Student Network for Human Security (SNHS) Blog

David Brooks reminds us why all the fuss around security:

During the first part of this period [2001-2011], the Republicans were in control. They expanded a vast national security bureaucracy. In their series in The Washington Post, Dana Priest and William M. Arkin detail the size of this apparatus. More than 1,200 government agencies and 1,900 private companies work on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence programs at around 10,000 sites across the country. An estimated 854,000 people have top-secret security clearance. These analysts produce 50,000 reports a year — a flow of paper so great that many are completely ignored.

(Follow the link to find the original column and the link to the Washington Post)

The JT reports that some sub-stations of the police in Japan started to feed blogs in order to inform the community about "criminal incidents in their communities and facilitate friendly interactions with police officers." An excerpt:

Featuring anticrime tips, town events and information on the surrounding landscape, the blog is peppered with photographs taken by the officer while on patrol and includes brief monologues about everyday life in the area...

"The advantage of running blogs from police stations is that we can help people understand our job," says the police blogger.

It will never stop surprising me that police has to explain what their job is. Read the whole note here

A couple of weeks ago, the APEC forum had a meeting in Japan to talk about growth strategies. Here by the conclusions, via the Japan Times:

• Contribute to improving quality of growth in the global economy.

• Have an action plan and followup mechanisms in the growth strategy.

• Work on structural reforms complementing efforts of the Group of 20 major economies.

• Promote job creation, development of smaller businesses and entrepreneurship, and create new economic opportunities for women.

• Promote energy efficiency and improve research and development on the environment.

• Contribute to countering terrorism and pandemic diseases.

Besides saying almost nothing particular about growth, it includes - out of the blue - gender, environment, terrorism, and pandemics. It seems that this post-cold war deconstruction of security, helped by chaos theory and 'holisticity', is just making a hodge-podge out of political agendas. Hope it is just the transition....

There has been a lot of fuzz recently because of the implications of $100 billion in spending cuts over the next five years. The idea is, according to Defense Secretary Gates for the New York Times:

“Our country is still fighting two wars, confronts ongoing terrorist threats around the globe, and faces other major powers investing heavily in their military,” Mr. Gates said Monday. “It is important that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, where tough economic times or the winding down of a military campaign leads to steep and unwise reductions in defense.”

One of the main concerns are the about 2,800 military and civilian positions supported by 3,000 contractors at an annual cost of $240 million that will be trimmed down - the Economist figure is twice that number. Since those position are mainly located in Virginia, and given the growing anxiety about the economic recovery without employment creation, local governments are deeply concerned.

Therefore, it is very welcome to read in today's Japan Times how an entrepreneur is finding a way out of the hole. Since domestic spending cuts took place in the police department, some facilities had to be closed. Then, Mrs. Matsuda decided to open a "izakaya" (a traditional Japanese dinning-bar) in the abandoned police box, keeping the original environment.

Kiyomi Matsuda, 58, opened the bar in June, utilizing her experience of serving dishes to her tuna fisherman husband and his colleagues over many years in Muroto, Kochi Prefecture.

"I didn't think it would be this popular," Matsuda said.

"I hope I will keep getting customers for a long time."

It goes without saying that not all of the new unemployed would be able to do the same. But it is a start.

If we allow us a couple of seconds of utopia, and believe human security's claim over the changing nature of boundaries hook, line, and sinker, then it is easy to understand who is getting out of the picture. Yes, in the ideal world without international rivalries, most of the problems derived from the dark side of human nature should be dealt by the police. No use for armies. In fact, we do not need to go as far as utopia, since the example of Costa Rica is there to remember that such a thing is possible.

That is why armies in the first world, when they are not planning preemptive attacks, they spend a good share of time trying to reinvent themselves. Recent examples could be, the offer to blow a solution up to the problem of the gulf, or the announcement of advances on a vaccine on Ebola.

Nonetheless, it is discouraging to find out that a glorious army is not good enough to protect itself - and its nuclear arsenal - from forest fires.

Maybe if we make rescue rangers of them...

The solution for the violence outbreak in Venezuela seems to be a more 'human' police. At least that is what the government proposes. But, after watching the video, and reading the article, it is not so clear what that human is about. They even have an Experimental University of Security. It would be very nice to know more about it, but info is not available.

So, by now, best wishes.