Human Security essay

Any social community functions within the environment of internal and external threats which are different in their nature and subjects. They can be threat to life, well-being and aspirations of the individual or of all the people. At the state level, apparently, security threat can be understood as the factor, the presence of which adversely affects the interests of the state, society and citizens. For example, the threat of terrorism should be eliminated, because the lives of citizens are under the risk. However, security is not a spontaneous response to any emerging threats, but it is well thought-out strategy, emanating from the conscious of the fundamental interests of the state and society. One also can define security as a condition in which the external and internal threats do not reach a certain critical level that allows to speak about the threat to the vital interests of the state, society and the individual. However, in practice it is advisable to speak not about security in general because absolute safety is unattainable, and about security at its specific level.

 

The New Human Security Paradigm

The old concept that explain the meaning of interstate cooperation and understanding of security less correspond to the new realities. New theories are born. Some of them are serious attempts to theoretical understanding of new trends. Among them, there is the concept of human security. Traditionally, international security was defined as the protection of the territory by military means. It was necessary to ensure it in the conditions of an anarchic state system, whose main characteristic is a constant rivalry for security, based on the strength of (mostly military). National security is closely connected to the issue of the protection of the state against possible external forces and military interventions. However, for the majority of the world, threats related to hunger, environmental degradation, crime, etc are much more relevant. Therefore, international security defined traditionally had to forfeit the role of a single conceptual guide.

Recently, the issue of human security began to be regarded not as  only threats and use of military force. It began to consider non-military threats among which there are as environmental problems, the issue of overpopulation, mass movement refugees, nationalism, terrorism etc. Renewed and in-depth understanding of security proposed to introduce a range of research, not only external but also internal threats, not only to the states but also to individuals and groups.

A growing number of researchers has been calling for the introduction of the larger understanding of the security, the transition from the pre-emptive consideration of national security problems to the analysis of threats and to the existence of rights and ways to protect against them. The idea of human security in the new conditions attracted increasing attention as an alternative approach to solving security problems. This idea is not a new invention.

The first approaches to the development of the concept of human security can be found in international development theories and especially the concept of world system. According to these ideas developed core socioeconomic elite groups and marginalized groups, are on the periphery of the world, interact in such a way that the latter are doomed to constant economic and social exploitation. Structural violence is rooted in the international system and rejects the concept of complex interdependence. The decision making process is governed by fairly stringent regimes that strengthen this operation. It is therefore considered that it was necessary to pay more attention not to the security of States, which is supported by the military or by conducting the policy of containment and civil rights and greater equality in the distribution of resources, environmental protection and public health. In later studies, the concept of human security also includes economic and environmental considerations, as well as the physical safety of the individual (or security of the person).

Health Security

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the associated with the concept5 of human rights and security. It was adopted in 1948. The Declaration was born of the trauma of The Second World War and became the first global definition of the rights possessed by all human beings. Article 25 of the Declaration provides the statement that every person receives the right to a certain level of well-being. Each person should be provided with a number of goods such as food, clothes, heath care services as well as certain services from the social field. The set of these rights should ensure a standard of living, which will give a person an ability to work and act on their own will.

Thus, if accepting the idea that humans have the personal rights due to virtue of their belonging to the human race, then they have an absolute right to health at the level that society can provide them. However, despite progress in the field of medicine that has been made by mankind in the last years, human health is still threatened by many things. There are still global infectious diseases, claiming the lives of many people a year. Moreover, chronic diseases kill a lot of people a year. In countries with a low standard of living, the huge amount of deaths occurs in children. The great challenge of health security consists in fact that in the world there are not always enough resources to meet attainable standard of physical and mental health of population.

Of course, limited resources and other circumstances may prevent the state immediately and fully secure all the rights of its citizens in terms of health security. Nevertheless, the State's obligation to ensure the rights is not confined to the adoption of the relevant laws.

However, contradicting notions are present at the very text of the document of the Declaration. Each country’s limited resources can achieve an valid excuse for limited progress of full realization due to 'progressive realization' which means planned and steps and targeted towards full realization. At the same time 'minimum core obligations' involve the statement that there is no excuse for not providing a certain level of health care for population. Therefore, the exercise of rights can be only measured by the progress that has been made in the course of gradual progress towards the goal.

The AIDS epidemic has particularly acute raised the issue of the relationship between human rights principles and the requirements of public health. Until recently, public health goals and objectives of human rights were regarded as contradictory. Today, all over the world human rights violations in the context of prevention, treatment, and research in the field of AIDS research continue. These violations relate in particular those affected by the epidemic,  HIV-positive people and their families, as well as vulnerable groups. In many countries around the world, people living with HIV face discrimination and restriction of their rights to health security and privacy.

Food and Water Security

The need for food and fresh water is one that is among the basic human rights since its presents is necessary for vital functions. The right to food involves the provision that each person should receive a necessary amount of food, which can provide them an opportunity to work and fulfill their social functions. The human right to food is connected with the concept of food security.

Food security has a priority and global significance. This is due to the fact that food security in the first place, provides all vital functions of society, that is, provides food. Second, it determines the power of the country both in economic and in political and social areas. It can be said that the right for food is realized win case when the person has both economic and physical ability to get food.

The right to food has its characteristic features. Among them there such factors as availability (the food should be ensured at the expense of natural resources or due to cultivation or by other methods of producing food. Also, physical availability of food means that it is present and can be received in shops and markets); access: (both economic and physical access to food should be provided to population); sufficiency (food must meet the nutritional needs based on age, living conditions, health status, profession, gender, etc. og human); sustainability (food must be available to present and future generations). These aspects should be ensured by the agricultural sector of the economy, which solves this problem. Insecurity lies in the gap between the ability of agricultural sector to provide adequate amount of food; meanwhile food demand in the world will increase each year due to the growth of population. Also, economic access to food presents the great threat for food security. Due to the extreme poverty many populations do not achieve enough amount of food.

 
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National Security

National security is a category which must be based on social development, ensuring human dignity. The issue of national security involves not only constant training of military forces of the country, but also facing with non-war-fighting challenges such as attempts to eliminate human suffering from natural disaster, civil war, and insurgency. Of course, ensuring the security of the state take priority importance of the national interest. In the past, under the security protection of the country was understood enemy attacks on the state system. Today, it is taken into account the demographic, technological and environmental factors. A new security parameters related to the economic and financial situation of the country, the scientific and technological revolution, the development of information and communication systems, cross-border crime, terrorism, drug and arms trafficking, illegal migration, wars, provoked by the order of certain political forces began to play an important role.

Environmental Security

Arising problems in environmental security present direct threat to US national security, as well as a recipe for instability and decrease in amount of fresh water, which can contribute to the emergence of the problems in food security area. National security depends on the environmental security since climate change directly affects the national security of the country. Threat to national security is a set of conditions and factors that create the possibility of direct or indirect damage to the national interests. Today, coastal military installations have become victims of rising sea levels, drought and fires can harm the military training ground in the western United States. The areas of military installations in Alaska are threatened by permafrost melting.

Other consequences of problems in environmental security are increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts and heavy rains; ocean acidification; extinction of species due to changes in temperature. Important consequences for humanity relates to the threat to food security because of the negative impact on productivity and the loss of human habitats due to sea level rise. In addition, quality of life is affected due to the decreased level of environmental safety.

The fact that climate change is undeniable, its effects can affect how the US armed forces will defend their country. Many coastal military installations have already felt the effects of rising sea levels. Moreover, the climate change-related disasters can lead to both more frequent involvement of the US military in rescue and humanitarian operations. Strategic thinking is changing also since climate change and instability promote more poverty, forced migration and increased unemployment rate. These factors became ripe for terrorists and extremists.

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Conclusion

Human security can not be considered equal to the state security. Often, however, more relevant to the population is a threat, not related to the territorial integrity and military protection (hunger, man-made disasters, environmental degradation, the repressive state apparatus, etc.). For some, the main threat comes from the state, rather than from an external enemy. Very often, especially in developing countries, state security does not coincide with the nation's security. Very often, people sacrificed to the survival of the state. The State therefore itself becomes a cause of danger to the nation. For the same dominance over the nation states require complete reorientation of the international system. At the same time, such a reorientation can lead to chaos. Moreover, the very idea of the nation is not free of conceptual anomalies. Given that the international community has more than 2,000 ethnic groups, give each of them the state is difficult. Complicating the process is the fact that the state is usually associated with the government, the elite, the bureaucracy, or a particular ideology. Concept of state often is made without reference to the notion of people. The people, according to this concept, there is for the state, and not vice versa.

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Human Security essay

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