KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSE CODE: MCPSS815

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND SECURITY

BY

RUTH AUTA
KASU/MCPSS/POL/20/0019

Question:

1. Examine the concept Security and critically discuss the dimensions of Human
Security.
2. What are International Organization and using the United Nations as an example, of
relevance are International Organizations to global security?

DECEMBER, 2021

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 Assignment: 1. Examine the concept Security and critically discuss the dimensions of
Human Security.
Introduction
Security is a fragile and significant issue which conveys different meanings to scholars,
analysts, policy makers and organizations across the globe. Fundamentally, security has to do
with the presence of peace, safety, gladness and the protection of human and physical
resources or absence of crisis or threats to human dignity, all of which facilitate development
and progress of any human society. The concept of security has become a preoccupation for
the decades following the end of the Cold War which could also be referred to as landmark
for diverse school of thought with security studies. Security, as a concept, has diverse
dimensions. It is aptly used in psychology, finance, information access, public safety, defense
and military matters.
The meaning of security is ambiguous as its scope continues to expand every day. The elastic
nature of the concept of security attracts different meanings and different views. Security is
an important concept that every human person desire and it has one or two meanings though
it defies precise definition. This account for the position of Barry Buzan (1991) who
describes security as an ambiguous and multidimensional concept in which military factors
have attracted misappropriate attention. This chapter therefore examines the concept of
security taking into cognizance diverse views of different scholars. It equally covers the
notion of national security, international security and the concept of human security, which is
the basis of all other forms of security.
Concept of Security
Security has to do with the process connected with assuaging any kind of threat to people and
their precious values. This is why Buzan asserts that security is about freedom from threat
and ability of states to maintain independent identity and their functional integrity against
forces of change, which they see as hostile while its bottom line is survival (Bodunde, et.al,.
2014). From the foregoing, security is generally agreed to be about feeling of being safe from
harm, fear, anxiety, oppression, danger, poverty, defence, protection and preservation of core
values and threat to those values.
William (2008) equally submits that security is most commonly associated with the
alleviation of threats to cherish values, especially those threats which threaten the survival of
a particular reference object. In line with the above, Imobighe states that Security has to do
with freedom from danger or threats to a nation's ability to protect and develop itself,
promote its cherished values and legitimate interest and enhance the well-being of its people.
Thus, internal security could be seen as the freedom from or the absence of those tendencies,
which could undermine internal cohesion, and the corporate existence of a country and its
ability to maintain its vital institutions for the promotion of its core values and socio-political
and economic objectives, as well as meet the legitimate aspirations of the people (Ogaba.
2010: 35-36). It could therefore be inferred that security, be it classical, state-centric and
traditionalist or non-traditionalist, is all about protection of assets including living and non-
living resources against loss or damage.

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Human Security
The concept of human security emanates from the conventional security studies which
centers on the security of the state. Its focus is individuals and its ultimate end point is the
protection of people from traditional and non-traditional threats. Centre to this concept is the
belief that human security deprivations can undercut peace and stability within and among
states. The Commission on Human Security (CHS) in one of its work defines human security
as:
The ability to protect the vital core of all human lives in such a way that it enhances human
freedoms and human fulfillment. Human security means protecting fundamental freedoms
that are the essence of life. It means protecting people from serious and persistent threats and
situations. It means using processes that build on people's strengths and aspirations. It means
creating political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together
give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity (Adedoyin, 2013: 125).
It is important to state that human security covers every area of human needs. This is why it
serves as the basis of all forms and categories of security. Hubert gives the importance of the
concept when he asserts that:
In essence, human security means safety of people from violent and non - violent threat. It is
a condition of being characterized by freedom from pervasive threat to people's rights, their
ability or even their lives. It is an alternative way of seeing the world taking people as its
point of reference rather than focusing exclusively on the security of the territory or
government. Like other security concept - national security, economic security, and food
security - it is all about protection (Hubert, 1999:3).
Since, human security gives primacy to human beings and their complex social and economic
interactions, it derives its convincing quality from the fact that is based on the global concern
and threats to human security are no longer secluded issues. It is pertinent to state that threat
to human security is very easy to manage if preventive measures are taken at appropriate time
before it advances to devastating state.
The Seven Dimensions of Human Security
Human security is characterized by seven [7] dimensions of security. These are:
i. Economic Security
This type of security requires an assured basic income for individuals mostly from productive
and remunerative work or from a publicly financed safety net. In this sense, only about a
quarter of the world's people are presently economically secure and the economic security
problem may be more serious in third world countries. Major threats of economic security are
poverty, unemployment, indebtedness, lack of income. It germane to state that
aforementioned threats constitute pertinent factors causing political tensions and other forms
of violence in the developing countries.

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ii. Food Security
Food security demands that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to
basic food. Major threats to this include hunger, famines and the lack of physical and
economic access to basic food. Though United Nations maintain that the overall availability
of food is not a problem; rather the problem often is the poor distribution of food and lack of
money/purchasing power. In the past, food security problems have been dealt with at both
national and global levels. However, their impacts are limited. According to UN, the key is to
tackle the problems relating to access to assets, work and assured income (related to
economic security).
iii. Health Security
This tends to guarantee a minimum protection from diseases and unhealthy daily life. In less -
developed countries, the major causes of death traditionally were infectious and diseases,
Inadequate health care, new and recurrent diseases including epidemics and pandemics, poor
nutrition and unsafe environment and unsafe lifestyles; whereas in develop countries, the
major killers are diseases of the circulatory system. However, lifestyle related chronic
diseases are leading killers globally with 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases
occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In both developing and industrial countries,
threats to health security are usually greater for poor people in local areas, particularly
children. This is as a result of poor or bad nutrition and inadequate access to health services,
clean water and other basic necessities.
iv. Environmental Security
The primary goal of this is to protect people from the short and long-term ravages of nature,
man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural environment. In the third world
countries, lack of access to clean water resources is one of the greatest environmental threats
while the major threats in industrial countries are air pollution and global warming which are
caused by the emission of greenhouse gases. Again, environmental degradation, natural
disasters and resource depletion are general all over the world.
v. Personal Security
This is all about the protection of individuals and people from physical violence either from
the state or outside the state. It could be from violent individuals, sub-state actors and from
domestic abuse. Hence, the greater and the common threat to personal security from the state
(torture), other states (war), groups of people (ethnic tension), individuals or gangs (crime),
industrial, workplace or traffic accidents. The security threats and risks on persons and often
families are many and vary from place to place and also from time to time. These include:
theft, armed robbery, burglary, food poisoning, electrocution, fire outbreak, home accident
and host of others.
vi. Community Security

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Community security aims to protect people from the loss of traditional relationships, values
and from sectarian and ethnic violence. Traditional communities, particularly minority ethnic
groups are often threatened. About half of the world's states have experienced some inter-
ethnic rivalry. Threats to community security are usually from the group (oppressive
practices), between groups (ethnic violence), from dominant groups (e.g. indigenous people's
vulnerability). In 1993, the United Nations declared the Year of Indigenous People to
highlight the continuing vulnerability of about 300 million aboriginal people in seventy
countries as they face a widening spiral of violence. In Africa, many nation-states have
witnessed ethnic clashes, land and boundary clashes, and intra - religious and inter - religious
conflict all of which constitute threats.
vii. Political Security
These embraces guarantee and protection of fundamental human rights of citizenry. It is
concerned with whether people live in a society that honours detention and imprisonment.
The assessment of the Amnesty International reveals that, political repression, systematic
torture, ill treatment, hostage taken and kidnapping are still being practice in about One
Hundred and ten (110) countries. Human rights violations are frequent during periods of
political unrest and by security agencies in the third world countries (UNDP, 1994).

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Assignment: 2. What are International Organization and using the United Nations as an
example, of relevance are International Organizations to global security?

International Organisation

International organisation has various meanings. Ordinarily, it could be referred to as an

organisation that embodies the world community, with its members drawn from independent
sovereign states. It could be in form of religious organisations that cut across national
boundaries. Similarly, international organisations could spring from economic and cultural
collaborations, and many other spheres between states. One of the major characteristics an
international organisation should possess is that it must be trans-border in outlook and must
involve two or more sovereign states.

Akinboye and Ottoh (2005) opine that an international organisation is composed of sovereign
independent states, voluntarily joining in a common pursuit of certain goals. In the opinion of
Palmer and Perkins (1969), an international organisation is “any co-operative arrangement
instituted among states usually by a basic agreement, to perform some mutually advantageous

functions implemented through periodic meetings and staff activities.” Equally worthy of
mention is the definition given by Plano and Olton (1988) that “an international organisation
is a formal arrangement transcending national boundaries that provides for the establishment
of an institutional machinery to facilitate co-operation among members in security, economic,
social, or related fields.” Succinctly put, it is perceived as a formal institution established by
sovereign states through a consensus, and a solid structure, with a view to pursuing the
common interest of its members. With this, it could be adduced that an international
organisation could be seen as a forum for the collaboration and propagation of the foreign
policies of its sovereign member states, in the pursuit of international peace and security.

International organisations do not have the status of a state and by implication, do not operate
branches similar to that of a government anywhere but they could establish institutions that
have legal or quasi legal powers to perform certain special functions. This status will be
further discussed in subsequent modules. Further, it is customary that the headquarters of an
international organisation must be such that it accommodates divergent nationalities -
indigenes of the member states. Summarily, though, not conclusively, international

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organisations must generate members from two or more sovereign states, must have formal
structures that serve as the co-coordinating centres, and should be seen to have been
established by a mutual consent, in form of treaty or an enforceable legal document.

Relevance of United Nations to Global security

The main function of the United Nations is to preserve international peace and security.
Chapter 6 of the Charter provides for the pacific settlement of disputes, through the
intervention of the Security Council, by means such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration,
and judicial decisions. The Security Council may investigate any dispute or situation to
determine whether it is likely to endanger international peace and security. At any stage of
the dispute, the council may recommend appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment,
and, if the parties fail to settle the dispute by peaceful means, the council may recommend
terms of settlement.

The goal of collective security, whereby aggression against one member is met with
resistance by all, underlies chapter 7 of the Charter, which grants the Security Council the
power to order coercive measures—ranging from diplomatic, economic, and military
sanctions to the use of armed force—in cases where attempts at a peaceful settlement have
failed. Such measures were seldom applied during the Cold War, however, because tensions
between the United States and the Soviet Union prevented the Security Council from
agreeing on the instigators of aggression. Instead, actions to maintain peace and security
often took the form of preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping. In the post-Cold War period,
appeals to the UN for peacekeeping and related activities increased dramatically, and new
threats to international peace and security were confronted, including AIDS and international
terrorism.

Notwithstanding the primary role of the Security Council, the UN Charter provides for the
participation of the General Assembly and nonmember states in security issues. Any state,
whether it is a member of the UN or not, may bring any dispute or situation that endangers
international peace and security to the attention of the Security Council or the General
Assembly. The Charter authorizes the General Assembly to “discuss any questions relating to
the maintenance of international peace and security” and to “make recommendations with
regard to any such questions to the state or states concerned or to the Security Council or to
both.” This authorization is restricted by the provision that, “while the Security Council is

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exercising in respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it in the present
Charter, the General Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to that
dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requests.” By the “Uniting for Peace”
resolution of November 1950, however, the General Assembly granted to itself the power to
deal with threats to the peace if the Security Council fails to act after a veto by a permanent
member. Although these provisions grant the General Assembly a broad secondary role, the
Security Council can make decisions that bind all members, whereas the General Assembly
can make only recommendations.

Peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace building

International armed forces were first used in 1948 to observe cease-fires in Kashmir and
Palestine. Although not specifically mentioned in the UN Charter, the use of such forces as a
buffer between warring parties pending troop withdrawals and negotiations—a practice
known as peacekeeping—was formalized in 1956 during the Suez Crisis between Egypt,
Israel, France, and the United Kingdom. Peacekeeping missions have taken many forms,
though they have in common the fact that they are designed to be peaceful, that they involve
military troops from several countries, and that the troops serve under the authority of the UN
Security Council. In 1988 the UN Peacekeeping Forces were awarded the Nobel Prize for
Peace.

During the Cold War, so-called first-generation, or “classic,” peacekeeping was used in
conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and in conflicts stemming from decolonization in
Asia. Between 1948 and 1988 the UN undertook 13 peacekeeping missions involving
generally lightly armed troops from neutral countries other than the permanent members of
the Security Council—most often Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, India, Ireland, and
Italy. Troops in these missions, the so-called “Blue Helmets,” were allowed to use force only
in self-defense. The missions were given and enjoyed the consent of the parties to the conflict
and the support of the Security Council and the troop-contributing countries.

With the end of the Cold War, the challenges of peacekeeping became more complex. In
order to respond to situations in which internal order had broken down and the civilian
population was suffering, “second-generation” peacekeeping was developed to achieve
multiple political and social objectives. Unlike first-generation peacekeeping, second-
generation peacekeeping often involves civilian experts and relief specialists as well as

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soldiers. Another difference between second-generation and first-generation peacekeeping is
that soldiers in some second-generation missions are authorized to employ force for reasons
other than self-defense. Because the goals of second-generation peacekeeping can be variable
and difficult to define, however, much controversy has accompanied the use of troops in such
missions.

In the 1990s, second-generation peacekeeping missions were undertaken in Cambodia (1991–

93), the former Yugoslavia (1992–95), Somalia (1992–95), and elsewhere and included
troops from the permanent members of the Security Council as well as from the developed
and developing world (e.g., Australia, Pakistan, Ghana, Nigeria, Fiji, India). In the former
Yugoslav province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Security Council created “safe areas” to
protect the predominantly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) population from Serbian attacks, and
UN troops were authorized to defend the areas with force. In each of these cases, the UN
reacted to threats to peace and security within states, sometimes taking sides in domestic
disputes and thus jeopardizing its own neutrality. Between 1988 and 2000 more than 30
peacekeeping efforts were authorized, and at their peak in 1993 more than 80,000
peacekeeping troops representing 77 countries were deployed on missions throughout the
world. In the first years of the 21st century, annual UN expenditures on peacekeeping
operations exceeded $2 billion.

In addition to traditional peacekeeping and preventive diplomacy, in the post-Cold War era
the functions of UN forces were expanded considerably to include peacemaking and peace
building. (Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali described these additional
functions in his reports An Agenda for Peace [1992] and Supplement to an Agenda for Peace
[1995].) For example, since 1990 UN forces have supervised elections in many parts of the
world, including Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Cambodia; encouraged peace negotiations in El
Salvador, Angola, and Western Sahara; and distributed food in Somalia. The presence of UN
troops in Yugoslavia during the violent and protracted disintegration of that country renewed
discussion about the role of UN troops in refugee resettlement. In 1992 the UN created the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), which provides administrative and
technical support for political and humanitarian missions and coordinates all mine-clearing
activities conducted under UN auspices.

The UN’s peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace-building activities have suffered from
serious logistical and financial difficulties. As more missions are undertaken, the costs and

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controversies associated with them have multiplied dramatically. Although the UN
reimburses countries for the use of equipment, these payments have been limited because of
the failure of many member states to pay their UN dues.

References

Abolurin, A. (2010), Security and its Management in Nigeria. Ibadan: John Archers
Publishers

Abolurin, A. (2011), “Para-Military Agencies and the Promotion of Good Governance for
National Security in Nigeria” in Ade Abolurin [ed] Nigeria's National Security: Issues
and Challenges. Ibadan: John Archers Publishers.

Adedoyin, A. (2013), “An Appraisal of the Multidimensional Nature of Security in the Post-
Cold War Africa” in African Journal of Stability and Development. Volume 7, No 2
Page 113 – 130.

Akinboye, S.O. and Ottoh, F.O. (2005). A Systematic Approach to International Relations.
Lagos: Concept Publications.

Albert, I.O. (2001). Building Peace, Advancing Democracy: Experience with Third-Party
Intervention in Nigeria’s Conflicts. Ibadan: John Archers.

Albert, I.O. (2001). Introduction to Third-Party Intervention in Community Conflicts. Ibadan:

John Archers.

Bodunde, D. O., Ola, A. A. & Afolabi, M. B. (2014), “Internal Insecurity in Nigeria, The
Irony of Multiplicity of Security Outfits and Security Challenges” in IMPACT:
IJRHAL, Volume 2, Issue 5Page 213 – 220.

Buzan, B. (1991), “New Pattern of Global Security in Twenty-First Century” in International

Affairs [Royal Institute of International Affairs] pp. 431 – 451.

Hubert, D. (1999), “Human Security: Safety for People in a Changing World” A Paper
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Maniruzzaman, T. (1982), “The Security of Small States in the World” in Canderra Papers on
Strategy and Defence, No 25.

Obasanjo, O. (1999), Grand Strategy for National Security. Abuja: Federal Ministry of
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Ogaba, O. (2010), “Security, Globalization and Climate Change: A Conceptual Analysis” in
Osita E. E. & Ogaba O. [ed] Climate Change and Human Security in Nigeria. Lagos:
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Orwa, D. (1984), “National Security; An African Perspective”, in B. Arlinghaus [ed] African

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