Reviewing Security Essay

       In my security essay, I originally argued that security should be expanded from its traditional meaning of protecting state security to include human security, protection from environmental crises, and defense against the outbreak of diseases. These threats impose a sense of immediacy, and therefore should be prioritized. Because of a federal government’s centralized power, they are best equipped to handle these issues. Long-term problems, such as ontological, environmental, and economic securities do not pose as an immediate threat to survival and therefore should not be included in securitization at the state level. I argued that security is most effective when it is centralized in the hands of the state because military securitization was the best way to insure the safety of the nation (as well as human security) at large.

Now, I believe security is more nuanced than this definition. There are inevitable contradictions to providing safety when the state prioritizes state security over human security. An alternate solution is giving more authority to non-state organizations that have less political bias. Modern problems that fall under security, such as environmental crises and human trafficking, are not solvable with the involvement of the military.

The problem with the state having autonomous authority over what is considered security is that it prioritizes state security above all. This can have serious consequences for individuals within the state who need human security. For example, through the lens of the state, the greatest human trafficking threats involve securitizing borders and regulating crime rates from illegal immigrants. This frames trafficked people as corrupt, likely to engage in criminal activity, and likely to spread diseases into the community. This perception exaggerates the small number of trafficked victims that knowingly and willingly commit crimes in the countries they are trafficked into, and redirects blame away from pimps who have forced victims into trafficking. Trafficking involves human, national, ontological, and economic security for the victims, yet current policies of governments distort people's perceptions of who sex trafficking victims are. It is important that there be a centralized authority that is able to swiftly take lead in providing security when a militarized threat arises. However, there are significant detriments to human security when this authority is given to a government that politicizes human security issues.

         It is important that the definition of security emphasizes human rights over the securitization of the state. Traditionally, the safety of the state implied military intervention and a "boots on the ground" approach to security. However, in today's world, militarization for security purposes is not the most efficient way to solve certain security issues. For example, going to war would do little in combatting homegrown terror operations. Modern investigations of terror suspects are more likely to rely on technology, intelligence gathering, and fostering relationships between local and federal government to combat homegrown terrorism. A drone attack would be unacceptable on American soil in combatting terror because it breaches the constitutional right to trial by jury. The new face of terrorism succeeds the old methods of combat that the US attempted to use (unsuccessfully) during the Iraq war against modern terror. In the past, securitization of the state meant securitization of the state's people, but this is now outdated. The military is no longer always the most effective means of securitization.

Alternative organizations, such as the UN, World Bank, and other non-state actors would be much less biased in providing security. They would not prioritize state security over all else because they are not a state. The US took the initiative in sending aid to Haiti. Because priorities were state-centered, aid was not as effective as it could have been. Some of the money was appropriated to lobbying for more aid, where it was caught cycling in economies far from Haiti’s reach. Also, water bottles still litter the streets of Haiti today, where Haitians could have been given water filters. The government went into Haiti assuming what was best for Haitians, whereas an international organization may have been more accommodating to the Haitians’ needs. If an unbiased organization were given the authority to take charge in the crisis, it would have been able to put politics aside and focus on the needs of individuals. Environmental crises or human security issues cannot adequately be solved without a more modern definition of security and the use of external non-state organizations to prevent political bias.

The Ebola Outbreak

        Back in December 2013, the world faced the worst virus disease outbreak it had ever known. It was said to be as if people were watching a zombie movie with all the screaming and craziness. In Africa, bats were suspected of carrying a deadly virus, yet not many people were aware of this fact. The Ebola outbreak was traced back to a couple village kids who went into the forest and collected some bats and proceeded to eat them. After that, one of those little kids started to experience high fever, shivering, followed by two days of diarrhea, which lead to his death. That was only Day 1 of the virus. Villagers thought that it was a curse, or even as far as witchcraft, as his following family members died shortly after him. No one knew what was going on, let alone that it could possibly be Ebola. For 3 months, it was mistaken for malaria.
       There were many major problems that took place during the response period for the outbreak. There were tragic and mishandled steps when it came to resolving it. The response to the Ebola outbreak was a global failure, one that could have been avoided, if the proper responses would have been in place from the beginning. The first issue was how quickly it spread, without understanding what it was. The key to stopping Ebola was to isolate the sick, monitor anyone who had contact with the infected and safely bury the dead. Yet, none of these steps were properly executed.  When someone died because of it, people would touch the body, or it would be left on the streets for days before it was properly buried. There was also no record of who was with the infected before their death, so the number of people in contact was much higher than accounted for.
        The second issues was that the only organization that had ever dealt with Ebola was the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the major problem was that they didn't take the lead in the investigation and the quick response that this virus required. Instead, the WHO let their officials in Guinea, who had never dealt with it before, take the lead. Likewise, was the case in Sierra Leone when it spread, the government left this disease in the hands of an American company called Metabiota, who had never dealt with it before either. This was a major problem because at the rate that the disease was spreading and the amount of people who had passed in the first 3 months, it should have been clear that this wasn't just the ordinary flu.
     The third issue with the response to the outbreak was that every "official" that was in charge of making a decision, downscaled the size and problem of this epidemic. They started to only document confirmed cases and left every other one unaccounted for. This was a major issue because those that were left unaccounted for were spreading into different borders. Since no one was acknowledging the problem at hand, the WHO refused to declare an international health emergency. This should have happened after they saw how rapidly it was spreading and how many people were dying. In class, we discussed the meaning of labeling something a security issue and the cause of a speech act, but in this case, that was what exactly should have been done. With an outbreak that was uncontrollable and confusing, labeling it a security issue internationally was a proper response.

The similarities and differences between our reality and Snow Crash

Snow Crash is a science fiction book by Neal Stephenson. It was written in 1992. It takes place in Los Angeles, U.S.A in the near future. The U.S. has become a place where there is little to nothing. It has gone so downhill that there are only four strengths it has left: making music and movies, program software and delivering pizzas.  The strength that is looked at the most is program software, which relates to the metaverse, the main character Hiro Protagonist introduces us to. Hiro Protagonist is a smart and hardcore guy. He is very much a problem solver that takes risks. Stephenson portrays Hiro this way in the Metaverse. The Metaverse is a virtual world which is a popular multiplayer game with avatars as the characters. The Metaverse and the reality that Stephenson makes are very different places compared to our reality, this is certainly seen with security. I'll be focusing on the similarities and differences between our reality and Snow Crash's' reality and the Metaverse and how plausible each circumstance is. 

There are many differences between our reality and the Metaverse and the reality seen in Snow Crash. One example of a difference is how in Snow Crash's' reality there is a private military as oppose to a national military that we have in our government. I would say that this plausible to happen, however not likely in the near future. It certainly rethinks the idea of security because one of the core responsibilities of the government is to keep all of its citizens safe but with a private military than it would only be responsible for those that invest in it. The idea of a private military goes to show that Americans could possibly want more personal and private security, rather than have the government involved  I say this is plausible because we already have such a leiz-a-faire type of economy and wouldn't be surprised if there was more privatization of the government. Another difference that I see as plausible is a post-job world. In Snow Crash the only jobs that we are introduced to in the U.S. job workforce is anything the four industries of music, movies, program software and pizza. Even as a developed country, we still struggle to have enough jobs all throughout the country and we had a economic depression and just got out of a recession. Of course, this the difference between our reality and the one in Snow Crash, the U.S. is certainly stronger than other economies with plenty of jobs making it the strongest economy in the world. However, with more and more outsourcing, it makes it plausible that we could have a post-job world.    

There seem to be more similarities than differences between Snow Crash and our reality. One similarity is organized crime. In Snow Crash, people rely on the mafia in order to have a job in a world with little opportunity. The mafia also controls so much and has so much power. Uncle Enzo is at the top of the hierarchy, acting as a king. This is similar as organized crime in the U.S. because organized crime increases when there are few opportunities and there is someone at the top of the mafia who controls so much and is so powerful. Another similarity is snow crash. In the Metaverse, it is a drug that gives a virus on the person's computer and also impacts the persons health that got the virus as well. In our reality we do have drugs that impact peoples health whether they know the consequences or not. I would say that it is not plausible, at least in the near future. By that I mean it is not plausible that there could be a drug in a virtual reality that could harm a persons health. Another similarity in both realities is the inequalities that arose after the government became less involved. In Snow Crashs' reality, the government becomes less involved and thus can't provide basic public goods. This caused more a Leiz a faire economy, where corporations became more powerful and controlled peoples day to day lives. An example is how law enforcement no longer existed allowing crime to increase. This is a threat to security because the basic necessities such as public goods are no longer provided by the government for everyone. This is similar to our reality because are various different political, economic and other types of conflict that are government needs to figure out how solutions can benefit everyone. This makes it so that there wouldn't different security threats. This is certainly plausible, it is just not likely in the near future. It is plausible because there are so many different ways that the government could fail.       

Ebola- What Went Wrong

Ebola was a widespread epidemic that killed thousands of people in recent years. The problem began as a single case that came about from a group of boys being mischievous in the woods and finding a tree filled with bats. Evidently, bats are known for carrying the ebola virus. This was completely unknown to the people of Guinea. What started as one mysterious case of an unknown fatal illness quickly became something much, much worse. The "hospitals" in Guinea and Sierra Leone did not have the treatment, facilities, or man power to stop the ferocious spread. Even worse, the organization Doctors Without Borders could only provide what seemed like insignificant help. Although more should have been done to prevent and stop the spread of the disease, I don't think anyone would have been able to do anything monumental due to the circumstances of the situation.

First of all, for weeks and weeks no one even knew what was the matter with all of these patients. They were all just falling ill abruptly and as little as a day later they were pronounced dead. Ebola was not even a thought on any of the medical officials' minds. People in the communities even thought that the epidemic was nothing but a rumor and a conspiracy for the doctors to practice cannibalism. As a result of this, the treatment for the disease was not available right away and worse, the doctors and nurses were not treating the cases as seriously as they should have. They should have kept the patients contained and kept themselves protected from the air around the patients. Ebola is spread so easily and so quickly. So, for several weeks the medics were not following protocol for the ebola disease, resulting in the rapid spread of the disease. Even when the people found out that ebola was the deadly virus spreading, some believed this to be false and angrily left their treatment facilities and took to the streets, thus infecting more and more people. 

For an extended period of time, utter chaos ensued. Infected peoples were traveling around to different nations, unaware that they were becoming responsible for the deaths of hundreds more people. One girl traveled to Sierra Leone without anyone knowing and so the government of Sierra Leone believed that they were safe from the virus when in actuality, this was far from the truth. When family members and friends died, people rushed the sides of the dead bodies to wash, dress, pray over, and bury them. Dead bodies are seriously dangerous to be around and doing so almost guarantees a person to become infected. Again, the lack of information the people in Africa had was astounding. 

Although it is easy to say that Americans should have done more to help the situation in Africa, I think that it is difficult to require people to willingly travel to deadly areas where they are at serious risk of becoming infected. I think the real problem lies in the fact that no one in the area, not even the doctors, knew what was going on or how to even begin to treat it. Obviously this is a difficult, expensive, timely issue to address. To fix this problem would mean spending millions and millions of dollars on hospitals in the area and education for the medical officials. However, considering how poorly the ebola situation was handled, it is definitely an investment worth making. In this case, I don't think the hysteria of the ebola was far off from the reality of the situation. It is shocking how much of a nightmare the spread was and how everything that could have gone wrong, really did go wrong. 

Quality of International Aid in Haiti

Was the US using Haiti as an instrument for their own glorification? Food was brought swiftly and thrown from airplanes, but this method of distribution caused many injuries. While this distribution method looks dramatic and innovative in the movies, in real life injuries could have been avoided from safer methods of distribution. Water bottles still litter the streets of Haiti today, whereas water filters would have brought much less waste. This is a case where US intentions were benign, but relief efforts could have been much more fruitful in saving Haitian lives.

Humanitarian aid was largely due to American lives in Haiti. Mobilization for Americans was aided by the fact that there were Americans living in Haiti during the earthquake that were directly affected by the damage. Regardless of who these Americans are or what they believed in, Americans tend to identify with other Americans and mobilize for their safety. The problem with this is the tendency to hold American lives at a higher standard than any other lives. Of course, fewer American citizens were affected compared to Haitians, yet this was one of the main motivations for intervening. Aid would have been very different if all Haitians had been treated like American citizens. There should have been much more improvement in the last six years, given the amount of resources allocated for Haiti.

The American people were willing to donate, but the money did not make it to Haiti directly. According to NPR reporter Richard Knox, “A single penny of every dollar out of US aid goes to Haitian organizations.”  Aid was diverted from the Haitian government because of the decades of political turmoil and corruption. Haiti’s government was weak long before the earthquake hit. NGOs involved in aid were problematic because they directed the money in many different locations outside of Haiti. For example, some of the money was used for lobbying in order to receive even more aid for Haiti. While intentions were good, this money ended up cycling in economies far from Haiti’s borders.There were unprecedented amounts of humanitarian aid, yet in reality so little of it went to Haiti itself.

Levels of media coverage were directly correlated to the higher levels of aid in Port au Prince compared to other less recognized towns. Port au Prince has various hotels and resorts for tourists who are drawn to the extensive coastline and favorable climate Haiti has to offer. American journalists were attracted to cities such as Port au Prince for their economic value. Many Americans are likely to be familiar with the more developed parts of Haiti, and therefore, the media was attracted to these areas. Cities outside of Port au Prince were largely ignored and many are still in shambles today; the focus for aid was on areas with high levels of tourism.  Media coverage meant more efficient and effective means of aid; funds weren’t allocated to places where the media wasn’t active.

The US has a desire to help countries ravaged by natural disasters but shies away from conflict crises. For example, the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe has caused widespread fear in Americans and foreign policy has reflected this. President-elect Donald Trump wants to halt Syrian immigration completely. Because Syrian immigrants have been perceived as terrorists, the US government is hesitant in helping them. An environmental crisis such as an earthquake in Haiti is confined to a single area; Americans don’t see Haiti as a threat that could spread and affect Americans as well. America intervenes when there is no perceived threat to American citizens.

The short term effects of aid have long term consequences for Haiti. The immediate aid deterred business away from local vendors in Haiti’s already struggling economy. While immediate aid was very important in recovering Haiti, the US should have incorporated methods of strengthening local services so that they could reintegrate into a more stable life. The US took a top down approach, giving aid to NGOs, instead of strengthening Haiti from the bottom up. While the immediacy of the situation required swift help, aid continued in Haiti for a while. In that time, improvements should have been made to be sure that the help Haiti received was what they needed. There seemed to be little contact with the Haitian government and its people, who were most directly affected by the impact. Help for Haiti came quickly, but it did not come effectively.

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Richard Knox. “5 Years After Haiti’s Earthquake, Where Did the $13.5 Billion Go?” NPR. January 12, 2015. http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/12/376138864/5-years-after-haiti-s-earthquake-why-aren-t-things-better.

Environmental Degredation

Environmental degradation will create huge issues for the human race in the future. When resources we rely on to survive become less and less available, politics needs to be involved in order to prevent the degradation and protect the citizens of the world. However, it is a very difficult issue to approach and most people don’t put environmental degradation as a high priority issue. Some have decided to label it as a national security threat in an attempt to receive more funding and support for the issue but this may not be the best way to solve the problem. Since the department of defense is not properly equipped to deal with environmental degradation, the best way to handle this issue would be to create a department that works with scientists and other countries’ governments to preserve the resources we still have and find alternate renewable resources.

The department of defense is not accustomed to dealing with an issue like environmental degradation because it is used to working with violent threats. Although both issues can lead to humans dying, it does not mean they can be handled the same way. Threats of violence mean that there is a specific country or group of people that is the threat. They are the enemies. This means that our country is try to gain something from this interaction and the other party will lose. Environmental issues are the complete opposite. There is nothing we are specifically up against. The gain does not come in the near future. No one is losing. Violent threats and environmental threats are very different and need to be handled in entirely different ways.

Labeling an issue as national security catches people’s attention. It means that action needs to be taken fast so that the issue can be fixed and the citizens will be protected. However typical security issues are relatively short term. There is normally an end to the situation but with environmental degradation there is no end. It is an issue that will go on forever. As Ole Waever wrote, security issues are typically addressed as “threat, defense, and often state-centered solutions.” Rushing to find a solution will not be very effective. This issue requires a lot of attention and cannot be solved quickly. The department of defense is used to dealing with short-term problems, not long term. Having a fast state centered solution is the wrong approach to use.
The issue is not a national problem. Environmental degradation does not only occur in certain countries. Natural disasters do not care about borders. The world needs to work together to prevent environmental degradation. This makes it a global security issue because it is transnational. If one country continues to pollute a river it will affect all of the countries that the river runs through. It cannot be dealt with as only a national security issue. It requires many countries to work together. It is also possible to view it as a human security issue because the people are who are effected. They will feel insecure when they no longer have clean water or food. 

Environmental degradation should not be considered a threat to national security because the national security apparatuses are not equipped to deal with this type of issue. It needs to be handled in a completely different way from violent threats, it is long term problem that requires a long term solution, and it does not affect one country individually. The most successful way to deal with the problem will be to create a department that will work with other countries to prevent environmental degradation. It can include scientists who will attempt to find new ways to solve the problems and politicians who could work with the other countries. This will be much more effective. 

Women in Sierra Leone

The most important and most difficult aspect of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration program (DDR) is the latter, how to reintegrate affected soldiers back into society. This part of the program deals with psychosocial aspects and how soldiers will live once they have removed themselves from the conflict according to the DDR’s standards. In times of crisis, the most immediate reaction that comes to mind is to return society to the way it was. However, Sierra Leone’s society is not considered equal in terms of gender. Should normalization be prioritized over gender equality? Is Sierra Leone too fragile after such harsh conflict to initiate an extreme adjustment such as gender equality?

Women were able to raise themselves up in the ranks of the RUF rebel forces. They were expected to commit crimes against humanity, including the severance of limbs. The extremities of the situation in Sierra Leone called upon women to make a choice to join the combat or remain at home. Being capable of choice is an option more commonly delegated to males, who control politics, businesses, and most aspects of life. However, during the conflict women were given power that they had never experienced before and took control of their lives. The pride they felt for participating was not necessarily due to the destruction they caused, but the brief authority they were given in wartime.

In the short term, women face serious consequences after living in wartime. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder are extremely common in soldiers. According to World Psychiatric Association, women in particular are extremely prone to psychological distress, even more so than men. Levels of depression and other post-war symptoms depend on the degree of trauma as well as the accessibility to physical and emotional support. It may be possible that women are innately more inclined to heightened levels of emotional distress. However, I believe that it is due to the fact that women are not accustomed to the tragedies of war due to social gender constraints. Also, the levels of emotional distress they face during wartime may be more psychologically damaging than what men face. In addition to the horrors of war, many women doubled as sex slaves and servants. Women were treated with less respect, even when they proved to be just as capable in higher ranks as men. And despite all of this, many women felt that they were not supported by DDR programs, which made recovery and reintegration even more challenging.

Unlike women, child soldiers were involved in the DDR program. Children were conscripted at very young ages, given drugs, and forced to become spies or sex slaves.They are used by both the rebel forces and the government. Children had limited options for their future; many of their parents were killed during the conflict. Children were treated as victims in the DDR program, and in many cases were kidnapped or forced into becoming a child soldier. Others went willingly. A 7-year-old child cannot be expected to make sound decisions for themselves, but a grown woman can.

The lack of women involved in the DDR program not only perpetuated a life of feminine inferiority, it denied women accessibility to reintegration with society. The role women played in the war should not be misinterpreted or masked. Returning to a normal life meant taking away the power that war gave them; gender roles that curtailed females from participating in life outside the home were reinstated as the norm.

The DDR program is a start, but it had a few significant flaws that show the significant consequences of how society views women. International organizations such as the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone that funded these programs helped to portray women as the victim. Even in western culture, which played a large role in the international organization’s part of the Sierra Leone conflict, women were victimized instead of given adequate treatment. Even in an industrial society as developed as the US, the implication is that women are held to a different standard than men are. Women are viewed as less capable of killing, more likely to be the victim, and more comfortable in the realm of domestic responsibility. The policies of the DDR were adapted to this predisposition of feminine social constraints.

Srinivasa Murthy, Rashmi Lakshminarayana. “Mental health consequences of war: a brief review o f research findings.” World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association, Feb 2006. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472271/.

Theresa Stichick Betancourt, Sc.D., M.A., Ivelina Ivanova Borisova, Ed.M., Timothy Philip Williams, M.S.W., M.Sc., Robert T. Brennan, Ph.D., Ed.M. “Sierra Leone's Former Child Soldiers: A Follow-up Study of Psychosocial Adjustment and Community Reintegration.” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. August 13, 2010. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921972/.