Understanding global security - Peter Hough

SECURITY AND SECURITIZATION
Table 1.1 Fears of individuals living in the European Union in 2000 (%) a
1 Organized crime 77
2 Nuclear power plant accident 75
3 Terrorism 74
4 Ethnic conflict 65
5 Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction 62
6 Epidemics 57
7 Accidental launch of nuclear weapon 55
8 World war 45
9 Conventional war 45
10 Nuclear conflict 44
Note: a 15,900 people across the 15 EU member states in November and December 2000 were asked
the following question: ‘Here is a list of things that some people are afraid of. For each of these, please
tell me if, personally, you are afraid of it or not’.
Source: Manigart (2001: 4–5).
War (see Table 1.1). It is also observable in various ways that the international political
agenda has become far more diverse since 1990, with governments giving greater
priority to issues such as environmental threats, drugs and public health. Even
explicitly military organizations, like NATO, are increasingly focusing on non-military
activities.
Who’s securing whom?
The preoccupation of Security Studies with the state is very much a relic of the Cold
War. In some ways this is understandable since the discipline of International
Relations, and its sub-discipline Security Studies, only emerged in the 1930s and
was thus very much forged in an era of unprecedented military threats. Realism was
in the ascendancy at the close of the Second World War since the application of
force had proved its worth in curbing aggression and restoring order in Europe and
Asia. Pre-Second World War international cooperation, in the form of the League
of Nations, and ‘softly-softly’ appeasement diplomacy vis-à-vis aggressors comprehensively
failed to keep the peace. In addition, the total war of the Second World
War and the ‘total phoney war’ of the Cold War, whereby whole populations were
threatened by state quarrels in an unprecedented way, bound individuals to the fates
of their governments like never before.
Hence in the 1940s the twin concepts of ‘national interest’ and ‘national security’
took centre stage in International Relations and Security Studies. Walter Lippmann,
an American journalist who popularized the term ‘Cold War’ also defined the nature
of security that would characterize that era. ‘A nation has security when it does
not have to sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid war and is able, if challenged,
to maintain them by war’ (Lippmann 1943: 32). The USA’s new pre-eminence and
preparedness to act on the world stage in 1945 was an additional key factor in
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