Human security : reflections on globalization and intervention / Mary Kaldor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaldor, Mary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National security.

Internal security.

Security, International.

International organization.

Physical Description:

ix, 228 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2007.

Summary:

There is a real security gap in the world today. Millions of people in regions like the Middle East or East and Central Africa or Central Asia, where 'new wars' are taking place, live in daily fear of violence. Moreover 'new wars' are increasingly intertwined with other global risks - the spread of disease, vulnerability to natural disasters, poverty and homelessness. Yet our security conceptions, drawn from the dominant experience of the Second World War and based on the use of conventional military force, do not reduce that insecurity; rather they make it worse.

This book is an exploration of this security gap. It makes the case for a new approach to security based on a global conversation - a public debate among civil society groups and individuals as well as states and international institutions. The chapters follow on from Kaldor's path-breaking analysis of the character of 'new wars' in places such as the Balkans and Africa during the 1990s. The first four chapters provide a context; they cover the experience of humanitarian intervention, the nature of American power, the new nationalist and religious movements that are associated with globalization, and how these various aspects of current security dilemmas have played out in the Balkans. The remaining chapters are more normative, dealing with the evolution of the idea of global civil society, the relevance of just war theory in a global era, and the concept of human security and what it might mean to implement such a concept.

This book will appeal to all those interested in issues of peace and conflict, in particular to students of politics and international relations.

Contents:

1 A Decade of Humanitarian Intervention, 1991-2000 16

2 American Power: From Compellance to Cosmopolitanism? 73

3 Nationalism and Globalization 101

4 Intervention in the Balkans: An Unfinished Learning Process 122

5 The Idea of Global Civil Society 134

6 Just War and Just Peace 154

7 Human Security 182.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [198]-215) and index.

ISBN:

0745638538

9780745638539

0745638546

9780745638546

OCLC:

155691719