Part I International Law and Global Security, Ch.1 The Concept of Security in International Law

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
White Nigel D ◽  
Davies-Bright Auden
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Political Literature ◽  
State Security ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
And Function

This chapter traces the development of ‘security’ in international legal discourse from State security, to collective security, to human security, in order to understand whether there has been a change of emphasis or, in fact, a deepening of security. National security focuses on the safety of the nation-State, which necessitates placing national interests over collective interests. Collective security marks a transition in that the more national interests become diluted, the more centralized a response becomes, and the concept of threats to peace and security is broadened to include events within States that have international repercussions. The chapter considers the debates about ‘security’ at a conceptual level, drawing on legal and political literature, and then sets them against developments in practice to see if a conclusion can be drawn on the precise nature and function of ‘security’ in international law. It addresses the question of whether ‘peace’ and ‘security’ are, or should be seen as, norms of international law. The lack of formal legal definition of security signifies that subjective views, particularly intersubjective understandings of security, have facilitated the breakdown of the State–human security divide. The chapter looks at the implications for this as security moves from being the primary purpose of international law and institutions to becoming a primary norm.

scholarly journals Solidarity as a Principle of International Law: Its Application in Consensual Intervention

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 333
Author(s):  
Themistoklis Tzimas
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
The People ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
Actual Control

The article analyses solidarity as a principle of international law, in relation to consensual intervention. The main point of the article is that solidarity constitutes a fundamental principle of international law which lies at the center of the collective security system. This is why solidarity, in the framework of international law must comply with the ultimate goal of the preservation of international peace and security. In such a framework, consensual intervention is assessed from the perspective both of the inviting as well as of the intervening part, on the basis of several criteria, including the level of actual control on the ground, the compliance with international and domestic law, the scope of the consent and the means of implementation of this scope. In cases of contested domestic authority, a larger variety of criteria need to be taken into account. It is proposed that solidarity can offer a balanced approach, between State-centered and human security or in other words between solidarity among States and solidarity towards the people.

Climate change and security in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-203
Author(s):  
Wilfrid Greaves
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
National Security ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Future Research ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Domestic Conflict ◽  
The Third ◽  
Current State ◽  
Humanitarian Crises

This article examines the implications of human-caused climate change for security in Canada. The first section outlines the current state of climate change, the second discusses climate change impacts on human security in Canada, and the third outlines four other areas of Canada’s national interests threatened by climate change: economic threats; Arctic threats; humanitarian crises at home and abroad; and the threat of domestic conflict. In the conclusion, I argue that climate change has clearly not been successfully “securitized” in Canada, despite the material threats it poses to human and national security, and outline directions for future research.

Contemplating the Future of Collective Security in East Asia

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-91
Author(s):  
Nanako Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
International Law ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Security System ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
East Asians ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Peace And Security

Abstract It is quite often argued in the legal and political literatures that Asian nations tend to be more protective of their national sovereignty and thus are often reluctant to follow universal rules or principles provided in international legal materials and texts. Does this “conservative” image of Asian nations correctly reflect the national practices and academic literature of East Asian nations? How do we East Asians perceive the UN collective security system invented at the price of two catastrophic world wars in the 20th century? And why do East Asians need international law to keep peace and security in this region? By trying to find answers to these questions, this article contemplates what role international law will be able to play for the maintenance of peace and security in East Asia.

To the Issue of Bringing Legal Definitions in the Normative Legal Regulation of National Security and Its Individual Types into a Single System: Legal and Theoretical Dimension

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.A. Kolotkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Planning ◽  
National Security ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
Industry Affiliation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

The article deals with the issues related to the definition of the essence, role and meaning of legal definitions in the regulatory legal regulation of national security. The author emphasizes the uniqueness of the phenomenon of national security, which acts as a guarantor of ensuring the national interests of the state, society, and the individual and as a basis for the unhindered implementation of the strategic national priorities of the state. It is possible to ensure these interests and implement strategic priorities by creating an effective legal regulation that includes various legal means, as well as regulatory requirements. An important role in the regulatory legal regulation is played by legal definitions, which contain definitions of concepts that act as integral elements of the legal basis for ensuring national security. It is indicated that legal definitions of concepts are generally binding and contribute to the formation of a single legal space. It is stated that the current Federal Law «On Security» does not contain a legislative definition of key concepts in the field of national security. The article raises the problem of unification of the conceptual and categorical apparatus in the field of ensuring national security, through the adoption of fundamental documents of strategic planning. The author attempts to evaluate the legal definitions in the field under consideration in terms of their universality and industry affiliation, the problems of the completeness of their textual expression, as well as the state policy implemented in the field of national security. The author proposes the formulation of the concept «national security», which could become the basis for adjusting the legal definitions of certain types of national security, enshrined in legislative acts and strategic planning documents. The functions of legal definitions in the regulatory legal regulation of national security are identified and disclosed.

(Re-)Building the World: Local Agency and Human Security in the New Millennium

2017 ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Trudy Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Local Models ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
State Security ◽  
The World ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Local Actors

The ‘rebuilding’ of a society in the aftermath of conflict or mass violence often subsumes the dynamic requirements of human security into a technical task that belies or fails to fully comprehend the needs of the community being ‘built’. Indeed, as Trudy Fraser in Chapter Ten explains, critics have suggested that ‘building’ in the aftermath of conflict merely serves to impose externally configured normative benchmarks as a panacea for peace, privileging the goals of international actors at the expense of local actors. One of the main problems is that externally configured normative benchmarks do not necessarily conform to local models of peace and security. In order for the ‘building’ to be reflective of the dynamic requirements of human security, this chapter asserts that it must be responsive to the following questions: (1) who is doing the building?; (2) what is being built?; and (3) for whom is it being built? These three questions speak to separate but interrelated issues in the context of modern state-, peace- and nation-building, and highlights the ambiguity that currently exists between the initial (state-security-centric) and subsequent (human-security-centric) phases of intervention and ‘(re-)building’.

Adoption of 1325 Resolution

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Christine Chinkin
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Real Possibility ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Oriented Approach

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was not adopted in a vacuum, but rather can be read with a number of other programs within the Security Council (SC) and UN architecture. These include other thematic resolutions, as well as broader policy initiatives. Taken together, these diverse strands sought to shift the understanding of the SC’s role in the maintenance of international peace and security, away from a classic state-oriented approach to one that places people at its center. The adoption of Resolution 1325, along with these other developments, had implications for the making of international law (the place of civil society and experts within the international legal and institutional framework), for rethinking participation, and the meaning of security/protection. This chapter suggests that 2000 was a pivotal moment when a more human-oriented international law seemed a real possibility and before the turn back toward militarism and national security in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Invocation of National Security Exceptions under GATT Article XXI: Jurisdiction to Review and Standard of Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-712
Author(s):  
Chao Wang
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
The Self ◽  
Detailed Interpretation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Gatt 1994

Abstract The invocation of national security exceptions under Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 has long been viewed as “self-judging”. In the landmark case of Russia—Measures Concerning Traffic in Transit, the panel of the WTO’s dispute settlement body (DSB) addressed two important but previously considered ambiguous issues. First, the Panel confirmed its jurisdiction to review its members’ invocation of Article XXI of GATT 1994. Second, offering a detailed interpretation of Article XXI, especially paragraph (b) and its subparagraph (iii), the panel distinguished the objective requirements from the self-judging features, and held that it has the jurisdiction to determine whether the objective requirements of Article XXI have been satisfied when a member invokes the national security exception, and the member’s discretion is also expected to be limited by its good faith obligation, which, as an established principle of international law, shall apply to both the member’s definition of the essential security interests and its connection to the measures being taken.

scholarly journals ASYMMETRICAL CONFLICT AND HUMAN SECURITY: REFLECTIONS FROM KENYA

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Awino Okech
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Security Model ◽  
Security Framework ◽  
State Security ◽  
Extremist Groups

This paper focuses on contemporary challenges to the human security framework through an examination of asymmetrical conflict generated by extremist insurgents, specifically Al Shabaab in Kenya. The political and security dynamics generated by extremist groups often find reinforcement in local contestations over power and territory, resulting in an interaction between local and 'external'. It is the product of these interactions in the form of opportunities, resultant discourses, responses and what they offer to an expansion of normative ideas about human security and conflict that this paper focuses on. Using Kenya as a case study, this paper explores the interface between the growth of Al Shabaab, securitisation of governance and political elite consensus on the policy relationship between human security versus a state security model. This paper pursues the argument that the rise in the intensity and nature of Al Shabaab attacks in Kenya has influenced the interpretation of the country's security  threats and the application of strategies. Rather than aiding the application of human security as central to national security, it has rolled back previous gains.

Collective Security

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ademola Abass
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War

The term collective security in a general sense is given many understandings both professional and nonprofessional. The phrase is sometimes used to describe the organization of security on a “collective” basis. Often, it is used to denote the “collective organization” of security. While neither of these uses is inherently wrong, neither succinctly captures what “collective security” implies when used by international lawyers. In international law, collective security is a term connoting something more dense and intricate, and much more slippery, than the above more straightforward expressions. The notion of collective security, its premise, and objectives are deeply contested by states and scholars. It is universally acknowledged that collective security is today organized under the United Nations; however, regional organizations, which used to focus primarily on economic matters, have attained greater prominence in collective security efforts especially since the end of the Cold War. This article examines the definition of collective security, its features and objectives, the actors that have the responsibility for operating it globally and regionally, its various manifestations, its limitations and, above all, its role in future.

TO THE QUESTION OF CHANGES IN THE STRATEGY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION NATIONAL SECURITY IN 2021

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
I. A. Aleksandrov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
National Interests ◽  
The People ◽  
New Strategy ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Definition Of

The paper considers a number of changes made to the Strategy of the Russian Federation National Security, which was approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on July 2, 2021, in comparison with the previous strategy approved in 2015. The study is important since a new strategy has been recently enacted, and a uniform understanding of the key concepts reflected in this document seems essential. Some issues related to the fixed definitions of such concepts as “national security of the Russian Federation”, “national interests of the Russian Federation”, “strategic national priorities of the Russian Federation”, “national security protection”, “threat to national security”, “national security protection system” are analyzed. The study compares the definition of the concept “national security” fixed in the Strategy of the Russian Federation National Security, which was approved in 2021, with the options for other definitions given in the similar documents that were previously in force in Russia during the post-Soviet period of Russian history. The study additionally focuses on the transformation of national interests of the Russian Federation, which are enlisted in the recent strategy. In particular, the paper discusses the wording “saving the people of Russia, developing human potential, improving the quality of life and the well-being of citizens”. The author emphasizes that undervaluation of the strategic importance of the social sphere as a security factor in the course of economic and political reforms may cause threat of loss of citizens’ confidence in government officials, which, under certain conditions, can lead society and the country to a constitutional crisis and the collapse of federal status.

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