The United Nations Development Program is a United Nations initiative that seeks to address “poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so countries can sustain progress” (United Nations Development Program 2021). They operate in 170 countries and assist nations with the development of “strong policies, skills, partnerships and institutions so they can sustain their progress” (United Nations Development Program 2021). This is a program that serves for the betterment of a globalized world. Specifically, they highlighted several threats to human security in their published report entitled the “Human Development Report 1994”. When dealing with a “security threat” it is first important to define these and several other related terms. First and foremost, with regards to security threats, the term safety must be addressed. Safety can be defined as protection against events which may result in damage or injury. It is the safety element of a security threat that the UNDP seeks to address in the modern world. In addition to “safety,” a vulnerability is essentially the factor that the identifies a risk in an individual’s safety. Vulnerabilities can be defined as a weakness that if exploited results in harm. Vulnerabilities essentially make an individual susceptible to harm. As for risk, it is the probability by which a threat is likely to occur resulting from a vulnerability. With concern of the forgoing, a threat can be defined as an individual or thing that causes harm and results in damages. It is such “threats,” that institutions such as the UNDP seek to mitigate with their agenda. The UN is an institution that seeks to provide security against said threats. Security can be defined as “protection against intentional damages” (UN Repository 2021). Henceforth a “security threat” is an individual or thing that seeks to intentionally damage the very fabric of the protection of peoples. The aforementioned definition thus is a composition of three previously defined terms herein, “security,” “threat” and “safety.” With consideration of the UNDP report of 1994 the threats that are highlighted are as follows: community, economic, environmental, food, health, personal, and political” (UNDP 1994). It is these threats that serve as barriers to the progress of society and human development. This essay is going to highlight each security threat and it will provide examples of each. Furthermore, it is going to use the defined terms to elaborate in an effective way the actual issues in the modern world. Lastly, it is going to critique the very concept of the proposition of each “security threat,” in an academic way so as to intrigue scholarly discussion.
Community is very important in modern society. A community is a group of people that cohabitate in a specific geographic location. With pertinence to the idea of community, a government is established to manage the population living in a community. For example, the Canadian government consists of municipal, provincial or territorial organizations. Governments were enacted through the Treaty of Westphalia where it identifies the modern international system. This treaty resulted from the Thirty years War in Europe in 1648 (Sens, A, et al. 2005). The treaty has provisions by which a modern state is established. These are a population, geographic location, sovereignty and a government. The Peace of Westphalia resulted in the “constitutional and legal status” (Sens, A, et al. 2005) of territorial states. Thus, aforesaid states became sovereign and became “free to determine and practice domestic affairs” (Sens, A, et al. 2005). The nature of the modern state as according to the treaty specifies that such entity must also be validated by other states and that states have authority over the legitimate use of force. With this in mind, a community therefore has more considerations. With respect to the concept of the state, it is important to differentiate it from a nation. A state is institutional and legal and controls a territory. A nation, however, is a people who possess similar values, beliefs, morals and norms. It is important to keep these in mind when discussing matters pertaining to the security threat of community. Security threats involving community are the preservation of culture, language, and values. It also involves matters pertaining to ethnic discrimination and conflict and the protection of the indigenous people (Srinivas, H., 2021). With consideration of Canada, an example of a community threat is the lack of the maintenance of the French language or the loss of the diversity of the indigenous peoples. The English, French and the indigenous are the foundation by which the entire state of Canada is erected. Modern policy involving inclusion of other cultures should respect this fact. The way that Canada has developed a multicultural society is essentially a threat to the way of life of the equitable Canadian citizen. Canada was formed as a result of Upper and Lower Canada merging through the Act of Union in 1841. The American Revolution caused the British loyalist to flee to Quebec. The American Revolution was a war of equity. It is the fact that the English and French disagreeing with the American terms that resulted in the more equitable Canada of today. Thus, it is necessary to preserve the legacy of those whomsoever contributed to the development of the nation by employing methods to preserve the foundation. Such rectification comes in the form of the concept of the melting pot of America. This theory specifies that immigrants assimilate to the ways of Americans. Through assimilation, the vulnerability of citizenship is addressed. It says that the immigrant is no longer a citizen of the previous state of residence however, he or she now is a citizen of the state in which he or she lives. It implies that the individual adopts the values, beliefs, morals and norms of the granting state. Policy such as the melting pot maintains the state and prevents other states or nations from exploiting the country with their individual agendas. Such exploitation can be seen in the former state of Hong Kong or Maucau. It is being employed in Hong Kong with which a two systems one country is enacted resulting from the British handover. It is these sorts of state agendas- Chinese Communist Party, that serve to destroy the diversity of states and causing others to amalgamate into a larger state. Another example can include Crimea. Russia sought to annex the state and it resulted in turmoil. Russia claimed that the values, beliefs, morals and norms of the Crimean people were essentially Russian. Although a lot of the population does accept Russian, there should have been a more democratic way by which the state could be absolved into the state of Russia. Russia was accused of corruption in the decision and was thus condemned by the UN. Sanctions resulted. The last example to note is involving Malaysia and the Philippines. In Malaysia there is a specific geographic location referred to as Saba. Saba is a place where many ethnic Filipinos reside. It is their values, beliefs, morals and norms that represent the Filipino nation. A referendum needs to occur to determine the just sovereignty of the Philippines over the location. Malaysia is preventing or have been attempting to prevent it from happening. They have been usurping the land and have acted hostile to the Filipino nation often using military means to enforce their authority when in fact the geographic location in question is the sovereign right of the Republic of the Philippines. It is Malaysia’s acts to detriment the security of the Philippines that are causing the contention in Saba. Clearly Malaysia has been exploiting the vulnerability of Manila’s government to benefit their own cause. With these mentioned examples, it becomes clear that community threats are a very big issue in international relations.
The next security threat is economical. The economy is calculated via obtaining the Gross Domestic Product. Fiscal policy and monetary policy determine how effective a government is with regards to the economy. Monetary policy is dictated by the International Monetary Fund of the World Bank. Governments must act in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned institution. Fiscal policy on the are policy related to the inputs and outputs of the government structure. Various factors go into a government economy, specifically fiscal policy involves taxation and government borrowing or spending to affect overall spending of the government (Krugman, P., et al., 2018), while monetary policy involves “changes in the quantity of money to alter interest rates and affect overall spending” (Krugman, P., et al., 2018). In theory, these affect the GDP which consist of the government (taxes and transfers), households (wages, profit, interest, rent), firms (wages, profit, interest, rent), and the rest of the world (import, export, foreign borrowing/lending). It details the markets for goods and services, the factor markets and the financial markets. With the foregoing, governments act to manage depression, recession and economic growth by affecting the economy. Modern examples of fiscal policy being implemented are Canada’s taxation of goods and services. These provide the Canadian government with resources which they can allocate to various Ministries who then use procurement to designate private companies to specific tasks. Specifically, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, receives transfer payments originating from taxation, from the federal government. These funds are then distributed to the eligible citizens for the purpose of combatting poverty. A vulnerability to this method is that people become complacent and thus remain trapped and dependent on the government system. The USSR fell as a result of such leftist policy. By addressing such government service and changing their perspective to provide not only funds but the encouraging of opportunities for employment ie. procurement of temporary work agencies to employ these citizens, the problems that resulted in the fall of the USSR can be rectified. A modern monetary policy involves the transactions and the regulation of cryptocurrency. Multiple countries have adopted this new financial phenomenon. Its adoption is similar to how stocks and bonds were received during the Great Depression in the USA. Venezuela is a country that has experienced lack luster results with the current financial system under the World Bank. The inflation resulted in basic goods and services that were unaffordable. The state decided to implement monetary policy involving the accepting of Bitcoin as the main currency of the country. Their security threat was inflation and they were vulnerable because they didn’t have the reserves to be able to manage monetary policy to their favour. El Salvador has also concurred with such experimental policy. It is important to note that cryptocurrencies are valued according to currencies which are regulated by the International Monetary Fund of the World Bank. Thus, cryptocurrencies are dependent on the financial system established by the Federal Reserve of the USA regardless which then makes such policies a matter of concern of the World Bank.
The next concern is environmental. The environment is a responsibility of all states. Matters involving crimes against the environment are held with strict laws. In Canada, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999 is the federal statue governing matters involving the environment. It is a municipal, provincial and federal obligation to assure that the environment is prioritized. These laws pertaining to the environment regulate, industries that harvest natural resources or pollute the land, air and water” (Yates, R., et al., 2017). Environmental threats to human security involve pollution and the management of natural disasters (Srinivas, H., 2021). Canada is a staple economy with a large export of oil. As a result of fracking and the collection of oil, there have been numerous oil spills throughout the years. This has caused harm to the water supply but also the ecosystem and the various species of animals. The vulnerability here is that Canada is dependent on oil. Canadian oil companies need to focus on transitioning to a green economy. It is the refusal to adapt to innovation that will essentially reduce Canada’s rank amongst the G8. An example of such refusal to innovate is Microsoft corporation. Their inability to adapt to the phone market resulted in their hardship, something they still manage to this day. Another example is Blackberry, a Canadian company that was at one point at the top of the phone market. This company refused to accept that applications would serve a bigger role in the phone industry. They believed that a browser was all that was necessary because such browsers can perform all the tasks of an application. It is this denial of innovation and several other factors that led to the erosion of market share for Black Berry. A foreign example of an environmental threat is the Fukushima nuclear reactor leak. This nuclear reactor in Japan malfunctioned and it resulted in a geographic catastrophe. The vulnerability here was that their operation needed more attention and that was not provided hence the disaster. The disaster resulted in contamination of the ocean and it is going to continue for a very long time.
Food and water are a human security threat and its pretty obvious that it is a need for survival. There are multiple nations suffering from a lack of food. Countries must develop ways to be able to feed all the people in the planet. There are breakthroughs happening in food that could help humanity achieve this objective. Such breakthrough comes in the form of genetic engineering of foods or even lab grown meats. Not only do these methods provide more yield but they also prevent damage to the environment. There is a major hunger crisis in Africa and parts of Asia. People do not have enough to eat because they lack the capital to purchase it. There are however charitable organizations such as UNICEF that aim to feed the impoverished. Clearly the vulnerability for these African nations is that their hunger can be used to manipulate them into unfavorable agreements. The exchange of funds had occurred through the Belt and Road Initiative of China, were in certain countries were granted loans that they obviously were not able to pay in exchange for the control of strategic ports. It remains to be seen how the Chinese would receive their investment back or even how they will manage it or even if they will deal with it in terms of fairness to the other nation. As it pertains to water, the UN has declared that it is a human right to have access (UN Water 2021). Without water an individual can only live several days. Parts of Africa and Asia are so hot and blistering that this is severely reduced. Addressing the concerns for food and water need to be considerate of adapting to change. The supply chain of food needs to adapt to help people in food and water distress. For example, some countries make it mandatory that unsold food be donated so that it could help the community feed those in poverty. It is changes in policy such as the foregoing that are going to help solve the food and water issues of the world.
Health is a human security concern that aims to address peoples access to medical care. There are institutions that help on a global scale to provide such service. For example, the WHO donated 500,000 vaccines against cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) to Ghana sometime in the 1990’s (Pub Med 1997). The epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in Ghana was considered a national disaster. Specifically with this security concern what is important to un understand is that health comprises of several factors which are physical, psychological, environmental, economical and social. By addressing these concerns, individual vulnerabilities to peoples health would be minimized. Living conditions play a major role in the maintenance of holistic health. The approach should be considerate of this as things such as shelter basically house the individual who represents the holistic care principles. By providing a shelter with adequate nutrition and access to water and sanitation, infectious disease can be minimized. However, all these things come with expenses. That is the true vulnerability of health security problems in the contemporary world. Who is going to pay to put these people in living conditions so that infectious disease can be prevented? The outbreak of COVID19 in Wuhan caused a lot of contention in 2020 – 2021. This outbreak shut down parts of the economy and it resulted in mass fear. People were forced to adopt social distancing measures to prevent the infection from spreading. What has transpired as a result of this debacle is mass awareness of medical practices essentially addressing the vulnerability of a lack of medical socialization. People were socialized into new medical considerate policies such as hand washing, masks, gloves etc., to improve the standard of living and the living conditions of citizens around the globe. It is evident that such interventions along with vaccinations are resulting in less infections of COVID 19. However, there are still variants which appear to be more virulent. Thus, it is important to be considerate of the chain of infection and modes of transmission (what-when-how 2021). By addressing such medical vulnerabilities, institutions such as the WHO are doing their duty to serve the public.
Personal threats are threats to individual security however, it is possible to misunderstand such threat for self interest. First, it is important to interpret the UNDP’s provisions of what constitutes such personal threat, than it is necessary to diffuse the self interested. The UNDP characterizes personal threats as threats from the state ie. torture, other states ie. war, groups ie. ethnic, gangs ie. crime, women ie. rape, children ie. child abuse, self ie. suicide. When referring to the provisions of the UNDP it is evident that not all demographics of the population are represented. For example, men are not depicted although a quiet discrimination is happening towards them in the form of misandry. It is evident that with these threats, self interest plays a major role. It is the discrepancy between self- interest of aspirations and expectations. That results in personal interest. Anomie and strain theory says that, “the greater the discrepancy between aspirations and expectations, the higher probability that an individual will engage in law violation” (Akers, R., 2013). By addressing the vulnerability of self interest people won’t be inclined to mistreat others. Further, there must be a reward by which to absolve such self interest. As it pertains to regimes, the Treaty of Westphalia represents a population. Self-interest is a personal matter and it does not reflect the consensus or the interest of the people. Acting in self-interest over the interest of the people is a political crime based on the treaty. It has been displayed many times in multiple regimes. There needs to be a check and balance where people validate a person’s self-interest thus converting it to the interest of the people. The people however are not always right as is the case with Aquino. In this case involving the Marcoses, she was not as adept as Ninoy Aquino with regards to politics and the Republic of the Philippines went to shambles as a result. Mao Zedong established a regime based on his self-interested, “Great Leap Forward,” desire to become an industrial power resulting in famine for the farmers causing deaths (Yu, V., 2014). Such regime by the Communist Party of China is still enacted and the West is constantly fighting as a result. Another example is Adolf Hitler. In this example what had transpired in Germany in WWII, was mass extermination of the Jews. This was all brought about by the self interest of the apparent superiority of the “Arian race.” Joseph Stalin is an example from the USSR that sought to dictate the USSR and through this desire to obtain a power that is dictatorial, numerous deaths resulted. The question is then, is such self-interest destroying the liberties that the foundations of the West? Certainly and it is evident currently in Hong Kong.
The last security threat as per the UNDP is political. According to the Human Development Report 1994 political threats are concerned with human rights, repression and subversion. In this modern age international relations are dealt with via diplomacy. It is through diplomacy that states negotiate the terms of the involvement of each state. The vulnerability in this is that if a state is much poorer, it can serve as a method of exploitation. Currently developing countries are negotiating with China with regards to The Belt and Road Initiative. These deals provide direct relief to the country via an influx of financial support from China. However, there is the possibility of exploitation. There are several forms of control direct, indirect and internal. By granting China a port as is the case with Sri Lanka who agreed to a 99 year lease (Nyabor, J., 2018), China has full authority to exercise internal control of a part of Sri Lanka. China controls strategic assets such as natural resources, and land rights— as collateral. It is the control of these resources that leverages the Chinese regime against the West. The political threat here is a matter involving ideology. It is far left versus the center with regards to the political spectrum. And this is all for a fight against repression and subversion both a political crime.
Now with all the security threats
looked at thoroughly, it becomes evident that the Human Development Report 1994
seeks to bring light about the modern issues pertaining to country
development. It seeks to better the
conditions by which people cohabitate and also it addresses the individual
vulnerabilities as explained herein. By
keeping this report in mind, it serves as a method by which to identify
potential problems that could arise in the future. As an exiting point, a rectification that can
be implemented to address such concerns specified in the report is humanitarian
intervention. This involves response by
the military to address gross violations of human rights or humanitarian crises
(Sens, A, et al. 2005) caused by human security issues detailed in
the UNDP report. Another is through sanctions but the imposing of sanctions should be considerate of the population within the country that a sanction is imposed. In conclusion, the UNDP has done an excellent deed by increasing the awareness of communities through their report.
Work Cited
Akers, R., et al. (2013). Criminological Theories. New York, USA. Oxford University Press.
Ghana Off News Bull. (1997). WHO donates vaccines. Pub Med. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12294204/
Krugman, P., et al. (2018). Macroeconomics. New York, USA. Macmillan Learning.
Nyabor, J. (2018). China using huge loans to ‘colonize’ developing countries, report. Citi News Room. Retrieved from: https://citinewsroom.com/2018/08/china-using-huge-loans-to-colonize-developing-countries-report/
Sens, A., et al. (2005). Global Politics. Toronto, Canada. Thomson Nelson.
Srinivas, H. (2021). Human Security: Seven Categories. Retrieved from https://gdrc.org/sustdev/husec/z-categories.html
United Nations. (2021). Module 3- Lesson 3.6 Safety and Security for UN Personnel. Retrieved from: http://repository.un.org/bitstream/handle/11176/400656/Lesson%203.6%20Safety%20and%20Security%20for%20UN%20Personnel.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y
United Nations Development Program. (2021). Human Development Report 1994. Retrieved from: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/255/hdr_1994_en_complete_nostats.pdf
UN Water. 2021. Human Rights to Water and Sanitation. Retrieved from: https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights/#:~:text=Access%20to%20water%20and%20sanitation%20are%20recognized%20by,consequences%20for%20the%20realization%20of%20other%20human%20rights.
what-when-how. (20218). Introduction to Microbiology (Safety in the Healthcare Facility) (Nursing) Part 3. Retrieved from: http://what-when-how.com/nursing/introduction-to-microbiology-safety-in-the-healthcare-facility-nursing-part-3/
Yates, R., et al. (2017). Business Law in Canada. Ontario, Canada. Pearson.
Yu, V. (2014). Mao Zedong's Great Famine of 1958-62 still blights rural lives. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1433490/mao-zedongs-great-famine-1958-62-still-blights-rural-lives-scholar-says
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