‘SOMETHING’ SECURITY – WHAT EXACTLY DOES IT MEAN?
‘Security’ can be described by:
General qualifying words egSectoral words eg
CollectiveEnergy
ComprehensiveHealth/medical
‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’Infrastructure
HumanEnvironmental/ecological
ExistentialTransport (Aviation, Maritime)
SocietalBorder/frontier
IT/Cyber-
The sectoral (functional) varieties are what we are dealing with here.
BEING MORE PRECISE ABOUT ‘SOMETHING’ SECURITY
Is the security problem:Types of remedies:
- Being exposed to something that hurts humans?Action again threat/risk
- Having too much of something?Resilience, survival planning
- Not having enough of something?Competition for supplies
- Being dependent on something and worryingor cooperative sharing
that it may be taken away?Diversity of sources, redundancy
- Being dependent on something and damagingSelf-restraint, diversification
it through our own actions?
EXAMPLES:
Infrastructure security – basically (d)
Environmental security – (a) for natural disasters and climate change impact but also (e). Health is a similar case
Energy security – basically (c) and (d) but also (a) if we use dangerous sources eg nuclear
Transport, aviation, maritime, border and cyber- security involve things that we need and rely on (d) but which expose us in the process to human attacks and natural accidents (a)
‘SOMETHING AND SECURITY’ (eg ‘Energy and Security’) IS ANOTHER ISSUE
Two directions of interplay between the sectoral dimensions and more ‘traditional’ security processes (defence, conflict, internal threats):
A. Sectoral security concerns can lead to conflict within and between states, or to other violent and damaging behavior (oppression, exploitation, terrorism, smuggling and criminality):
Especially in cases (c) and (d)
Especially where states seek to directly control resources and transfers, and where a state or company tries to control resources on the territory of another
Especially where distribution of assets or benefits is unequal and unfair
Especially where relations are generally bad and other triggers of conflict exist
Where sectoral resources and assets provide tempting ‘soft’ targets for terrorists
B. Conflict and violence can damage sectoral factors of security and make it harder to apply
normal remedies for sectoral security challenges:
Conflict damages health, environment, infrastructure etc
Conflicts and ‘weak state’ conditions make it hard to maintain energy supply, transport and IT systems, effective border and migration controls etc
Oppressive or unsafe internal security conditions will distort distribution of benefits and are likely to involve health damage, over-exploitation of resources etc
Too much ‘militarization’ or ‘securitization’ of society can also divert resources from other important sectoral dimensions and cause assets to be hoarded/over-exploited
FINALLY: SECTORAL DIMENSIONS ARE INTER-LINKED
Distinguish between:
- Intrinsic or organic links eg
Health is directly linked to environment
Infrastructure and communications rely on energy supplies
Environment is affected by energy use
- Ad hoc links eg
A natural disaster breaks an energy supply line
A terrorist attack releases a bio-agent that causes a health crisis
Chernobyl damages health, infrastructure and communications
SARS disrupts air and sea transport
NB that chains of consequences (‘domino effects’) often have multiple elements eg
A terrorist bio-attack damages health but also forces areas to be sealed off, disrupting communications and perhaps water, energy and food supplies
The wrong kind of climate change affects environment, infrastructure and health and may demand major changes in energy use