planning and cooperation for the future of the planet are
desperately lacking.
The real issue today is not whether markets are self-correcting or
whether they need regulating by states. The real issue is that
nation-states and markets are not sufficient to handle the many
problems that transcend national borders ¡ª problems like
world hunger, resource depletion, economic deprivation, wealth
disparity, global warming, environmental pollution, infectious
diseases, cross-cultural conflicts and terrorism.
Global Commons
The real issues are: 1) that states have not relinquished their sovereignty to
cooperate with one another more effectively, and market-driven
solutions have proven incapable of addressing the systemic problems
that transcend national borders; 2) that a new balance between the common interests of
states, markets and people is essential to economic and social
development, environmental harmony and peace; 3) that all matters bearing on the global commons must soon
be linked together in one multilateral agenda and discussed by a
diverse group of representatives from every sector ¡ª
government, business and civil society; 4) that these representatives should launch an immediate
global action program ensuring the end of poverty, adequate food
supplies, fair distribution of resources and commodities, a clean
environment, protection of migrants and refugees, reliable and
affordable energy, stable purchasing power and a climate of peace;
and 5) that this common action plan must also be seen as a
tentative step toward geo-political realignment and global economic
adjustment, leading to a greater degree of international unity and
the creation of inclusive global governance.
Conclusion
The principle of ¡°dignity and justice for all of
us¡± can only flow from human civilization as a single
functioning whole, and, therefore, the question of cross-border
intervention versus state sovereignty is ultimately a false
dichotomy. To allow everyone in the world the opportunity to live
free from fear and want and to develop our full potentials in a
healthy and supporting environment means that individual rights,
states rights and international rights must be seen as an
indivisible and dynamic unity, not as a source of polarization and
conflict.
As human beings we naturally inhabit the future and the present
¡ª not just the present. If some individuals lose food,
water and shelter, they can be provided with the means to obtain
food, water and shelter over and over again. But if they have also
lost their hope and their values, providing for their material
needs will never provide them with a future again. Hope can only be
rekindled with the re-implementation of those values that have been
lost.
When we say that we are looking at human security, what we mean is
that we want to alleviate the present situation by creating a
system so that, as the future keeps arriving, it arrives in the
form of better and better present situations. The consequences of
what we do now must bring about a better present moment in which to
live. The results of our actions now should lead to improved
quality of life and the ability to instill hope.
This article is based on HRH Prince Hassan¡¯s address at
the Thematic Debate on Human Security, the United Nations General
Assembly, New York, May 22, 2008
