Student Network for Human Security (SNHS) Blog

And we are back!

A short post to announce the start of the new academic year, welcome our new mates in the program, greet our old friends, and all of you that pass by from time to time.

As we grow in number - and also in age - we expect to feed more frequently and reply your questions as fast and accurate as possible.

See you around

We had already mention some literal considerations of human security by American Think-Tanks, yet some of its reality was yet to be seen. Well, this week has been full of examples of the different kind of challenges dreading us through 21st century, and thus of the approaches adopted by responsible States. The following are some assorted articles that can help you have an idea of the upcoming changes:

+ The emergence of the pirate menace in the Golf of Aden has certainly demonstrated how vulnerable is the trade system. In this article of the NYT, the journalist portraits the limits of American power during the recent abduction crisis.

The problem has been around in the news for a while, and countries like U.S., some E.U., China, India and Japan have mobilized naval support to patrol the area but, as pointed in the article:

“It’s that old saying: where the cops aren’t, the criminals are going to go,” said Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Fifth Fleet spokesman. “We patrol an area of more than one million square miles. The simple fact of the matter is that we can’t be everywhere at one time.”

The journalist goes further to elucidate the problems of a traditional view of the problem:

Mr. Brodersen said Maersk, like most major shippers, did not favor the use of armed guards on its ships, largely for safety and liability reasons. Fuel or fumes could be ignited by gunfire, for example, and crew members would be put at further risk if a gun battle took place.

Some crews have sprayed fire-retardant foam at approaching pirates, and the Alabama crew reportedly used water hoses to battle the pirates on Wednesday. Some shipowners spray super-slippery goo on their decks to trip up pirates; others have even strung electrified wires around the hulls of their vessels.

Maersk also has tested LRADs, long-range acoustic devices. These sonic cannons, which look like TV satellite dishes, shoot disabling sound waves at approaching pirate ships. But these were found to be ineffective, Mr. Brodersen said, and they “expose the crew to being shot at.”

And the director of security of the firm ges to the point:

“But warships don’t address the root cause of the problem,” he said. “The real problem is that there’s no government in Somalia. Even if you catch pirates, there’s nowhere to go with them. Where do you take them? In the long run, the international community has to deal with Somalia.”

J. Peter Pham from Foreign Policy Magazine explains a little bit more of the background of the problem here, but his advise is almost exclusively militaristic.

Given the seriousness of the domestic situation in Somalia, where in spite of the humanitarian crisis, it is hard to international agencies to have stable missions, one can wonder if that organization capacity cannot be used for the good inside.

+ The other interesting development is the Pentagon budget changes announced by the head of the Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. Details and analysis from the NYT and from the Economist can be found here and here. The decision is to scale-back money on mega-projects, and to concentrate efforts on the needs that fit today's fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also cyber-war.

You have to concede that it is still a lot of money, around $664 billion according to the Economist, but there is a spark of hope in the decision. If, as some of the journalists say, the U.S. government is changing its focus from tomorrow wars to present conflicts, there is a small possibility for the rest of stakeholders to help frame security issues in a way that make those tomorrow wars fade more in the horizon. In academic terms, if Obama administration de-constructs the remnants of the Cold War arms race, we must make sure it does not happen again. Human security can help shape the discourse far from it

Yeah, sounds like a dream, but it is worth trying.

+ ... Especially, if we take into account president Obama position about nuclear disarmament (here from the Economist cover).

All this changes reflect what has been already presented in Munich, earlier this year, and surely will give you lot of incentive to keep on working - despite neighborhood traditional problematic guys.