Regional Security in a Global Context: A Critical Appraisal of European Approaches to Security

1. The analysis, opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the JSCSC, the UK MOD or any other government agency.

Abstract

The EU has developed a normative approach to security over the past 15 years, which is strongly rooted in the concept of human security. This paper examines where human security is situated in the contemporary discourse on security and critically assesses both the concept itself and its application in European security policy. It argues that the approach has weaknesses in concept and practice which potentially undermine the normative aspirations of European security, particularly with regard to political agency, the universalisation of liberal values, legitimacy, sovereignty, the notion of security as a collective good and the external as well as internal dimensions of the EU as a security community.

Notes

1. The analysis, opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the JSCSC, the UK MOD or any other government agency.

2. See for example Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Global Strategic Trends Programme 2006–2036 (Swindon, 2007), available at http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/94A1F45E-A830-49DB-B319-DF68C28D561D/0/strat_trends_17mar07.pdf (all web documents last accessed on 20 May 2008); European Defence Agency, An Initial Long-Term Vision for European Defence Capability and Capacity Needs, Brussels, 3 October 2006, available at http://www.eda.europa.eu/webutils/downloadfile.aspx?fileid=106; Klaus Naumann, John Shalikashvili, Lord Inge, Jacques Lanxade and Henk van der Breemen, Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership (Lunteren: Noaber Foundation 2007).

3. Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, ‘On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict’, International Security 16/2 (1991), pp. 76–116; Marc E. Levy, ‘Is the Environment a National Security Issue?’, International Security 20/2 (1995), pp. 35–62. See also Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict (New York: Holt 2002).

4. Naumann et al., Towards a Grand Strategy, pp. 13, 39.

5. None of the documents cited in note 2 see such a threat as likely in the near future.

6. Council of the European Union, A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy, Brussels, 12 December 2003, available at http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf; Council of the European Union, Fight Against the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: EU Strategy against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Brussels, 10 December 2003, available at http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/misc/78340.pdf; Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, Wider Europe–Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours, COM (2003) 104 final, Brussels, 11 March 2003, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/world/enp/pdf/com03_104_en.pdf.

7. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis, ‘Defining and Implementing Human Security: The Case of Japan’, in Tobias Debiel and Sascha Werthes (eds.), Human Security on Foreign Policy Agendas: Changes, Concepts and Cases, INEF Report 80/2006 (Duisburg: Institute for Development and Peace 2006), pp. 39–51

8. See for example Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996).

9. Roger Spegele, ‘Emancipatory International Relations: Good News, Bad News, or No News at All?’, International Relations 16/3 (2002), p. 384: Ken Booth (ed.), Critical Security Studies (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner 2004).

10. Bill McSweeney, Security, Identity and Interests: A Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999); Anthony Burke, Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence: War Against the Other (Abingdon: Routledge 2007).

11. Burke, Beyond Security, p. 235

12. Burke, Beyond Security, p. 234.

13. Spegele, ‘Emancipatory IR’, p. 396 f.

14. Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (Cambridge: Polity Press 2006).

15. Ian Manners, ‘The Normative Ethics of the European Union’, International Affairs 84/1 (2008), pp. 45–60.

16. David A. Baldwin (ed.), Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 126 f.

17. For example Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear: The National Security Problem in International Relations (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1983); Jessica Tuchman Mathews, ‘Redefining Security’, Foreign Affairs 68/2 (1989), pp. 162–77.

18. David Baldwin, ‘Security Studies and the End of the Cold War’, World Politics 48/1 (1995) pp. 117–41.

19. Sophie Dagand, ‘The Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on CFSP and ESDP’, European Security Review, No. 37 (March 2008), available at http://www.isis-europe.org/pdf/2008_artrel_150_esr37tol-mar08.pdf.

20. David Baldwin, ‘The Concept of Security’, Review of International Studies 23/1 (1997), p. 5.

21. Baldwin, ‘Concept of Security’, p. 13.

22. Baldwin, ‘Concept of Security’, p. 13.

23. Ian Kearns and Ken Gude, The New Front Line: Security in a Changing World (London: Institute for Public Policy Research, February 2008); Charlie Edwards, National Security for the 21st Century (London: Demos, December 2007).

24. Cabinet Office, The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom: Security in an Interdependent World (Norwich: HMSO 2008), p. 4.

25. Kearns and Gude, The New Front Line.

26. Amongst European members of the Human Security Network are Austria, Ireland, Slovenia and The Netherlands see http://www.humansecuritynetwork.org.

27. Roland Paris, ‘Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?’, International Security 26/2 (2001), pp. 89 ff.

28. UN Development Programme, Human Development Report 2005 (New York: UNDP 2005), p. 12.

29. Sascha Werthes and Tobias Debiel, ‘Introduction to Changes, Concepts and Cases’, in Debiel and Werthes (eds.), Human Security, p. 10.

30. Edward R. Stettinius cited in UN-Habitat, Executive Director's Opening Address, 1 October 2001, available at http://ww2.unhabitat.org/whd/ex.htm.

31. Thomas Richard Davies, The Rise and Fall of Transnational Civil Society: The Evolution of International Non-Governmental Organisations since 1839, Working Papers on Transnational Politics No. 3, London: City University, April 2008, p. 13.

32. Kearns and Gude, The New Front Line, p. 27.

33. For a debate on the concept see ‘Special Section: What is “Human Security”?’, Security Dialogue 35/3 (2004), pp. 357–87.

34. Paris, ‘Human Security’, pp. 101ff.

35. Tara McCormack, ‘From State of War to State of Nature: Human Security and Sovereignty’, in Christopher Bickerton, Philip Cunliffe and Alexander Gurevitch (eds.), Politics without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations (Abingdon: UCL Press 2007), p. 88.

36. McCormack, ‘From State of War to State of Nature’, pp. 88f.

37. Study Group on Europe's Security Capabilities, A Human Security Doctrine for Europe, Barcelona Report, Barcelona, 15 September 2004.

38. McCormack, ‘From State of War’, p. 88.

39. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech, Doctrine of the International Community, Economic Club, Chicago, 24 April 1999, available at http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page1297.asp.

40. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Center 2001).

41. Janne Haaland Matlary, ‘Much Ado About Little: The EU and Human Security’, International Affairs 84/1 (2008), p. 137.

42. UN General Assembly, 2005 World Summit Outcome: Final Document, 15 September 2005, paras. 138, 139, available at http://www.un.org/summit2005/documents.html.

43. The French Foreign Secretary was the first to make this demand and was later joined by others. Ivo Daalder and Paul Stares, ‘The UN's Responsibility to Protect’, International Herald Tribune, 13 May 2008.

44. Council of the European Union, Joint Declaration on UN–EU Co-operation in Crisis Management, New York, 24 September 2003, 12510/03 (Presse 266), available at http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/misc/77348.pdf; see also Council of the European Union, EU–UN Co-operation in Military Crisis Management Operations: Elements of Implementation of the EU–UN Joint Declaration, Adopted by the European Council, 17–18 June 2004, Brussels, June 2004, available at http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsUpload/EU-UN%20co-operation%20in%20Military%20Crisis%20Management%20Operations.pdf.

45. On the distinction and associated conceptual problems see Martin Shaw, Global Society and International Relations (Cambridge: Polity 1994), pp. 20 and 117–35.

46. Shaw, Global Society, p. 19 (emphasis added).

47. Manners, ‘Normative Ethics’, p. 60.

48. Barry Buzan, From International to World Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004), p. 77.

49. Kaldor, New and Old Wars.

50. See for example Immanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, Security Communities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998).

51. For a similar argument see McCormack, ‘From State of War’, p. 86ff.

52. For example ‘vulture funds’ are seen to undermine debt-reduction programmes intended to facilitate development. BBC, ‘Zambia Loses “Vulture Fund” Case’, 15 February 2007, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6365433.stm.

53. Benedict Kingsbury, ‘Sovereignty and Inequality’, European Journal of International Law 9/4 (1998), pp. 599–625.

54. Christopher Bickerton, Philip Cunliffe and Alexander Gourevitch (eds.), Politics Without Sovereignty: A Critique of Contemporary International Relations (Abingdon: UCL Press 2007).

55. See also McCormack, ‘From State of War’, p. 87.

56. Hannah Arendt cited in Burke, Beyond Security, p. 235.

57. UK MoD, Operations in Afghanistan: Background Briefing 2 (undated), available at http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/OperationsFactsheets/OperationsInAfghanistanBackgroundBriefing2.htm (emphasis added).

58. Atlantic Council of the United States, Issue Brief: Saving Afghanistan: An Appeal and Plan for Urgent Action, Washington, DC, January 2008, p. 5.

59. ActionAid International, Gaps in Aid Accountability: A Study of National Solidarity Programme (NSP) Finances (Kabul: ActionAid Afghanistan 2007), available at http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/english_report.pdf.

60. See also Manners, ‘The Normative Ethics’, p. 56.

61. Manners, ‘The Normative Ethics’.

62. David Chandler, Empire in Denial: The Politics of State Building (London: Pluto Press, 2006).

63. Marie-Janine Calic, Kosovo 2004: Optionen deutscher und europäischer Politik [Options for German and European Policy] (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, January 2004).

64. Manners, ‘Normative Ethics’, p. 60.

65. Manners, ‘Normative Ethics’, p. 46.

66. Adrian Hyde-Price, ‘A “Tragic Actor”? A Realist Perspective on “Ethical Power Europe”’, International Affairs 84/1 (2008), p. 33.

67. Hyde-Price, ‘A “Tragic Actor”?’, p. 33.

68. Robert Cooper, ‘The Postmodern State’, The Observer, 7 April 2002, available at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,680095,00.html.

69. Kishore Mahbubani, ‘The Impending Demise of the Postwar System’, Survival 47/4 (2005–06), pp. 7–18.

70. Bartholomaeus Grill, ‘Die Neuen Kolonialherren’ [The New Colonial Masters], Die Zeit, 14 September 2006.

71. ‘EurActiv: EU Kosovo Mission Up in the Air’, Focus Information Agency, 16 April 2008, available at http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n138432.

72. Ariel Cohen, ‘Diplomacy by Other Means’, Russiaprofile.org, 23 March 2007, available at http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=Business&articleid=Diplomacy_by_Other_Means_1174658160.

73. Naumann et al., Towards a Grand Strategy, p. 44.

74. Friedemann Müller, Energy Security: Demands Imposed on German and European Foreign Policy by a Changed Configuration in the World Energy Market (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik 2007).

75. G. John Ikenberry and Charles A. Kupchan, ‘Socialisation and Hegemonic Power’, International Organization 44/3 (1990), pp. 283–315.

76. Hartmut Meyer, ‘Is it Still Called “Chinese Whispers”? The EU's Rhetoric and Action as a Responsible Global Institution’, International Affairs 84/1 (2008), p. 64.

77. Sven Biscop, The ENP, Security and Democracy in the Context of the European Security Strategy, Global Europe Papers, Universities of Bath and Nottingham, 2008/3, p. 4, available at http://www.bath.ac.uk/esml/research/security/pdf/biscop.pdf.

78. Biscop, The ENP, p. 4f.

79. Biscop, The ENP, p. 13f.

80. Meyer, ‘Is it Still Called “Chinese Whispers”?’, p. 62.

81. Meyer, ‘Is it Still Called “Chinese Whispers”?’, p. 65.

82. Manners, ‘Normative Ethics’, p. 47.

83. Robert Alexy, ‘Individual Rights and Collective Goods’, in Carlos Nino (ed.), Rights (New York: New York UP 1992), p. 167.

84. Elke Krahmann, ‘Security; Collective Good or Commodity?, European Journal of International Relations 14/3 (2008), 379–404.

85. McCormack, ‘From State of War’, p. 89f.

86. Colin Crouch, Post-Democracy (Cambridge: Polity 2004).

87. Naumann et al., Towards a Grand Strategy, pp. 14, 40.

88. Koen Raes, ‘Citizenship, Public Culture and Insecurity’, Ethical Perspectives 2/3 (1995), p. 200.

89. Raes, ‘Citizenship’, p. 203.

90. Michael Reisman, ‘Designing and Managing the Future of the State’, European Journal of International Law 8/3 (1997), p. 410.

91. Davies, Rise and Fall, p. 14ff.

92. Reisman, ‘Designing and Managing’, p. 412.

93. Reisman, ‘Designing and Managing’, p. 412.

94. Marie McGinley and Roderick Parkes, ‘The Autonomy Thesis in EU Internal Security Co-operation’, European Security 16/3–4 (2007), pp. 245–66.

95. See for example the reference points for neo-fascists in Germany and the UK. Thomas Krumke and Andreas Klärner, Rechtsextremismus, die Soziale Frage und Globalisierungskritik: Eine vergleichende Studie zu Deutschland und Groβbritannien seit 1990 [Right-Wing Extremism, the Social Question and Anti-Globalisation: A Comparative Study on Germany and Britain] (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Forum Berlin 2006), available at http://www.fes.de/aktuell/documents/StudieEndversion.pdf.

96. See coverage for example in Die Zeit in early 2008.

97. Gwyn Prins and Robert Salisbury, ‘Risk, Threat and Security: The Case of the United Kingdom’, RUSI Journal 153/1 (2008), p. 23.

98. Prins and Salisbury, ‘Risk, Threat and Security’, p. 23.

99. Prins and Salisbury, ‘Risk, Threat and Security’, p. 24.