Rethinking the “State Security-Human Security” Nexus in the Face of COVID-19
01 Jan 2022-pp 109-123
TL;DR: It is argued that the COVID-19 pandemic created a need to problematize how the authors understand security, especially the contrast between state security and human security, and the need to understand it as a precondition for, and not as an alternative to, state and international security.
Abstract: It is the argument of this chapter that the COVID-19 pandemic created a need to problematize how we understand security, especially the contrast between state security and human security. This chapter argues that the pandemic has illustrated the importance of human security as well as the need to understand it as a precondition for, and not as an alternative to, state and international security. However, the study does not argue that the increased importance of human security translates into the protection of all humans. The crude reality that security is always at someone's and something's expense sustains vulnerabilities within societies. The study acknowledges that the changes in the security implications (both material and perceived) do not necessarily or automatically translate to changes in policies. Institutional resistance to change and general political trends among other factors affect the extent to which policies will evolve in a direction that would better meet the security implications of the pandemic.
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13 Oct 2020TL;DR: The response of states to coronavirus has consisted of restrictive measures, which often conflict with human rights as discussed by the authors, which can have fatal consequences for national security, especially in cases of national emergencies.
Abstract: Human security, defined as a state to relieve people of the traumas that accompany human development, is closely linked to human rights. The treatment of the concept of human security enables the narrowing of the gap between the citizen and the state. At the time of a pandemic, the task of protecting life forces states to take special measures. The response of states to coronavirus has consisted of restrictive measures, which often conflict with human rights. International Human Rights Law allows the restrictions on freedom in cases of national emergencies, but necessary and proportionate. Health security, as an integral part of human security, aims to guarantee a necessary minimum of protection against diseases, especially infectious, epidemic and poor living conditions. State institutions have a responsibility to guarantee medical treatment as needed. Ignoring or refusing this service, even to a single citizen, can have fatal consequences for national security. The Covid-19 pandemic also caused collapse in developed countries, with advanced health systems. It is still too early to make final analyzes, studies and evaluations regarding this pandemic. Experience and lessons learned should serve to make such a situation as less emergency as possible in the future. Important for this, among other things, is the evaluation and respect of professional communities.
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01 Jan 2014
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the question of how migration has developed into a security issue in western Europe and how the European integration process is implicated in it and how migration can be viewed as a threat to public order.
Abstract: This article deals with the question of how migration has developed into a security issue in western Europe and how the European integration process is implicated in it. Since the 1980s, the political construction of migration increasingly referred to the destabilizing effects of migration on domestic integration and to the dangers for public order it implied. The spillover of the internal market into a European internal security question mirrors these domestic developments at the European level. The Third Pillar on Justice and Home Affairs, the Schengen Agreements, and the Dublin Convention most visibly indicate that the European integration process is implicated in the development of a restrictive migration policy and the social construction of migration into a security question. However, the political process of connecting migration to criminal and terrorist abuses of the internal market does not take place in isolation. It is related to a wider politicization in which immigrants and asylum-seekers are portrayed as a challenge to the protection of national identity and welfare provisions. Moreover, supporting the political construction of migration as a security issue impinges on and is embedded in the politics of belonging in western Europe. It is an integral part of the wider technocratic and political process in which professional agencies ‐ such as the police and customs ‐ and political agents ‐ such as social
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TL;DR: In this article, four variables are used as predictors of a President's popularity: length of time in office, international events, economic slump, and war, and the number of voters who approve or disapprove of the way the incumbent is handling his job as president.
Abstract: I think [my grandchildren] will be proud of two things. What I did for the Negro and seeing it through in Vietnam for all of Asia. The Negro cost me 15 points in the polls and Vietnam cost me 20.Lyndon B. JohnsonWith tenacious regularity over the last two and a half decades the Gallup Poll has posed to its cross-section samples of the American public the following query, “Do you approve or disapprove of the way (the incumbent) is handling his job as President?” The responses to this curious question form an index known as “Presidential popularity.” According to Richard Neustadt, the index is “widely taken to approximate reality” in Washington and reports about its behavior are “very widely read” there, including, the quotation above would suggest, the highest circles.Plotted over time, the index forms probably the longest continuous trend line in polling history. This study seeks to analyze the behavior of this line for the period from the beginning of the Truman administration in 1945 to the end of the Johnson administration in January 1969 during which time the popularity question was asked some 300 times.Four variables are used as predictors of a President's popularity. These include a measure of the length of time the incumbent has been in office as well as variables which attempt to estimate the influence on his rating of major international events, economic slump and war. To assess the independent impact of each of these variables as they interact in association with Presidential popularity, multiple regression analysis is used as the basic analytic technique.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors link environmental degradation and national security and explore three claims: it is analytically misleading to think of environmental degradation as a national security threat, because the traditional focus of national security has little in common with either environmental problems or solutions, and the effort to harness the emotive power of nationalism to help mobilize environmental awareness and action may prove counterproductive by undermining globalist political sensibility.
Abstract: This chapter aims to link environmental degradation and national security and it explores three claims. First, it is analytically misleading to think of environmental degradation as a national security threat, because the traditional focus of national security—interstate violence—has little in common with either environmental problems or solutions. Second, the effort to harness the emotive power of nationalism to help mobilize environmental awareness and action may prove counterproductive by undermining globalist political sensibility. Third, environmental degradation which is not very likely to cause interstate wars. The wide-ranging contemporary conceptual ferment in the language used to understand and act upon environmental problems is therefore both a natural and an encouraging development. Military violence and environmental degradation are linked directly in at least three major ways. First, pursuit of national-security-from-violence through military means consumes resources that could be spent on environmental restoration. Second, war is directly destructive of the environment. Third, preparation for war causes pollution and consumes significant quantities of resources.
464 citations
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396 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use an interrupted time series to study the political effect of the enforcement of a strict confinement policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and find that lockdowns have increased vote intentions for the party of the prime minister/president, trust in government and satisfaction with democracy.
Abstract: Major crises can act as critical junctures or reinforce the political status quo, depending on how citizens view the performance of central institutions. We use an interrupted time series to study the political effect of the enforcement of a strict confinement policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we take advantage of a unique representative web-based survey that was fielded in March and April 2020 in Western Europe to compare the political support of those who took the survey right before and right after the start of the lockdown in their country. We find that lockdowns have increased vote intentions for the party of the Prime Minister/President, trust in government and satisfaction with democracy. Furthermore, we find that, while rallying individuals around current leaders and institutions, they have had no effect on traditional left–right attitudes.
340 citations