The thesis examines Canadian and Japanese human security assemblages. It aims to delve below stereotypical imageries 'representing' these human security articulations. The concept of 'human security' is not a starting point, but a result of elements, processes, structures and mechanisms which need to be investigated in order to reveal insights about a given articulation of human security. Each human security assemblage is composed of messy discourses and practices which are loosely related and sometimes even disconnected. Academics have frequently avoided studying the messiness of political discourses and practices and their mutual dependencies or their lack thereof. By contrast, this thesis ascertains what has lain beneath Canadian and Japanese spatio-temporal articulation of human security and establishes the kinds of structural terrain which have enabled, shaped, or blocked the unfolding of certain versions of human security. The pivotal contention of the thesis is that Canadian and Japanese articulations of human security have been different because they have grown from completely different domestic economies of power governing the relationship between the state apparatus and the non-profit and voluntary sector. While the Canadian human security assemblage has been shaped by transformations in the country's advanced liberal model of government, the Japanese has been shaped by the continuities of Japan's bureaucratic authoritarianism. A novel approach is employed for the related process-tracing: a general series linking structural conditions with actual articulations of the human security projects, and their further development, including analysis of their unintended consequences.

La plupart des conflits aujourd'hui sont menés essentiellement avec des armes légères et de petit calibre. Celles-ci sont les armes privilégiées dans les guerres civiles, le crime organisé et les guerres de gang. L'examen des divers aspects de la question des armes légères met l'accent sur l'incidence négative que ces armes ont sur la sécurité humaine, les droits de l'homme et le développement social et économique, en particulier dans les situations de crise, de conflit et d'après conflit. Lutter contre la prolifération des armes légères exige d'agir sur l'offre et la demande en armements, de se préoccuper des stocks d'armes existants et des flux du commerce des armes, tant au niveau des trafics illicites que de celui des ventes légales. Par ailleurs, la problématique des armes légères doit à la fois être abordée de manière spécifique en fonction des caractéristiques particulières de ce type d'arme, mais aussi être incluse dans la question des stocks et des ventes d'armes conventionnelles en général. Grâce à la volonté de quelques Etats et à la mobilisation de la société civile, une réelle dynamique internationale est née il y a quelques années et devrait aboutir à l’adoption d’un Traité sur le Commerce des Armes en 2012. / Most conflicts today are held essentially with small arms and light weapons. They are the weapons of choice in civil wars, organized crime and gang wars. The consideration of the various aspects of the question of light weapons emphasizes the negative incidence that these weapons have on human security, human rights and social and economic development, in particular in situations of crisis, conflict and post-conflict.Fighting against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons requires to act on the supply and demand in armaments, to control existing stocks of weapons and their flow, both at the level of the illicit traffics and legal sales. Besides, the problem of SALW proliferation must be approached in a specific way according to the particular characteristics of this type of weapon, but they should also be included in the control of conventional arms sales in general.Thanks to the will of some States and to the mobilization of the civil society, a real international dynamic was born a few years ago and should lead to the adoption of an Arms Trade Treaty in 2012.

Previous civil war analyses have approached conflict as a single category with limited exceptions, and this thesis project assesses whether differentiating conflicts by their type and intensity using a local-level geo-referenced analytical approach produces differing results for sub-groups of conflicts. The conflicts are divided into 1) governmental hostilities, where the aim of the armed non-state group is to capture the state, and 2) territorial hostilities, where the aim of the armed non-state group is to capture increased autonomy or secession for a territorial claim. The conflicts are also differentiated by intensity into 1) low-intensity conflicts, with fewer than 1000 battle-related deaths per year, and 2) civil wars, with 1000 or more battle-related deaths per year. The results demonstrate that conflicts with differing insurgent goals and intensities of battle are correlated with markedly different factors. There are three factors – local population density, change in local rainfall, and statewide GDP growth – that are significant to both governmental and territorial hostilities but have opposite signs for the two sets. Only one variable – Polity IV scores – showed a consistently significant correlation for governmental and territorial hostilities. There are no factors that are significant to both low-intensity conflict and higher-intensity civil war. These findings suggest that approaching all conflicts as a single class, particularly at the local level, may not reveal significant differences in factors correlated with conflict. Modeling of local conflict will require differentiation of conflicts into salient sub-groups. For policymakers and practitioners, this research suggests that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach for conflict prevention but that strategies need to be targeted to specific types of conflict.

United Nations peacekeeping has been distinguished as a bringer of peace and stability to countries plagued by war and insecurity. However, reports since the 1990s of sexual exploitations by peacekeeping personnel have tainted these accomplishments. At the same time as these reports started to surface there was an internal development within the UN where the security discourse went from being state focused to being focused on securing the population’s security and health. This new trend was established in the United Nations Development Programme in 1994 as Human Security and laid the ground for the structure of the peacekeeping operations. This study asks the question how these exploits can occur in a discursive context where the population’s welfare and health is the reference of intervention. By examining the following representative cases: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR), it can be seen how human security expresses a discursive reproduction of two different kinds of power: biopower and sovereign power. Through an analysis of the discourse in documents relating to the interventions it can be seen how these expressions of power creates a contextual environment where the sexual exploitations can take place.

Climate change is a very current and contentious issue that has received a lot of attention during the past two decades because of its global influence and impact. Climate change affects the entire globe and the impact is mostly continental and regional and is not limited along state borders. Whether a person or group believe in the existence of global warming or not, the scientific evidence leaves no doubt that the climate is changing (Mazo, 2010: 9). Climate change influence the environment people live in and have a direct impact on all aspects of their daily lives. In a globalized world almost all problems cross borders, and environmental issues have long been recognized as among the most international and the most transnational of all (Parsons, 2009: 5). Climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” by exacerbating existing vulnerabilities, and must be analysed in relation to the adaptive capacity of those affected (individuals, communities and states), taking account of the wider political, socio-economic and demographic context (ACCES, 2011: 9). Although climate change has a global impact, the African continent is likely to be more severely affected than other regions of the globe and it will have a profound negative impact on all facets of human security. Long-term shifts in the climate seem likely to catalyse conflict by creating or exacerbating food, water and energy scarcities, triggering population movements, and placing larger groups of people in competition for more and more limited resources. Increased climate variability, including the greater frequency of extreme weather events, will also complicate access to resources, thereby exacerbating conditions that are conducive to promoting conflict. Southern Africa is described as a predominantly semi-arid region with high intra- seasonal and inter-annual rainfall variability, with extreme events such as droughts and floods occurring frequently. In Southern Africa, there has been an increase in inter-annual variability of rainfall over the past 40 years, with more intense and widespread droughts. Floods and droughts in Southern Africa are gradually increasing in number and frequency as well and already the entire region is considered a climate change "hotspot". As can be seen from the findings of the various chapters, climate change has a very complex predicted impact on all the dimensions of human security and a few major key issues in this regard came to light. These issues include urbanisation, migration, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, water scarcity, spread of diseases, slow onset climate change, economic decline and poverty, criminality and conflict. The most profound issues that will have an impact on South African border integrity and safeguarding include urbanisation, migration, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, water scarcity, spread of diseases, economic decline and poverty, criminality and conflict. Migration can be singularly highlighted as it has the potential to amplify and exacerbate all of the abovementioned issues. States have national security strategies and policies in order to guide policy and legislation to adequately protect the state from threats and to determine national security priorities. Border safeguarding is an important aspect of state security and strategy, policy and legislation, informed by the national security strategy and policy, constantly have to evolve and adapt to changes in the threat pattern affecting states. The border safeguarding environment of any state is very complex and faced with multiple external and international threats. Climate change-related human security threats will further amplify and complicate these threats as the impact of climate change becomes more pronounced in the southern African region. In order for South Africa to successfully address these threats in the border safeguarding environment it is important that a sound National Security Strategy and Policy provide focus and priorities for all government departments involved. This is a very complex field with multiple factors and only the key issues are highlighted and discussed in this paper.

Thesis advisor: Paul Gray / As birds throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa have been infected with an avian influenza, public health experts everywhere are worried that if spread to humans, the world could face a pandemic with proportions similar to the 1918 Spanish influenza. In the past, the federal government has been more concerned with foreign militaries than foreign diseases. But today, the government has devoted over $7.1 billion to preventing a potential pandemic. While much of this goes to research and the production of vaccinations, money is also allocated to strengthen local infrastructures and control the disease in other countries. The fact that the federal government has put so much time and effort to prevent a disease that has affected few humans worldwide, let alone any Americans, points to a growing belief in human security rather than national security. This thesis will evaluate the concept of human security and argue that U.S. action and public opinion regarding the threat of an avian flu pandemic clearly shows decision-making based on human security. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

The question regarding what makes child trafficking persistent in conflict and post-war settings has been subject to intense debate. The human trafficking literature makes general conclusions that trafficking is a by-product of civil wars, and in the process child traffickers exploit the breakdown of the rule of law. As such it is perceived that the governance of the problem of child trafficking can be effective whenever peace and stability is realised and when legal frameworks for protecting children are in place. Prompted by these assertions, I conducted a field study in South Sudan, a country emerging from one of Africa’s longest running and most brutal civil wars fought between the government in Khartoum and Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The Sudan’s civil wars ended after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. Whilst the termination of the war raised expectations that the international anti-trafficking conventions, treaties and customary laws protecting children would have enforcement powers and would guarantee the rights and safety of the child, the peace failed to deliver on these expectations. Based on empirical data obtained through an intensive micro-level qualitative research conducted in South Sudan over three months, the research findings reveal that a number of challenges pose serious difficulties in enforcing international counter-trafficking legislations and child protection instruments. These challenges are compounded by the interplay of the emerging socio-economic and political development in the post-independent South Sudan.

This essay explores the cultural and socio-economic barriers for women’s political representation in Zambian politics as well as the importance of women’s representation for their human security. Due to a Western focus on earlier research, a developing country was chosen in order to investigate any differing perspectives that would emerge. The guiding research problem was why Zambia despite being relatively stable and peaceful still ranked lower in gender equality indexes when compared to their more unstable neighbours.A theoretical model outlined by Nadezhda Shvedova was used to formulate interview questions. The main material used for the study was semi-structured interviews conducted with members of the National Assembly in Lusaka Zambia as part of a Minor Field Study. The results allowed for an expansion of Shvedova’s model with one more category. The main conclusion reached is that all barriers outlined in Shvedova’s model were present in Zambia but that there is a slow but constant progress in eliminating these barriers mainly through political will and representation of women in politics. Suggested continuations of the study are to do a comparative study with a country in the region as well as conducting non-elite interviews and surveys outside the capital city Lusaka.

[Abstract]: Since the 1990s, the discourse of security has undergone profound change. Rather than merely pertaining to a more traditional, narrow interpretation of security primarily focusing on nation-states instead of people, a human dimension, known as human security has been added. While such discussions on human security have attempted to encompass threats to humanity as a whole, interpretations of such threats have largely failed to recognise the exceptional threats faced by women. Although threats found in analytical discussions of human security do relate to women, it is imperative that a sharper focus be placed on the additional threats women face in terms of their security; ones that might become blurred in general discourse, such as economic, educational and employment disparities, gender discrimination, substandard healthcare, restricted access to healthcare facilities, human trafficking and male violence.This dissertation seeks to provide a gendered analysis of human security, using women in China as its focus. To provide a focused examination, it takes a global source of human insecurity, HIV/AIDS, and examines why women in China are increasingly at risk from HIV/AIDS. In addition to assessing the impact that this pandemic poses for their security, it also attempts to investigate the social impacts HIV/AIDS is having on women in China and what measures the government has put in place to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. The extent and nature of the role played by intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in China’s HIV/AIDS epidemic is also explored. This research was prompted by the limited nature of a gendered analysis in the mainstream human security literature, and the need to identify the unique threats to human security faced by women. The realisation that the ‘disempowered status’ of women increases their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and that HIV/AIDS is becoming a major source of insecurity for many women around the world (and in China in particular), provides a relevant focus for such an investigation.

This paper is concerned with the developed area of Kurdistan, the Iraqi Kurdistan, and this paper will try to underline the situation of persons with disabilities living standards in Kurdistan. The research problem concerned with this topic is, what is being done by the different actors who have the power to influence the living standards of persons with disabilities in the region of Kurdistan. The purpose and aims of this paper is to highlight the importance of these living standards for these persons and how they feel they are being treated by the society as whole, both from the society (the people around them), and also the government, authorities and organizations at place for aid and assistance to those people. The main course of this paper has been laid on interviews with official persons from government and associations in Kurdistan. On the authorities and similar side, Salah Yousif Mohammed, the directorate of Disabled Care Duhok has been interviewed, together with Nassrat Mohammed Salem, the director of ZheenHandi Capped Association, Wahid Saeed Chicho, the director of Little People of Kurdistan Association and Khabat Islam Muhamad, Dohuk Program Manager for the Voice of Older People (VOP). These interviews together with interviews with persons with disabilities have laid forward a comprehensive matter of facts at hand to study. Social Constructivism, Human Security and Disability have been chosen as theoretical framework of this paper to help for better understanding of the purpose of this paper. Both Social Constructivism and Human Security help to define and better understand the concept of Disability in Kurdistan. The Social Model of Disability in Sweden has also been included in Disability for better understanding of a successful example.