Understanding global security - Peter Hough

ECONOMIC THREATS TO SECURITY
statecentricism in the pursuit of human security. Globalization, if driven purely by the
economic interests of some states, can represent a threat to much of the world, but
a more fully rounded form of globalization, with a social and political dimension, can
do much to enhance human security.
Key points
• Poverty is both a major direct threat to life, as a cause of famine and hunger, and
a major indirect threat to life, since it heightens vulnerability to other threats.
• Famines usually have natural triggers but, ultimately, are man-made phenomena
since they are sometimes politically motivated and nearly always politically
avoidable.
• Famines are high-profile peaks of suffering dwarfed by the general, persisitent
threat of hunger.
• Hunger is avoidable since there is sufficient food in the world for all people but
remains a major problem due to global political failings which can, variably, be
attributed to negligence or wilful exploitation in the global North or the failure
to modernize in the global South.
• Life-threatening societal poverty may also occur as a result of economic
sanctions targeting governments, though the development of ‘smart’ sanctions,
more focused on the governments, is lessening this side-effect.
• Economic security from an Economic Liberal perspective is best achieved by
more globalization, from a Mercantilist perspective by less globalization, and
from a Marxist perspective by radical global change.
Notes
1 Malnutrition defined by the WFP as a daily intake of below 1800 calories, with 2100
being the recommended intake.
2 The NAM was obstensively an organization of states declaring themselves to be aligned
to neither Cold War superpower but became a vehicle of ‘Third World’ solidarity.
Recommended reading
Frank, A.G. (1971) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America, Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
Galtung, J. (1969) ‘Violence, Peace and Peace Research’, Journal of Peace Research 6(3):
167–191.
ICIDI (1980) North–South: The Report of the International Commission on International
Development Issues, London: Pan Books.
Lopez, G. and Cortright, D. (2002) ‘Smarting Under Sanctions’, The World Today, 58(3) March:
17–18.
Rostow, W. (1960) The Stages of Economic Growth, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sen, A. (1981) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Thomas, C. (2000) Global Governance, Development and Human Security, London: Pluto Press.
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