Human security is paramount

Yuba Nath Lamsal

THE security concept is as old as human civilization. The notion of nation-state emerged out of the collective security of the people in the certain territories. Principally all human beings are equal, but not practically. Each and every individual is different physically, mentally, intellectually and psychologically. The heterogonous behavour and nature of the mankind created competition—sometimes healthy and more often fierce.
In the unhealthy competition and rivalry, the early people developed a mechanism to protect the less strong section of the humanity, which was later called the State. The state comprised of certain territory, people living in that territory, a ruler with authority to govern.
The ruler formulated a set of “dos” and “don’t dos”, which were later called rules or laws, and developed a mechanism and organizational structure to facilitate the rulers. Territories were important for the people to forage food. The early concept of governance was to defend the territory and people from alien invasion. Thus, defending territories was defending people. For this purpose, a team of young, strong and determined people was created, which now is known as military. In return, people agreed to pay back the state in the form of tax in cash or kind.
The state is, thus, an agreement between the people and the ruler for the security of the people. This is how the security concept developed. In the beginning, the society was more or less homogenous. In course of time, society slowly became heterogeneous, which created internal tension and rivalry. This necessitated the state to create another group that was called police to deal with the internal conflict.
However, the real threat perception was from the external elements. Thus, the security concept was more or less tied with the military security. However, in the modern and complicated world, the security concept has changed to cope with the changed in the international context. Modern security perception is based on social, economic and psychological security of the people. Military security is a part of overall security perception and strategy.
Nations are facing equal threats from both internal instability and external factors. The developing nations are more hit by internal problems that have posed more serious threat to their national security than the threat from the outside. Civil wars, ethnic and communal conflicts are taking an ugly turn in most nations in the Third World. These conflicts turn uglier when some politically motivated groups and terrorist gangs—both national and international, back and instigate the people, who are deprived, exploited, discriminated and secluded. These sinister gangs and groups instigate the frustrated mass and sow the seed of discontent, which, as the global experiences have shown, ultimately turns into a form of violence and conflict. It slowly grows into terrorism. That is the case everywhere in the world.
The present distribution of resources is unwise, unequal and unfair. Looking at the pattern of resource distribution, it appears that less than 15 per cent population consumes and controls the world’s 85 per cent resources, while 85 per cent people survive on 15 per cent resources. This gap is widening every year.
The economic globalisation and liberalization have done little good to developing countries. Rather it has further marginalised the poor nations and increased the number of absolute poor people in the world.
According to ILO, about three million people, more than half of world’s population, survive on less than two dollars a day. More than one billion people, 23 per cent of the developing world’s population, have to make their end met with the income of one dollar a day and even less.
An ILO report states that poverty is getting worse and uglier in many parts of the world. In 1990, number of people living in absolute poverty grew by 25 per cent in Sub-Saharan region of Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean, poverty stricken population grew from 121 million to 132 million.
In North Africa and the Middle East, the number people living below poverty line rose from 50 million to nearly 70 million. In the East Europe and Central Asia, poverty grew by three fold.
South Asia has also not been able to make any significant gains in poverty eradication move. Poverty has remained stable in South Asia for the last one decade with over one billion people living at absolute poverty.
The globalisation of economies and economic liberalization has at all failed to reduce world’s poverty and address the burning problems the world is facing. In a way, these polices have further aggravated the problems. The rise in terrorism, civil war, conflicts, communalism and fundamentals, in a way, are the products of the present unjust world order and uneven distribution of resources. This has posed both national as well as international security problems.
This portrays very dismal picture in terms of human development. According to ILO Director General Juan Somavia, the best way to fight against poverty is creation of jobs. As the world is gearing up for full-fledged, liberalization and globalisation of economies, there also must be liberalization and globalisation in the labour market. Liberalisation is also needed in the movement of labour force and access to labour market all over the world. This would serve twin problems—labour shortage in the developed countries and unemployment problems in the developing countries. This requires international community’s pro-active role in pushing ahead with the agenda that developed nations relax their laws to ensure free movement of world’s labour force. However, the developed countries are making their laws more complex and stricter for foreigners, which is against the spirit of the globalisation. The concept of economic liberalization and globalisation, as champions of this notion are pursuing, appears that there should be no monopoly of any particular nation in the global resources. If that is the case, there also must not be restriction on global labour market. Globalisation should not only be on the resources and market for products of industrial nations and big economies.If modern concept of security is concerned, idle youth population and economic depression and discrimination, are more dangerous than the atomic bomb.

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