Redefining security: meeting the needs of people and planet
JVL Introduction
This review of Paul Rogers’ (and Judith Lange’s) book “The Insecurity Trap” highlights the need to redefine “security” away from military concerns to focus on peoples’ needs. In whose interests is keeping so many people insecure? Even in the wealthiest countries, most people do not have secure incomes and homes. Without the basics for security, a decent and secure home, work or social security to cover at least your basic needs, how does a society survive, let alone thrive? And if people are struggling to meet those basic needs, what space is left for philosophy? But transformation (in the book’s subtitle) is what is needed: root and branch change, not “changing the country bit by bit”. . We have a system that will make life near to impossible as we fail to end use of fossil fuels and invest properly in renewals because, it seems, profits for the few are deemed more vital than security for the many. We cannot afford an economic system that cannot provide for people. This book also looks at the breakdown in international cooperation and why we need to strengthen these institutions, not least because we share the same planet and cannot address the issues affecting “us” by increased nationalism.
LL
This article was originally published by Labour Hub on Sun 8 Dec 2024. Read the original here.
Redefining global security – less war, more cooperation
Reviews of The Insecurity Trap: A Short Guide to Transformation, by Paul Rogers with Judith Large, published by Hawthorn.
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From The Observer, 8/12/24:
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff described the security outlook as “more contested, more ambiguous and more dangerous” than at any time in his career.
Richard Horne, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, who warned that there is “a clearly widening gap” between the UK’s vulnerability to escalating cyber warfare by adversaries and “the defences that are in place to protect us”.
Richard Moore, the head of MI6: In 37 years in intelligence, he has “never seen the world in a more dangerous state”.
Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5: his agency has had to “pare back” its work on counter-terrorism to meet the growing threat from Russia, Iran and other hostile states.
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The above cold war warriors are at present competing with every other seeker-of-funding from the government so there’s no chance of an underestimate of the dangers. It is depressing to say the least that these self-serving doomsters are adding to world paranoia about ‘security’ at the expense of peoples’ well-being on the altar of making their dire predictions more possible. As the excellent article from Labour Hub argues, it is the diametric opposite of what is needed.