Student Network for Human Security (SNHS) Blog

Tohoku University’s Human Security Summer School

2011-08-10T02:15:18Z

Tohoku University’s Human Security Summer School International Post-Graduate Program in Human Security Introduction The idea of a human security has been around already for more than fifteen years. Following the rather basic principle of keeping people on the center of attention, different society stakeholders accepted the challenge of giving human security a try. Since then, a considerable mass of general reports, discussions, criticisms, rebuttals, empirical research, case studies, etc., have been made public, shedding light over many possible ways to put the idea into practice. Most of the authors of these works acknowledge that the starting point was rather flexible/ambiguous and, in consequence, it is evident that making sense of the multiple views converging under the ‘human security’ umbrella is a daunting task. Yet, symptoms of exhaustion on the initial supporters of the concept, as well as new trends on the academic circles, are signaling the emergence of a second generation of studies, and it is precisely efforts consolidating the experience so far the ones that will make the difference framing the future of security at local, national, and global levels. This September the Japan Association of Human Security Studies (JAHSS) is to be launched, an organization that epitomizes this new generation of efforts around the concept. It involves many renowned scholars and institutions that have experimented with human security since its early proposition, who agree on the necessity of promoting exchanges between concerned actors and, in this way, preparing the new generation of researchers to move ahead of the curve in the study and application of the concept. Tohoku University’s Human Security organizes this year’s Summer School as a prelude to the JAHSS, its first annual conference and the creation of its electronic peer-reviewed journal, offering the opportunity to meet first-hand experiences of leading scholars about the challenges of engaging with human security studies. Date September 12th, 13th and 14th (Monday to Wednesday). Venue Tohoku University, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Ecollab. Access: http://www.kankyo.tohoku.ac.jp/map.html Program Monday 12h: Climate change as a human security issue 13:00 to 14:30 – Professor Des Gasper, ‘Climate change and human security’ 14:40 to 16:20 – Professor Hiroshi Ohta, ‘The Interlinkage of Climate Security and Human Security: The Convergence on Policy Requirements’ (tentative title). 16:30 to 18:00 – Panel discussion. Tuesday 13th: How do we study human security? 10:20 to 10:30 – Opening remarks, Professor Dinil Pushpalal, Representative coordinator of the International Post-Graduate Program in Human Security of Tohoku University. 10:30 to 12:00 – Professor Des Gasper, ‘The Idea of Human Security’. 13:00 to 14:30 – Professor Michio Umegaki. ‘Human Security for empirical research’. 14:40 to 16:20 – Panel discussion. Wednesday 14th: Migration: a threat or a solution? 10:30 to 12:00 – Professor Des Gasper, ‘Migration and human security’ 13:00 to 14:30 – Professor Tatsuo Harada, ‘Human or Public: The Referents of Security in Discourses on Migrants in Japan’. 14:40 to 16:20 – Panel discussion. Short bio of the presenters: Des Gasper: Professor of Human Development, Development Ethics and Public Policy, at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS-EUR), The Netherlands. His areas of interest include: ethics of development; international migration; theories of human development, human security, human needs and well-being; policy discourse analysis; climate change. Hiroshi Ohta: Professor, School of International Liberal Studies, Faculty of International Research and Education, Waseda University. His interests are International Relations, Global Environmental Politics, and Japanese Foreign Policy. Michio Umegaki taught at Georgetown University, Department of Government before joining Keio University in 1990. His research topics include: US-Japanese relations, Japanese foreign policy and politics. After joining Keio, he found himself deeply involved in the affairs of Southeast Asia, with critical views toward development economics. He has completed long term research in northern Thailand on families who are victims of AIDs; another on the families of Agent Orange victims in Vietnam; and still another, which is currently in progress, on the impact of agrochemicals on the environment and health. Tatsuo Harada: Professor of International Political, Economy at the College of International Studies, Chubu University; research associate at the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS), York University (2003); project director at the Chubu Centre for Human Security Studies (CHS) (2006-2008); head of Department of International Relations, Chubu University (2009). He won the second NIRA Okita Commemorative Award for Policy Research by the National Institute of Research Advancement as a contributor to the book: Yoichi, Mine; Sachiko, Hatanaka (Eds.): Zouo kara Wakai e [From Hatred to Accommodation] (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2000). He focuses on post-development studies, human security and migration. Supporting materials (provisional list) Climate change as a human security issue Gasper, D., 2010. ‘Climate change and the language of human security’, Research Paper ISS Working Paper Series / General Series 505. (Available at: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/19843/ ) Ohta, H., 2010. ‘The Interlinkage of Climate Security and Human Security: The Convergence on Policy Requirements’, paper prepared for FA65: Climate Change: The Implication for Security, ISA Annual Convention, New Orleans. (A previous version is available at: http://www.fasid.or.jp/daigakuin/sien/kaisetsu/gaiyo21/lecture02.html ) Ohta, H., 2010. ‘Japanese Climate Change Policy: Moving beyond the Kyoto Process’, in Hans G. Brauch et al., Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and Security: Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks. Berlin: Springer, 1381-1391. Ohta, H., 2008. ‘A Small Leap forward: Regional Cooperation for Tackling the Problems of the Environment and Natural Resources in Northeast Asia’, in Timmermann, Martina and Tsuchiyama, Jituso (Eds.), Institutionalizing Northeast Asia: Regional Steps towards Global Governance. New York: United Nations University, 297-315. How do we study human security? Gasper, D., 2009. ‘Global Ethics and Human Security’, in Globalization and Security: an Encyclopedia, eds. H. Fagan & R. Munck.Praeger: Westport, CT. (A previous version is available at: http://publishing.eur.nl/ir/repub/asset/17953/3Global%20Ethics%20and%20Human%20Security-Jun09.doc.). Gasper, D., 2010. ‘The Idea of Human Security’, In Karen O’Brien, Asuncion Lera St.Clair and Berit Kristoffersen (eds.) Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 23-46. (A previous version is available at: www.unhistory.org/reviews/Garnet_HumanSecurity.pdf ) Umegaki, M ., Lynn Thiesmeyer, and Atsushi Watabe (eds.), 2009. Human Insecurity in East Asia. Tokyo: UNU. (The introduction is available at: http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/2009/humanInsecurityEastAsia.html ) Umegaki, M., 2010. ‘The “Uninvestigated”: Human Security Research for a Political Scientist’, Perspectives on Global Issues (online journal) 4(2). (Available at: http://www.perspectivesonglobalissues.com/archives/spring-2010/political-scientist/) Migration: a threat or a solution? Gasper, D. and Thanh-Dam Truong, 2010. ‘Movements Of The ‘We’: International and Transnational Migration and the Capabilities Approach’, Research Paper ISS Working Paper Series / General Series 495. (Available at: http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22353/ ) Gasper, D., 2011. ‘International Migration, Well-being and Transnational Ethics’, in Thanh-Dam Truong & Des Gasper (eds.) Transnational Migration and Human Security. Dordretch: Springer, 259-71. (Abstract available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/x70452723xv64654/ ) Harada, T. and Kenji Kimura, 2011. ‘Human or Public: The Referents of Security in Discourses on Migrants in Japan’, in Thanh-Dam Truong & Des Gasper (eds.) Transnational Migration and Human Security. Dordretch: Springer, 225-38. (Abstract available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p425650111160556/) Organizers The International Post-Graduate Program in Human Security of Tohoku University is supported by four schools: Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Graduate School of Medicine, and Graduate School of Environmental Studies. Language English (no Japanese translation). Participation & Accommodation The Summer School is open to the public, and free of charge (with the possible exception of a reception on the first day to be confirmed), however, participants should arrange their own accommodation. On Monday we start from 1 pm in order to allow students coming from other regions to reach Sendai on the same day. Yet, for those interested, our city holds its famous Jozenjidori International Jazz Festival on the weekend just before the Summer School, a great opportunity to see other facet of Sendai and support the recovery of the region. The information is in the following web page: http://www.j-streetjazz.com/ Registration deadline & Contact Please register before the 5th of September by email to the address below; include your name, position, affiliation, phone number and the days you plan to attend. (Leave your info in a comment and we will contact you by email)

Bruce Schneier: The security mirage, TED Talk

2011-05-11T05:24:03Z

via Peace and Collaborative Development Network

知花くららさん、宮城県訪問　～東日本大震災・WFPの支援活動～

2011-05-09T07:54:11Z

From the WFP.

Reporting Immigration

2011-02-28T01:31:09Z

This seems a very nice resource to reflect on how we talk about some issues that are connected to the study of human security. (H/t @m_clem )

The dignity thing

2011-02-23T12:39:49Z

So many times we have heard that human security is about dignity, but what is that? Economic historian Deirdre McCloskey has an idea that is worth considering. Enjoy.

Challenges for human security: an example from health

2011-02-13T01:54:28Z

One of the main, and rather basic arguments of my dissertation is the importance of priority setting while studying security. The painful process of deciding what to do first when facing several threats is not appropriately informed by human rights, which precludes a priori any kind of sacrifices. On the other hand, human development and human needs do worry more about the structural issue of dealing with human values in general--e.g. health, education--and so threats are left to contingency. See for example the work of NICE, an independent organization in the UK which works for the efficiency in health expenditures. The video is informative, but I would suggest you to start watching it from the end: the questions section (one hour and nine minutes aprox.). The first question from the audience compares the work of NICE with the health program of the Nazi regime. That is because they recommend not to use the money of the government to use certain costly cancer medicines that extend life for just six months. The third question is whether it makes sense to cut health expenditures while the government is bailing out banks. Then it is totally clear why it is hard to deal with priorities. Now, if you check the video from the beginning, then it is totally clear that those questions cannot be answered by the presenters - neither by a human security expert. The work of NICE is to point at that such decisions happen, trying to make the process visible and transparent. They recommend to have a broad consulting board, but warn how costly that could be. They also stress the importance of the quality of the information that is required for such decisions, but recognize how difficult to gather it can be. Human security sounds like the kind of work that nobody want to have. Alas, there are actually limited resources, and such security calculations are done, whether we agree or not.

On racism

2011-02-12T01:05:57Z

Recently, we had a presentation that was notoriously racist. Nobody in the seminar said anything about that. Since it was about a reality far from us - it was about Roma people - our knowledge was not good enough to debate what was being presented. Professors remained silent, much in the Japanese tradition in which you just ignore stupidity because it does not deserve your limited power. However, I couldn't help to feel bad for letting such ignorance from a graduate student go unquestioned. The problem is that it is really difficult to know how to engage in such conversation. If I had know about this video before, maybe I could have tried something. h/t Julian Sanchez

Bourgeois dark side?

2011-02-08T04:38:48Z

Over the past two years, he has fielded operatives in the mountains of Pakistan and the desert badlands of Afghanistan. Since the United States military cut off his funding in May, he has relied on like-minded private donors to pay his agents to continue gathering information about militant fighters, Taliban leaders and the secrets of Kabul’s ruling class.

I cannot find but depressing this article in the NYT and private funding of intervention. In this perspective, state intervention stops making sense, but then I am not sure who are private spies suppose to be accountable to.

The tipping point of human security

2010-12-18T03:01:20Z

Thanks to the new project of Google Labs - Ngram - , we can see the frequency of certain words in all the books scanned by the company (See the details here). You can just play for a long while, and we are eager to hear about your findings. For now, some of the basic graph you may want to know about: Security, Development, and Peace: See how we may be witnessing the dust of development studies, or at least a crisis, while peace also cedes the moment to security. The same graph, but in Spanish, to show how the Development Project surged after WWII, and how there security also is gaining ground. The army versus the police: as we have tried to show in previous posts, human security is correlated with the consolidation of the police over the army. Of course not at the levels the army had during the rise of the nation-state - the police is only one of several mechanisms to deal with threats - but much more relevant that the expensive and ineffective weapons of mass destruction. That for now. Stay tuned.

Is human security = soft power?

2010-11-21T11:45:57Z

Kind of, but hard power does not go as unattended as Nye frames it.

Going back to the basics? Yes, but not in your own garden

2010-11-21T09:41:01Z

A couple of interesting articles: - When you try to get to the bottom of security as an institution that was also imposed to the non-Western countries, the story of the original work undertook by armies always emerge as a source of ideas. If developing countries are still on the process of consolidating their territories, why do their armies have the same profile as first world armies? This portrait of America's army is very telling:

The troops from America’s farming heartlands who are helping Afghans build greenhouses, grow crops and better feed cattle are not losing their identity as warriors — they’re following in the footsteps of our earliest soldiers.

- Besides, this piece of news from the BBC has all the elements that make security such a thorny concept to study: * The objective of security is unfulfillable. * But we have nothing to fear, by now. * It requires a whole life commitment - i.e. resources * But even then, you never know. * And, of course, it was the most read news in its moment. Less than a week for the first draft of the dissertation, so not many posts for a while.

A dose of honesty

2010-09-20T04:07:45Z

Probably not a way to make politics work, but at least it is good not to forget it. Via: Duncan Green's very nice blog.

A new Galtung book

2010-09-15T03:30:15Z

"50 Years, 25 Intellectual Landscapes Explored" Via the Peace and Collaborative Development Network.

Meet the entrepeneurs

2010-09-10T00:25:45Z

Not-so-surprising news coming from the Economist:

MANY Israeli start-ups should pay royalties to the army, says Edouard Cukierman, a venture capitalist in Tel Aviv. He is only half joking. Despite the recession, Israel’s technology exports grew by more than 5% last year. Mr Cukierman thinks military service deserves some of the credit. Israel’s army does not just train soldiers, he says; it nurtures entrepreneurs.

Acknowledging the historic role of the army in the development of technology, it is an expected result. Yet, why don't we make it official? Why not tapping into this ability of the army to educate future entrepreneurs? It could be a good source of revenue, and may improve the social indicators of the home country. For a better world, help us find the military a new job.

The residual nature of human security

2010-09-05T23:44:54Z

This interview with Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, is full of interesting insights of the difficulties of human security. First, Mr, Brilliant was part of the campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 70's. He describes the amount of human power required in order to do that - including 2 billion house calls! The debate is open since, as one bio-ethicists for The Lancet remarks, eradicating one disease, that is focusing a huge amount of efforts on only one menace, stands over some dubious ethical grounds. It is not necessarily about the issue of targeting, which is already problematic, but that in the last stages of a disease eradication, when the disease is almost decimated, is when more resources are needed. It looks like a lot as crime prevention, isn't it? However, that is not the last argument if we take into consideration that the whole smallpox campaign cost was the same of an aircraft carrier - or other of those big war weapons, I lost the source of this quote, sorry. Another point to observe from the interview is that the problem Mr. Brilliant had to answer why the Skoll Fund selected those and not other threats. If you have spent some time working on human security, you know that the problem of deciding what to attend first is in the heart of the security question. He has no option but to discretely recognize that the list is their own bet. And thus he makes the majestic sidestep to pinpoint the problem of democracy communicating to voters the risk of these threats. I can understand his intention, but what he is claiming is rather an advantage of democracy: the possibility to politically gain recognition for a menace. That is the whole idea behind Amartya Sen's claim over the role of democracy preventing famines. To see a problem in that is to go a step beyond the limits of sound technocracy. Finally, about what I call the residual nature, just consider the commonality of the list of threats the fund cares about: climate change, water, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, and the Middle East. Do you need any other reason to explain why traditional security experts reject human security views? How do you think they would manage to exercise proficiency about all of them? The challenge of the new generations is to make this transitions flow, and be able to coordinate in so dissimilar fronts. By now, best wishes for Skoll Fund work!