Thesis structure

Chapter 2 discusses the concept of human security. It begins with the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report presentation of human security, the political reaction and the response of the academic security community. Largely, it centres around the debate over the comparative viability of narrow and broad definitions of the concept. It also considers econometric analyses of the incidence and causes of civil war and violence and post-conflict development policies. These point to a range of factors

which may, to various extents, be associated with human security (e.g. as the absence of war and violence). They include democracy, development, governance, globalisation, rule of law and economic growth, all of which are also part of international poverty reduction and human development strategies. Therefore the chosen approach to human security is one that embraces governance and the scope for the political involvement of individuals. The chapter concludes that the broader, if less manageable, concept has been largely ignored in explorations of human security. As well as identifying this significant gap in the research in regard to the local conditions which impact on people’s human security at the grass-roots level, the chapter sets the context for the thesis case study.

Chapter 3 serves a dual purpose. First, by way of Appendix A, it provides a brief background to Cambodia’s political and administrative history to inform the reader of the societal context in which the more recent changes have been introduced. Secondly, it details the impact on the human security of rural Cambodians caused by both domestic politics and international security practice arising from the Vietnam war, the period of Khmer Rouge rule and the following period of internationally sponsored civil war in Cambodia. It also outlines the state re-building following Vietnam’s intervention in Cambodia in 1978, the role of UN Humanitarian agencies in assisting Cambodian refugees at the Thai border and, following a peace settlement, the role of international development institutions in promoting a decentralised development strategy for Cambodia.

Chapter 4 looks more closely at the human security situation in the countryside in the light of the development priorities and promises. It demonstrates that human security is threatened by a number of factors including failures of law and order, unemployment and poor public service delivery. These issues are taken into chapter 5 and discussed in relation to theories and practice of “good governance” in development. It argues that governance, interpreted as a blend of new public management and corporate governance, needs to both engage individuals and civil society at the local level and pay close attention to institutional cultures which determine the role of leadership and the commitment of officers to designated outcomes. The chapter will show that there needs to be greater attention given to politics and its role in creating social change.

The final chapter concludes that the broad definition of human security is both practical and desirable. Using such an approach has also provided a sound basis for including human security within the international security framework both in terms of specific security bodies, such as the UN Security Council, as well as the extensive international development assistance programmes which are also security-related in their operation and purpose.

C

2

H

S

– C

F

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.1

People who are trying to survive … do not choose between addressing ‘violent threats’ or ‘poverty threats’. They address both. Human security should do likewise.2

This chapter outlines the projection of the idea of human security onto the international stage by the UNDP in 1994, and the debates that it engendered. First in terms of definitional problems and, secondly, in terms of human security’s challenge to the mainstream academic disciplines which traditionally claim international relations and security as their specialist domains and the state as the basic unit in their theoretical formulations. The main thrust of the chapter is that it is important to adopt a broad definition of human security and that the primary concern is for the condition of people in terms of their local social and political realities.

The risk, otherwise, is that human security becomes little more than what Duffield calls an aid-related technique of global security, or Mary Kaldor represents as a particular form of military-civilian intervention in situations of civil conflict or natural disaster.3 These sorts of approach are about how human security is “done” by international aid and by international military intervention. They do not challenge the state-based security theories but rather work within them to analyse how dominant states are pursuing their own security by co-opting humanitarian concerns and development processes. This thesis therefore turns attention to the problem of how to refocus human security on the individual.

1 _{Preamble to United Nations, "Universal declaration of Human Rights." Available at}

http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm.

2 _{Sabina Alkire, "Conceptual Framework for Human Security (Working Definition and}

Executive Summary)," (Working Paper prepared for the Commission on Human Security: 2002), 5.

3 _{See Mark Duffield, "Human Security: Linking Development and Security in an Age of}

Terror," in New Interfaces between Security and Development: Changing Concepts and Approaches, ed. Stephan Klingebiel (Bonn: German Development Institute, 2006); and Mary Kaldor, Mary Martin, and Sabine Selchow, "Human Security: A New Strategic Narrative for Europe," International Affairs 83, no. 2 (2007).

Although econometric analyses of the occurrence and causes of civil war and violence have formed the basis for a narrow, conflict related approach to human security (defined as the absence of civil war and other forms of physical violence) they have also emphasised the role of development in conflict resolution and prevention.4 In fact, the econometric analyses support the extension of the human security concept beyond conflict and physical violence to embrace security in terms of everyday existence – food, shelter, justice, income, social and political freedom and liberty – which are the aims, if not the achievements, of development. Further support for this position comes from a range of new studies on human security which extend the use of the concept into a wider context of anthropological research.5 Inevitably, a discussion of human security brings into play questions of its relationship with human rights and human development. The relationship is, in fact, treated in a variety of ways in the literature. On the one hand, it is said that you can not have one without the other, while on the contrary there is a view that human rights are what counts, and that these embrace human development. In this view, human security is largely irrelevant as it is considered to add little if anything to the comprehensive range of rights existing in international law and UN covenants.6 The position here is that a concept of human security provides a unique space in which human rights and human development may be brought together in practice to achieve their common goals of protecting individuals from their own states and from the deprivation of basic needs. Hence human security is an overarching concept that combines people’s own search for security within their own cultures and societies with a process of adjustment and change to the external influences of rights and development processes. Human security concerns everyday life and politics and the outcomes of the external impositions discussed by Duffield and Kaldor referred to above may not be as intended.

4 _{See Andrew Mack, "Report on the Feasibility of Creating an Annual Human Security}

Report." and Human Security Centre, Human Security Report: War and Peace in the 21st Century. Aid and development policy is also an important aspect of their work. See in particular Paul Collier, "Aid, Policy and Growth in Post-Conflict Countries," (Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction Unit, World Bank, 2002); Collier, "Development and Conflict."; and Collier et al., Breaking the Conflict Trap.

5 _{See Alexandra Kent, "Reconfiguring Security: Buddhism and Moral Legitimacy in}

Cambodia," Security Dialogue 37, no. 3 (2006).

6 _{See the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the full}

The chapter will consider a range of factors, such as democratisation, decentralisation, effective security sector, civil society and social movement, which various authors have suggested are necessary for creating and maintaining human security.