Michael Renner
Security concerns are once more at the top of the world’s agenda, but terrorism is only symptomatic of a far broader set of complex problems that require more than a military response. Acts of terror and the reactions they provoke are often the result of profound socioeconomic, environmental, and political pressures—forces that together create a less stable world. Among them are endemic poverty, convulsive economic transitions that cause growing inequality and high unemployment, the spread of deadly armaments, large-scale population movements, recurring natural disasters, ecosystem breakdown, new and resurgent communicable diseases, and rising competition over land and other natural resources.
Weapons do not necessarily provide security, and real security in a globalizing world cannot be provided on a purely national basis. With world military expenditures rising to close to $1 trillion a year, the war on terror is draining resources that could be used to combat the root causes of insecurity. Furthermore, policies that seek security primarily by military means but fail to address underlying factors of instability will likely trigger a downward spiral of violence and chaos, and quite possibly a collapse of international rules and norms. The need for international cooperation has grown stronger, even as new rifts and divides have opened up.
Solutions to current security concerns lie in policies that strengthen civilian, rather than military, institutions; policies that are preventative in nature, which address the root causes of insecurity; and policies that draw on the strengths and insights of different disciplines, transcending academic and bureaucratic boundaries.