Common Foreign and Security Policy
The European Union must give a signal to the world
A design for a European Human Security Strategy by Dr Ana Isabel Xavier, Assistant Professor, Coimbra
Human Security (HS) in the form of a philosophy or code of moral conduct has not yet been academically mainstreamed and some sceptics see it as a concept that nourishes the philosophical debate on codes of moral conduct. So is it likely that the EU will adopt the Human Security “umbrella” as a foreign policy tool and is this desirable?
Searching for concepts Ten years after being proclaimed and approved by the Brussels European Council, Javier Solana’s European Security Strategy (ESS) is still quoted as a landmark, as it acknowledges poverty, disease and ignorance as the root causes of insecurity, leading in turn to terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts, failed states and organised crime. Notwithstanding the emphasis on preventive intervention and the importance of multilateralism, the ESS does not clearly address Human Security (HS) or explain how the European institutions can implement the ESS in order to explore all possibilities for a European HS Strategy. Moreover, due to the lack of any initiative on the part of the Member States or EU Institutions to embody HS as a strategic concept for the European Union in a post-9/11 scenario, in 2008 Solana recommended a “Report on the implementation of the European Security Strategy - Providing Security in a Changing World”, in which HS is mentioned twice. On the other hand, the Barcelona (2004) and Madrid (2007) Reports prepared by 13 European researchers led by LSE Professor Mary Kaldor were never officially adopted, either by the European institutions or by the Member States. However, this does not diminish the fact that these reports present a detailed study of the operational capacities for European security, drawing a parallel between the principles and levels of action and ongoing EU crisis-management missions and operations in the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Ten years after Solana’s ESS we must, then, insist on the need to come up with a European Human Security Strategy, defining a “checklist” for multilateral implementation.
A Human Security “catalogue” for action Five interdependent elements may encourage the Member States to agree on a HS catalogue for ESDP missions and operations. The first element can be defined as a holistic approach, both top-down and bottom-up, empowering a network of commit-
Dr Ana Isabel Xavier is an Assistant Professor and a Post Doctoral researcher in International Relations and Political Science. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, with a thesis entitled “The European Union and Human Security: a crisis management global player in search of a strategic culture?” Photo: private She is a member of the European Commission’s Team Europe, developing training activities on European Studies, Human Rights, Non-Formal Education and Citizenship. She is frequently invited by civilian and military institutions for lectures, as well as by the Portuguese media to comment on European current events, and is a member of the Portuguese Political Science Association (APCP), Portuguese Security Studies Network and the Observatory for Human Security (OSH).
ments at all levels amongst Ministries, Offices and local organisations. HS focuses on the development, empowerment and autonomy of local populations, taking into account their particular conditions and realities. This perspective allows them to become agents for their own change, denying a “one model fits all” solution. The second element relates to the fight against the roots of structural violence. In this element, the assumption is that we must understand the conflict – its causes, dynamics, motivations and impacts – and comprehensively analyse conflicts from prevention to reconstruction, from early warning mechanisms to post-conflict building. A third element leads us to a preference for multilateralism and local/regional coordination based upon two assumptions: firstly, effective multilateralism, which legitimises intervention by the international community; and secondly, the need for coordination with regional and local actors, both because global threats are best solved at local level and because current conflicts are, and will remain for the foreseeable future, mostly intra and inter-border, and not between states. Therefore, to avoid a domino or spillover effect, effective coordination between global, regional and local actors and instruments is essential for the successful resolution of a given conflict. A fourth point essential for ensuring that state building strengthens the mechanisms needed for the state apparatus to govern consists of creating the conditions for a state not to produce uncertainty, violate human rights or deny good governance and the rule of law.
17
