Tag: un

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COLLECTIVE DEALING WITH NON-TRADITIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES

 

Non-traditional security issues are challenges to the survival and well-being of peoples and states that arise primarily out of non-military sources.

 

 Non-traditional security challenges:–

 

    • Terrorism and violent extremism.

 

    • Transnational organised crime.

 

    • Irregular migration and human trafficking.

 

    • Environmental degradation.

 

    • Climate change

 

    • Resource scarcity.

 

    • Epidemics and pandemics.

 

    • Natural disasters.

 

    •   Food shortages.

 

    •  Drug Trafficking.

 

These challenges can destabilise countries, destroy the social fabric and risk derailing peace processes or progress on peace and security especially in fragile countries.

 

These dangers are often transnational in scope, defying unilateral remedies and requiring comprehensive – political, economic, social – responses, as well as humanitarian use of military force.

 

Common Characteristics:-

 

    • The threats are transnational in nature with regards to their origins, conceptions and effects.

 

    • They do not stem from competition between states or shifts in the balance of power, but are often defined in political and socioeconomic terms.

 

    • Non-traditional security issues such as resource scarcity and irregular migration cause societal and political instability and hence become threats to security.

 

    • Other threats like climate change are often caused by human-induced disturbances to the fragile balance of nature with dire consequences to both states and societies which are often difficult to reverse or repair.

 

    • National solutions are often inadequate and would thus essentially require regional and multilateral cooperation.

 

    • The referent of security is no longer just the state (state sovereignty or territorial integrity), but also the people (survival, well-being, dignity) both at individual and societal levels.

 

Aspects: Collective Dealing

 

Over time, various aspects of these non-traditional security challenges have received varying levels of attention.

 

Multilateral peace operations are not necessarily being considered to deal with non-traditional challenges.

 

UN is mandated to take on various tasks linked to the consequences of these challenges.

 

Advantages. There are clear advantages in multilateral peace operations taking on tasks linked to non-traditional security challenges. One of the advantages is the availability of resources and established logistics. UN has agencies and specialised organisations for dealing with non-traditional security challenges. It also has a capacity for retaining institutional memory.

 

Disadvantages.  The disadvantage is that the multilateral peace operations are already overstretched. Multilateral peace operations are generally deployed for shorter periods, whereas, non-traditional security challenges, require long-term investment and commitment. Budget availability is another challenge.

 

Depending upon the challenges, their area of influence and effects, either global or regional organisations would be suited to deal with them.

 

Regardless of which organisation is mandated, it is important to collaborate, cooperate and coordinate with all the actors involved (all components of the organisation, national partners, host government, civil society, international/external actors and global/regional organisations).

 

The tasks and division of labour need to be spelt out clearly without any ambiguity.

 

 

Recommendations

 

    • Develop policies on dealing jointly with non-traditional security challenges.

 

    • Operationalise dealing structure and mechanism.

 

    • Set up multi-country and multi-organisational cooperation forums.

 

  •  
    • Strengthen coordination mechanisms.

 

    • Resort to joint analysis, planning, training, implementation and evaluation.

 

    • Increase awareness about these operations.

 

  •  
    • Allocate adequate budget and resources.

 

 

Coming up:- detailed article on the subject.

 

 

Suggestions and value additions are most welcome

 

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References and credits

SIPRI

About Non-Traditional security

To all the online sites and channels.

 

Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from sources deemed reliable and accurate. All copyrighted material belongs to respective owners and is provided only for purposes of wider dissemination.

 

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MULTILATERALISM

Pic Courtesy (internet) Chintan India foundation 

 

Understanding Multilateralism: Definition and Contours

 

In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries (group of three or more) pursuing a common goal. Multilateralism is often defined in opposition to bilateralism and unilateralism. Nevertheless, this “quantitative” definition is not sufficient to capture the nature of multilateralism.

 

Multilateralism involves adherence to a common political scheme based on the respect of a shared system of norms and values. Its operation is determined by collectively developed rules that ensure sustainable and effective cooperation.

 

Multilateralism is therefore both a method of cooperation and a form of organization of the international system.

 

At the very core of multilateralism lies an interdependency that is key to the equilibrium needed to maintain peaceful global existence.

 

In particular, multilateralism is based on founding principles such as consultation, inclusion and solidarity. It guarantees all actors the same rights and obligations. Multilateralism gives small powers a voice and influence that they could not otherwise exercise.

 

Multilateralism is also a dynamic historical process, which cannot be dissociated from the context in which it takes shape.

 

Multilateralism may be at a global level involving several nations acting together, as in the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization, or may be at regional level involving regional or military alliances, pacts, or groupings, such as NATO.

 

Continue reading “MULTILATERALISM”

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Shadow Boxing: Debate at the 76th Session of UN General Assembly

Pic: Courtesy The Diplomat

During the general debate on the 21 Sep 21, Speech by US and Chinese president was interesting.

 

Link to US president speech:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/21/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-76th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly/

 

Link to Chinese president Speech:

http://www.news.cn/english/2021-09/22/c_1310201230.htm

 

Punches

Biden spoke about democracy and universal human rights, hinting at defending democracy and human rights from creeping authoritarianism.

 

Xi spoke only fleetingly of human rights through development and democracy as not a special right reserved to any individual country.

 

Xi used U.S. failure in Afghanistan as a counterpoint to global challenges emerging out of Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Xi’s message to developing countries is that China has emerged from deep poverty to the world’s second largest economy whereas, USA has been invading and fighting foreign wars.

 

Selling China

Xi prioritised economic development while decrying sovereignty-violating foreign military interventions.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech constituted an explicit pitch to developing countries for a post-U.S. dominant world order hinged to China’s economic development model.

 

Xi laid out initiatives including international aid and debt relief for the needs of less-developed members of the U.N.

 

Common Denominators

 

Both leaders made specific commitments to address the global challenges of Covid-19 with pledges of vaccine doses to countries that lack them and financial support for the World Health Organization’s COVAX equitable vaccine supply initiative.

 

Climate change figured prominently in both speeches.

  • Biden promised greater government funding for “green infrastructure and electric vehicles” and $11 billion in climate aid annually by 2024 to assist poorer countries vulnerable to extreme weather and rising temperatures.
  • Xi announced that China will stop funding the construction of coal-fired power plants outside its borders.

 

Both leaders also spoke of the Afghanistan situation but with wildly different perspectives.

  • Xi called Afghanistan situation as an event demonstrating that military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm.
  • Biden called the Afghanistan withdrawal a national turning point in a new era of relentless diplomacy.

 

Inferences: Another Cold War

Xi’s speech had no tone or content to ease the currently fraught U.S.-China relationship.

 

Messages from both the speeches indicate that there is very less chance of any meaningful reset in their bilateral relationship. The relationship seems to be heading towards a Cold War.

 

China is projecting itself as the alternative to the USA. China is presenting an alternative version of globalization, asking smaller countries to pick a side.

 

Bottom Line

Sumo Wrestling is going ON.

 “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled”

 

Question

Who in your opinion will win this bout?

 

Suggestions and value additions are most welcome

 

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References:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-china-watcher/2020/05/15/welcome-to-politico-china-watcher-489237

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/21/remarks-by-president-biden-before-the-76th-session-of-the-united-nations-general-assembly/

http://www.news.cn/english/2021-09/22/c_1310201230.htm