S ecurity We can see that dealing with many o f t h e s e n o n - traditional threats to security require cooperation rather t h a n m i l i t a r y confrontation. Military force may have a role to play in combating terrorism or in enforcing human rights (and even here there is a limit to what force can achieve), but it is difficult to see what force would do to help alleviate poverty, manage migration and refugee movements, and control epidemics. Indeed, in most cases, the use of military force would only make matters worse! Far more effective is to devise strategies that involve inter national cooperation.
Cooperation may be bilateral (i.e. between any two countries), regional, continental, or global. It would all depend on the nature of the threat and the willingness and ability of countries to respond. Cooperative security may also involve a variety of other players, both international and national—international organisations (the UN, the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the IMF etc.), non- governmental organisations (Amnesty International, the Red Cross, private foundations and charities, religious organisations, trade unions, associations, social and development organisations), businesses and corporations, and great personalities (e.g.
Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela). Cooperative security may involve the use of force as a last resort. The international community may have to sanction the use of force to deal with governments that kill their own people or ignore the misery of their populations who are devastated by poverty, disease and catastrophe. It may have to agree to the use of violence against international terrorists and those who harbour them.
Non-traditional security is much better when the use of force is sanctioned and applied collectively by the international community rather than when an individual country decides to use force on its own.