Network Strategies, Global Security Governance, and Human Security

Abstract

Global governance is a term which to date has largely been a descriptive label applied to the complex, heterogeneous structures of world politics. It can be mapped by examining networks using techniques developed in other disciplines, at different junctures whether geographical, temporal, or issue. Beginning with a discussion of what global governance is, the paper explains the contemporary context of security as an historical bloc with many actors involved in providing it, and with a motivating hegemonic ideal known as human security. Using empirical research examples from a range of human and traditional security provision networks, the paper will assess their network characteristics and connect the theoretical implications of this for their effectiveness in the aspect of global security governance known as peacebuilding, the paper presents some possible effects of network structures. The paper ends with a presents a framework of network strategies to be used for effective global security governance in peacebuilding situations: a dense core group that can quickly scale up and down; a network able to call on local knowledge and mobilize local actors, and centralized record keeping.

Keywords: security, human security, global governance, network analysis, peacebuilding, humanitarian aid