Virtuous imperialism or a shared global objective? - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 62

security-related issues, and nor is that desirable. This assumption also implies
that other, non-state actors are passive recipients of security, and do nothing
to contribute to establishing and maintaining security for individuals and
communities at sub-state levels or beyond. A deeper analysis of processes of
security, speech acts as well as security practices, demonstrates that security
is about both the identification of threats as well as the capability to address
such threats, by both state as well as non-state actors (Hoogensen et al . 2009;
Hoogensen Gjørv 2012).
Canada and the development of a human
security concept
Canada was a champion for human security at the beginning of the mil-
lennium, playing a leading role in human security promotion, and as such
its policies serve as a good illustration to see how human security has been
employed or operationalized in practice. In this section I want to further
develop an analysis of Canada's position with regard to human security that
I started a few years ago when I referred to the Canadian policy level leader-
ship in an earlier article addressing non-state actor security and terrorism
(Hoogensen 2005). I drew upon the following quotations to illustrate the
Canadian position at the time, the first quote coming directly from the then
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lloyd Axworthy, and the second quote follow-
ing, reflecting the influence of the Canadian position in supporting scholarly
analyses of human security in different contexts:
The present discourse of security reflects this change in the global reality
and the change in perspective that goes with it. No longer are we lim-
ited to discussions of states' rights and national sovereignty. Protecting
civilians, addressing the plight of war-affected children and the threat of
terrorism and drugs, managing open borders, and combating infectious
diseases are now part of a dialogue.
(Axworthy 2001:19)
Axworthy played an important role in stressing the importance of security
at the individual level, as human security would likely not have managed
to capture the interest it did without such significant political recogni-
tion. Axworthy's role as human security champion was acknowledged in
academic circles as well, where the concept was gaining ground: 'Canadian
Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, perhaps the most conspicuous exponent
of the concept, has listed “safety for people from both violent and nonvio-
lent threats” as core preconditions [of human security]' (Brower and Chalk
2003:5). The Canadian government had thus been one of the more active
world leaders in the promotion of human security (MacLean 2000). The
Canadian government championed human security as a feature of its foreign