Human Security and the UN: A Critical History
by S. Neil MacFarlane
and Yuen Foong Kong
The United Nations Intellectual History Project Series
Indiana University Press

What does security —
particularly human security—mean? The latest volume in the United Nations Intellectual History Project series traces the fundamental shift in the contemporary notion of security from its emphasis on the state to the individual, focusing on the UN’s role in redefining this critical concept. Co-authored by two Oxford University-based international security scholars, this probing analysis of what is good, bad and indifferent about the way in which we look at the problem of security, explores its ideation from the era of nation states to the early twenty-first century.

“The conceptualization of security,” the authors write, “has been profoundly influenced by the shifting historical context of international relations.” During the rise in European nationalism, for example, individuals traded their sovereignty for protection because the state was the answer to all security dilemmas. From the industrial revolution to the atomic age, the concept of security gradually adapted to the reality that no state could protect its citizens from the possibility of mass extermination. This meant, for the superpowers at least, “security” was based on deterrence generated by the threat of mutual destruction.

More recently, as the greatest number of mass killings are perpetrated by states against their own people, the UN’s vital role as an incubator of key ideas has encouraged the prevention of threats to human security within states along with the recognition that security claims of individuals need not be subordinate to those of states. While the authors disagree with making all human needs into security matters, they make the case for seeing development issues as key aspects of conflict prevention due to the deep relationship between poverty and violence.

This volume is the latest in a series of books focusing on the intellectual history of the United Nations. Carnegie Corporation provides support for this project, which focuses on the UN as the creator and nurturer of ideas and concepts that have permeated international public policy.

Modernization, Democracy and Islam
Edited by Shireen T. Hunter and Huma Malik
The Center for Strategic
and International Studies, Washington, D.C.
Praeger Publishers

When it comes to modernizing and establishing democratic institutions, the Muslim world’s record has been disappointing, according to editor and Islam scholar Shireen T. Hunter. But while much of the world seems to blame Islam itself, the true picture is far more complex.

History shows that factors including colonialism, economic globalization, great-power rivalries and the role and influence of the military all interfere with the process of modernization—in the Muslim world and elsewhere. The purpose of this book, published in cooperation with Carnegie Corporation grantee the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and featuring reports from 20 of the field’s leading scholars, is to examine these obstacles, provide perspective on cultural issues, and suggest remedies appropriate to Islamic countries.

Since September 11, 2001, the global implications of instability in the Muslim world have become compellingly clear. Beyond direct terrorist threats, the growth of extremism as well as civil war and state breakdown endanger developing and advanced nations alike. Given the strategic importance of Islamic countries and their vast energy reserves, nothing less than the prosperity of the entire industrialized world and the health of the international economy are at stake. The analyses in this volume demonstrate that, contrary to prevailing opinion, Islam is neither monolithic nor impervious to change. With support from the international community, and revival of Islam’s own traditions of rationalist and scientific thought, the authors argue, culturally relevant versions of modernity and democracy can emerge within the Muslim world.

Fighting Words
by Lisa Schnellinger and Mohannad Khatib
International Center for Journalists

A new guide for American and Arab reporters aims to minimize misunderstandings between the two cultures by changing the way journalists cover each other’s worlds. Written by two experienced journalists, Fighting Words resulted from a three-day conference of Arab and American journalists, which featured discussions of topics such as the origin of stereotypes, use of loaded words like terrorist and jihad, the power of provocative images, covering religion and other sensitive issues and strategies for handling government and advertiser pressure. The manual includes a wide-ranging list of practical recommendations for journalists and publishers including, “Hold religious leaders accountable for their statements and opinions,” “Set and keep guidelines for images,” and “Require safety training, equipment and insurance for all war-zone or conflict reporters.” Carnegie Corporation provided support for the 2005 conference and creation of the manual. To order or download a copy go to http://www.carnegie.org/sub/forums/index.html or to participate in the continuing discussion, visit www.ijnet.org.

Globalization and the Nation State: The Impact of the IMF and the World Bank
Edited by Gustav Ranis, James Raymond Vreeland and Stephen Kosack
Routledge Studies in the Modern World Economy Taylor and Francis Group

Do international financial institutions, with their policy conditions along with their provision of resources, shape the ability of governments to determine their own economic policies of reform? The editors of this comprehensive volume consider this a critical question for a developing world in search of economic growth and prosperity and, ideally, the end of poverty. The answers, often provocative, aim to bring researchers up to date and inspire new projects and new ideas leading, in time, to constructive changes in the role and governance of international financial institutions.

Recent innovations in the study of why countries enter into International Monetary Fund and World Bank programs and with what effects, as well as newly available data, have led to the reevaluation of conventional wisdom, touching on topics that may inspire heated public debate. This book, created with Carnegie Corporation support, presents the cutting edge of the related research agenda, bringing together experts, one a Carnegie scholar, from various dimensions of the frontier.

From the contention that countries important to the United States’ interests are likely to receive favorable treatment from the IMF, to the discoveries that dictatorships are actually more likely to receive loans and that the World Bank tends to lend over and over again to the same countries, this book’s explorations shine a light on the benefits and costs of the complex process by which governments and international financial institutions interact, seeking effective ways countries can be encouraged to truly “own” their reform programs, in word and in deed.

Shared Secrets: Intelligence and Collective Security
by Simon Chesterman
Lowy Institute for International Policy
“If it were a fact, it wouldn’t be intelligence.”—Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Director of the US National Security Agency, 2002

In the context of international policy, intelligence can be taken to mean two things: covertly obtained information, and the analysis of that information, which assesses risk and guides action. National intelligence, in both senses, has a vital role to play in addressing threats to international peace and security, particularly with reference to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. In Shared Secrets, intelligence insider Simon Chesterman, Executive Director of the Institute for International Law and Justice at New York University School of Law, which receives Carnegie Corporation support, examines the role intelligence can and should play in collective security. His conclusions point to effective ways intelligence might enhance international cooperation, prevent conflict and ameliorate disasters no single state can address alone.

In making the case for improved intelligence management, Chesterman cites such dire events as have occurred in Somalia, Iraq and Kuwait. He references Rwanda in 1994, where the failure to prevent or halt the genocide—about which there was no shortage of information—provides proof that the manner in which intelligence is commonly used as a tool of conflict prevention leaves much to be desired. Given that collective security organizations such as the UN can, and should, draw upon intelligence from national agencies, he recommends developing processes for receiving sensitive information to establish basic credibility, as well as obtaining independent analysis to compensate for the presumed bias in selectively provided information. Overall, while better intelligence will not necessarily guarantee better decisions, it could make it harder for states to ignore emerging crises or embrace unworkable policies.

Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization
Edited by Miles Kahler and Barbara F. Walter
Cambridge University Press

“Why has territory continued to be a key source of violent conflict even as goods, capital and populations move increasingly seamlessly across borders?” International relations experts Miles Kahler and Barbara F. Walter pose this question in their attempt to untangle the complex relationship between globalization and territoriality. This timely project, supported by Carnegie Corporation and drawing on the work of scholars from all corners of the world, begins to explain why, even as borders become more permeable, territorial attachments remain strong and territorial stakes still influence conflicts.

A close look at recent clashes reveals that globalization is not a factor when a territory’s significance is primarily symbolic or spiritual. In other words, the willingness to fight for land has less to do with its material value and more to do with the role it plays in a people’s identity or sense of security, as in the cases of the Irish and Eritrean diasporas. Additionally, conflicts arise when political leaders, such as Serbia’s Milosevic, exploit territorial attachments for their own purposes.

Territorial attachments can diminish, these scholars suggest, in response to changes in the myths and meaning of homeland. And while globalization cannot be blamed for territorial conflict, lack of economic development will increase its likelihood. Policymakers will find that territorial conflicts continue to be difficult to resolve, they conclude, and it will take far more than economic incentives to gain acceptance from people whose emotional ties to the land are intangible, yet real.

Copyright information | Masthead | Carnegie Corporation of New York web site