Virtuous imperialism or a shared global objective? - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 58

Chapter 4

Virtuous imperialism or a
shared global objective?
The relevance of human security
in the global Nort h 1

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv

Introduction
Until the end of the Cold War, security was largely confined to the militarized
and elite notion of state security bound within an anarchic international sys-
tem regulated by superpowers . 2 Establishing and maintaining state security did
not ensure individual or community security, particularly with regard to pov-
erty, access to basic resources and care, and general human well-being (UNDP
1994). The security referent, or target, has since expanded from a narrow focus
on the state and state system to include other levels of analysis and security
perspectives such as those articulated by individuals or groups. The 'human
security agenda' was proposed in the early 1990s as a global initiative focusing
on the security of individuals, but seemed to be largely adopted as a foreign
policy approach by a number of global North countries, practising a 'new' way
of understanding and providing assistance to the global South . 3 I t was intended
to update and complement a 'traditional' (narrow) notion of security, making
more visible issues of security that traditional security failed to address, such
as continuing poverty and human strife within failing or weak states, or in
so-called secure, but non-democratic, states (ibid.). However, an important cri-
tique of the human security agenda, in addition to questions of definition, has
been its perpetuation of the superior-subordinate relationship, such that the
concept can be understood to entrench linear and elitist thinking with regard
to security (Chandler 2008). As it has been practised, it is a concept that is
assumed to be mostly relevant for states and peoples living in the global South.
Although the human security concept appeared to break the stranglehold that a
narrow state-based conception managed to co-opt since WWII and particularly
through the Cold War, taking into consideration a broader range of security
referents than that of traditional security, the prevailing assumption that it is a
concept only relevant for particular regions of the world perpetuates ahistorical
claims about the state and sovereignty, claims that are strongly rooted in the
realist tradition that assumes that 'strong states provide better security' (Smith
1991 in Wibben 2011:70). The global North is assumed to be composed of
'strong' states, thus having eradicated its own human security issues, and is