Chapter 6: International Security After the
Cold War
Introduction: The changing Nature of
Security Studies
International security: security of states from external threats, and political independence
Challenges: military threats, revolutionary movements, terrorist groups
Securitization theory: security is not an objective term but constructed through social processes; issues are “securitized” through speech, media and social dialogue
Group security: minority rights, economic and political grievances, separatism (ethnic, religious, clans)
Asymmetric threats: not easily deterred or fought by military (terrorism and transnational criminal organizations)
Human security: freedom of indiciduals from threats to their safety, rights and lives (child labour)
- look over page 188 figure 6.1 it shows the international security agenda (cold war and post cold war)
The Nature of War in Global Politics
- Karl Von Clausewitz “On War”: “continuation of politics by other means” (focuses on war as a political act)
War: an armed conflict in which there are 1000 battle related deaths
- Correlates of War Project (COW) identified 216 interstate wars from 1816 to 1980
Interstate: wars between states
Intrastate: wars within states
Theorizing about the Origins of War
- wars start over tangible and intangible issues
Tangible: territory, wealth, colonies, economics, independence
Intangible: ethnic, religious, cultural, revenge, ideological values
Individual level of analysis: find the cause of war in ourselves, in our nature
- suggests humans are inherently aggressive
- suggest its not innate, its learned, (also related to gender)
State/group level of analysis: suggests the cause of war is found in social and political characteristics
- some states are more prone to war than others
- authoritarian states “bad states” and leaders = warlords
Systemic level of analysis: nature of politics itself (realists)
- principal source of war is anarchy and distribution of power
- long cycles: theory that hegemony rise and decline in regular patterns which influence economy and outbreak of hegemonic wars
International Warfare After the Cold War: Gulf
To
Gulf War –
1990
-
Saddam wanted to seize the oil rich country of
-
Gulf war achieved its
objective, the removal of Iraqi military from
Left unresolved issues such as:
-
Saddam remained a leader of
-
UN entered
-
Airpower remained in place over
North and
-
UN Sanctions remained in force
against
-
2003 Bush gave Saddam 48 hrs to
leave
- what was Bush’s motive for going to war? : threat of weapons of mass destruction, unfinished business an doil
Ethnic, Religious and Factional
Conflict
Communal conflicts: wars that take place between communal groups at the substate level
The Nature of Communal Groups
- share 1 quality: sense of common identity (ethnicity, race, historical experience, religious beliefs, region of residence, family ties)
Types of Communal Groups
Ethnonationalists: regionally concentrated peoples with history of independence objectives (Kurds, Quebecois)
Ethnoclasses: culturally distinct peoples descended from immigrants/slaves – low economic position
Militant sects: derive status from religion ex. Muslim-Sunni
Explaining Communal Conflict
- may originate in 1 or more of these situations:
Grievances- one communal group may have grievances over another
Economic Grievances: conflict over resources and right to control them; one group controls and leads to conflict with advantaged and disadvantaged groups
Political Grievances: political rights and freedoms, discriminations
Autonomy and
Social Change: conflict may erupt when a communal group feels threatened by change such as modernization (industrialization, commercialization, gov. policies)
Primordialism: conflict may develop out of hatred that various communal groups feel for one another (may have a historical record)
Incitement by Leaders: nationalist leaders who incite ethnic/religious bigotry for their own political ends can spark ethnonational conflict
State nationalism vs ethnonationalism: conflicts can originate in a clash between state and ethnic groups
Loss of political centre: when state, regional and international forces are too weak to maintain order and protect the security of individual groups within the country, communal groups are plunged into conditions of anarchy
Symbolic Politics: symbols and myths are they key to understanding ethnic conflicts (“any sort of politics activity focused on arousing emotions rather than addressing rights”)
The Nature of Communal War
- civilians are intentional targets in communal war, they are the centre of group power, source of soldiers, food and support, and so they are attacked to weaken military potential of the communal group
Ethnic cleansing: the forced removal of peoples from their area of residence
- territory is conquered when all members of the other ethnic group have been removed
Instruments used: forced deportation, mass murder, destruction of homes/property, terrorism, rape
Case of
- in WW2 it was conquered by Nazi Germany
-
Joseph Tito died and
- Dayton Agreement = peace
Case of
- independent state but divided by clans
- remains divided, no central gov., poor prospects for peace, regional instability in forms of arms trafficking, refugees, terrorism
Case of
-
Chechen leaders claimed the
right of self-determination and independence but Russians said
-
Referendum held by Russian gov. to confirm that
-
both claim the
-
The Kurds
-
Kurdish want to establish their
own state of
-
The
- war pitted Arab Muslim gov (north) against African Christian in South and West
- waged over territory, religious/rebel groups and oil
-
conflicts between separatist
movements and
-
fear that
Proliferation of Weapons
Vertical proliferation: refers to increases in the number of weapons possessed by individual states
Horizontal proliferation: refers to the spread of military capabilities across states
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
-
7 states are declared nuclear
powers +
- realists argue nuclear weapons can have an effect on regional stability
- leaders may want nuclear weapons for security, as a deterrent, war-fighting instruments
- may seek prestige, autonomy, independence
- obstacles: technical difficulty, costs, long time frame
A Nuclear
- concerns about
Proliferation of Chemical and
Biological Weapons
Chemical: mustard gas, phosgene, cyanide etc
Biological: plague, typhus, anthrax, smallpox, yellow fever etc
- are inexpensive to produce and called “the poor states nuclear weapon”
Proliferation of Conventional Weapons
- small arms and light weapons (military rifles, grenades, land mines)
- fall of arms sale b/c of end of cold war, collapse of soviet union and strained budgets
- global spread of armaments
International Terrorism
- transnational security concern
- influences travel decisions of tourists
- “one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter”
state terrorism: use of state power to terrorize civilians into compliance
state sponsored terrorism: support of international terrorist individuals or groups by a government
Origins and Causes of Terrorism
- state terrorism is designed to eliminate political opposition and the killers are paid for their work
Individual Psychology
- suggest the root causes is the psychological makeup of the individuals (personality disorders, mental illness) may explain terrorist activity
Ideological Fanaticism
- can originate from the commitment of people/groups to a particular political idea and to promote the idea through violence (social change through violence)
Religious Fanaticism
- individuals/groups seeking to advance their religious views, secure religious rights/freedoms or holy war against religious enemies
Grievance and Cycles of Violence
- economical., political, or religious persecution
- grievances of particular groups
Nationalism and Separatism
- desire of people
for political autonomy, independence
Activist Fanaticism
- to prevent certain political/social activity or to force their belief system on others (abortion, racial, animal)
- Al Queda terrorist group (Bin Laden)
-
Bush Administration criticized
for focusing on
-
Overthrew Taliban in
International Terrorism after
- globalization enhancing terrorist threat
-
motivated by a set of goals (land,power,independence)
-
“postmodern
terrorism” insired by religious, cult beliefs, racial
hatred
- may turn to “weapons of mass destruction” (computer and telecom networks) = cyber attacks
Combating Terrorism- approaches and
methods
- hard to track and target because they are small groups and secretive
- attacking terrorists can lead to deaths of innocent people
- counter terrorist operations
- can reduce vulnerability of a country and its people
- physical security, computer security, immigration “racial profiling” – minority groups
- governments can strengthen international cooperation
- authoritarianism: system where individual freedom is subordinate to the power of the state
- media and publicity effect it
International Organized Crime
- “transnational organized crime” is a serious global security issue because:
- international crime escalated (drugs), organized crime expanded into banking, threats to gov. (mafia)
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in