Global Threats to Security

by. Defencewire

(November,14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to the United Nations there are six clusters of threats with which the world must be concerned now and in the decades ahead;

• Economic and social threats, including poverty, infectious diseases and environmental degradation
• Inter-State conflict
• Internal conflict, including civil war, genocide and other large -scale atrocities
• Nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons
• Terrorism
• Transnational organized crime

The UN definition provides sound basis for analyzing changes in global conflict. Its main focus is on global security. However the Peace and Conflict Report (2005) demonstrates that major societal wars are down from twelve at the end of 2002 to eight in early 2005 and most democratic regimes established during the 1980s and 1990s have endured despite political and economic crisis. Ethnonational wars for independence from the state have continued to decline to their lowest level since 1960 and that repression and political discrimination against ethnic minorities have declined significantly. As per the UN’s second cluster of global threats (interstate conflicts) the Conflictbarometer 2005 concludes that from the year 1950 to 2000 there has been a steady decline in the number of interstate conflicts in the world.

The UN’s fifth cluster of global threats- terrorism is no new threat. It is an old threat renewed by the attacks on 9/11. The Peace and Conflict Report (2005) says that "Terrorism has become the dominant security concern of the twenty first century". It also claims that "high-casualty terrorist attacks increased very sharply after al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 attacks". Along with the United States the rest of the world awoke to ‘Terrorism’ after 9/11. The unpredictability and the clandestine and impenetrable nature of terrorist cells and their potential for destruction as was witness on 9/11 remains a concern.

The last global threat to security envisaged by the UN is transnational organized crime. Phil Williams (2001) has identified several combinations crucial for the flourishing of organized crime. These include weaknesses in national and international law enforcement accompanied by prospects for large profits, transnational linkages, political ambitions and potential to commit violence. He draws on the drug-smuggling, money laundering and extortion rings like that of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and the Colombian drug cartels.

Conclusion

Harmful effects of globalization and the disintegration of states is assisting terrorism and transnational crime to flourish. Terrorism and transnational criminal organizations is a serious conflictual trend in the world today. International governments must not allow state failure in developing countries battling terrorism and transnational criminal networks. A safety net should be created for such states to protect its citizens.