Human Security – concepts and challenges in Turkey and the

western Balkans hCa , Istanbul 19th February, 2013

Mary Martin

What do we mean by ‘human security’?2 ways of looking at it

1. WHO?

• People – humanising security

HOW ? • Means are as important as goals ; human

security as an approach as well as an end state

WHAT? • The importance of everyday life; interconnected threats; justice

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2. Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, and Right to Dignity

– Focus on what kind of humans as well as what kind of harms

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The European Union and HS

• Barcelona Report + a Human Security Doctrine – which capabilities?

• Madrid Report – how to deploy capabilities?• External relations, but internal dilemmas• Post Lisbon Treaty – what role for HS?– In the Neighbourhood– To complement national security and defence– As a domestic policy? Greece, the Balkans?

A framework: 5 principles

1. Primacy of human rights– Which rights – positive and negative – how are they threatened?– Who should defend them ?– Rule of law , not rule of war/corruption – Focus on individual need not macro indicators

2. Legitimate political authority

• Aim is credible and trust-worthy institutions – make people feel safe

• Focus on creating space for life as usual• Not necessarily re-creating the state• Local and regional governance • Accountability• External assistance must also be scrutinised

3. Bottom-up approach

• Sustainable – outsiders can only help not deliver

• Requires local knowledge, representation participation and accountability mechanisms

• Real empowerment versus token capacity building

• Increased roles for women• Attention to youth , minorities

4. Effective multilateralism

• Commitment to work with others • Commitment to rules/norms • Should build not erode legitimacy• Synthesis and inter-operability versus

duplication and rivalry• End to ‘stove-pipe’ mentality

5. Regional focus

• Focus on wider connections of conflicts• Existing dialogue emphasises ‘states’• How to engage the neighbourhood • Not just as source of threat but also

opportunity eg justice, economic initiatives

Policy implications

• Stability or sustainability?• Rule of law • Security @individual level = empowerment• Justice, inclusion• a strong civil society - accountability• Macro economic measures- GDP/currencies• Plus ....Issues of crime, jobs, micro credit

‘GOOD’ POLICIES

• Granular Leading to

• Organic

• Opportunity

• Dignity

The challenges of a human security approach

addressing complexity – Grey areas – Coping mechanisms

and survival strategies – heroic or harmful?

– Presence of ambiguous and contradictory markers of human security

– Radical shifts in perceptions

– Dialogues to manage complexity?

clashes between principles:

- the need for trade-offs : eg human rights versus bottom up , universal norms vs particularist cultures

-legitimating political authority :

who decides?

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Choices should be deliberative and transparent

The state and HS

• Complementary or competitive?• The paradox of HS – challenges the state but

also needs to collaborate with it• Who should deliver HS?• Can the state be co-opted ?• Re-aligning priorities and powers

Other challenges• Coping with messy

outcomes

– Undesirable and unintended consequences

– No neat edges – systematic not systemic

– Ownership of process and results

– Balance between universal templates and local translation

• Technical assistance or political intervention?

– HS is deeply political– Outcomes are important

as well as process – How to avoid the ‘Twin

Peaks’– No added value – HS as a technology of

governance/biopolitics

Lessons (not learned) fromthe Balkans experience

• Legitimacy →De jure AND de facto

• Legacy → integrated, sustainable programmes; including the private sector

• Coherence →Making multilateralism effective – stakeholder identification and engagementAgreement on objectives approaches narratives

• Timeframes →benchmarking evaluation, accountabilityContinuous assessment

HS Challenges in the region

– Different levels and types of vulnerability

– Managing the transition• Question of capacity

or will?– Legacy: Security

services; arms– Crime and porous

borders

• _________ ____ ____________ __________ __ __________

• ____ ______• ___ ___ ______________ • _________ ___________• _____ ______ ____ • ____ _______ _________

– Unemployment, and creating legitimate occupations

– Reshaping the social safety net and the political contract

– An inclusive society– The affective dimension

– hope, optimism, managing expectations

Some ideas for thematic research

• A regional security sector reform programme along HS lines?

• Access to justice • Involve and stimulate the private sector

– HS can also apply to business

• What kind of civil society ? – Citizen networks– Dialogue and grass roots representation

• Exploiting new technologies – countering marginalisation

Doing HS – research methods

• Good research is research conducted with people rather than on people

• changing the perspective of the researcher to achieve

• a different ethical position• a different kind of knowledge• unleash social, political processes of change

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

• PR/PAR = attempts to address power imbalances + oppressive social structures–Between researcher and subject –Between outside observer and inside

actor–Between priveleged and

underpriveleged/powerful and powerless

Power of the researcher:– Select who has knowledge– Which type of knowledge to include– Ask questions – Interpret data Risks to communities?

• PR -Values the researched community as a vital part of the research project and its members as experts of their experiences [ Grant, Nelson, Mitchell]

• ‘The role of PR is to enable people to empower themselves through the construction of their own knowledge in a process of action or reflection or conscientisation’ [Freire]

Doing research as though people matter

• What harms? Which humans?• What’s wrong with surveys?• Need to address power imbalances• A dialogic approach– Open ended conversations– 2 level translation

• Multidirectional security markers