Ryerson Christie

Critical Voices and Human Security: To Endure, To Engage or To Critique?

Narratives of human security have been widely adopted and adapted within both academic and policy communities. Despite debates over its meanings and uses, the concept has proven to be remarkably resilient. In particular, there has a been a surprising willingness by critical scholars not only to analyse and critique human security, but also to embrace it as a means of furthering political goals. This article maps the ways in which various strands of critical scholarship in international relations have striven to use human security. It concludes by arguing that human security has lost any true critical potential and has become a new orthodoxy. Thus, while the concept may have value in highlighting particular issues and may enable short-term gains, it is unable to provide the basis for a substantive change of the system of international security.

The Pacification of Soldiering, and the Militarization of Development: Contradictions Inherent in Provincial Reconstruction in Afghanistan

Provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) are a natural outgrowth of the security/development nexus and serve as an institutional response to a perceived need to listen to the new subjects of Northern security: the helpless Southern villager who is suffering from underdevelopment and insecurity. This article, through an analysis of primary interviews, oral histories of PRT workers, and official documents undertakes an examination of the different portrayals of PRTs by contributing states, militaries, the Afghani government, and most importantly, local communities. By exploring the contradictory representations of these new teams and the civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) officers that are at their heart, the logic behind these teams can be explored. This article draws on literatures on militarized masculinities to highlight the contestations over PRT identities to reveal the tensions around the conflation of security and development. In so doing, this article challenges assumptions of local communities as passive subjects of security and development to be fought over, and it highlights the agency of Afghan communities that are too often rendered helpless recipients of aid. Los equipos de reconstrucción provinciales (PRTs, por sus siglas en inglés) son una consecuencia natural del vínculo de seguridad/desarrollo y sirven como una respuesta institucional, a una necesidad aparente de escuchar nuevos temas de seguridad nórdica: el campesino desamparado del sur, que está sufriendo por el subdesarrollo y la inseguridad. Este artículo, a través de un análisis de entrevistas primarias, historias orales de los trabajadores de los PRT y documentos oficiales, realiza un examen de las diferentes descripciones de los PRTs, mediante la contribución de estados, militares, el gobierno de Afganistán y sobretodo, las comunidades locales. Mediante el estudio de las representaciones contradictorias de estos nuevos equipos, y la cooperación de las autoridades civiles-militares (CIMIC, por sus siglas en inglés) que son claves, se puede explorar la lógica detrás de estos equipos. Este artículo se basa en literaturas sobre el machismo militarizado para resaltar las protestas sobre las identidades de los PRT, para revelar las tensiones alrededor de la mezcla de seguridad y desarrollo. De este modo, este artículo desafía las premisas de las comunidades locales, como sujetos pasivos en la lucha por la seguridad y desarrollo y destaca a las comunidades afganas, que frecuentemente son vistas como impotentes recipientes de ayuda. 省级重建团队（PRTs）是安全-发展连结体的自然长成，是对被认为倾听北方安全新主体之需要的一种制度反应：无助的南方村民正遭受不发达和不安全的苦难。本文通过分析原始访谈、PRT工人的口述史以及官方文件，考察了出资国、各国军队、阿富汗政府以及最重要的，地方社区对PRTs的不同描述。通过探讨对这些新团队和作为其中心的军民合作官员所作的相互矛盾的陈述，这些团队背后的逻辑是可以得到揭示的。本文基于有关军事化男子的文献，着重说明围绕PRT认同的争执以表明环绕把安全和发展合成起来而产生的紧张状态。如此这般，本文挑战了地方社区是所奋斗的安全和发展的被动主体这一假定，也着重说明了阿富汗社区常成为孤立无助的援助接受者。 지역 재건팀들(PRTs)은 안보/개발 연계에서 나온 자연적인 산물이고 북반부 보안의 새로운 주체들에 귀를 기울일 필요에 대한 인지에 따른 제도적 반응이다: 저발전과 불안전으로 고통 받고 있는 무기력한 남반부 주민들. 이 논문은 일차적인 인터뷰, 지역재건팀 노동자들의 구술사 그리고 공식 자료의 분석을 통해서 이에 기여하는 국가, 군대, 아프카니스탄 정부와 가장 중요한 지역 커뮤니티가 지역재건팀을 서로 다르게 묘사하는 것을 검토한다. 새로운 팀들과 핵심에 있는 민군 협동(CIMIC) 관리들에 대한 모순적 재현을 분석하여 이들 팀들의 이면에 있는 논리를 탐구한다. 이 논문은 안보와 발전의 융합을 둘러싼 긴장을 드러내어 지역재건팀(PRT)을 둘러싼 갈등을 강조하기 위하여 군사화된 남성성에 대한 문헌을 다룬다. 그것을 통해서 본 논문은 지역 커뮤니티들이 안보와 발전의 수동적 주체라는 가정에 도전하고, 아프카니스탄 지역 커뮤니티 행위자들이 너무 자주 무기력한 피원조라로 다루어진다는 점을 강조한다.

Fearing the knock on the door: critical security studies insights into limited cooperation with disaster management regimes

In seeking to provide for the safety of local communities in the global south, there has been an apparent policy focus on making early warning systems more robust, and improving the operation of disaster management programmes. However, the critical security studies literature has highlighted the ways in which security practices, including those nominally implemented on behalf of local communities can have negative impacts on peoples. Human security literature, in particular, highlights the ways in which the state security apparatus, which is often relied upon to notify and enforce evacuations, may often be perceived as a serious risk to communities. At the same time individuals live within complex security situations where daily threats to peoples’ lives may outweigh geological hazards. Grounded within critical literature on the social construction of risk (Lupton; Beck, Douglas), the ways in which volcanic risk is calculated, communicated, and enacted upon, will be assessed in relation to the local communities’ security dilemmas.Drawing on field work in communities at risk from lahars generated from Cotopaxi in Sangolqui, Ecuador, explores the ways in which competing claims of what constitutes security challenge the operating assumptions in emergency preparedness. In June 2012, 158 primary interviews were undertaken as a part of the EU funded VUELCO project in Ecuador. The findings were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methodologies, drawing most heavily on interpretive methodologies to argue that the scientific representation of volcanic hazards, and the resultant disaster management strategies, do not account for local context. Indeed, the majority of interviewees indicated a lack of trust in either scientific expertise or government representatives, on questions of security. By incorporating a broader narrative of security beyond a narrow focus on natural hazards, disaster preparedness and communication plans can be more effective.

The Role of Laws Within the Governance of Volcanic Risks

The governance of volcanic risks does not take place in a vacuum. In many cultures, volcanic risks are perceived to be susceptible to governance with the objective of achieving their effective mitigation, and have become the responsibility of the institutions and stakeholders of relevant social communities. An array of international, national and local laws dictate governance infrastructures, the roles of duty holders and beneficiaries and the relationships between them (the stakeholders), duties and rights (the stakes) and acceptable standards of safety and wellbeing (the ultimate rewards). Many regional, national and local stakeholders (individuals and entities) have a range of different, yet complementary, roles, duties, rights and powers. Much of this chapter, which has two main sections, represents a summary of a longer paper (Bretton et al. 2015) that addresses legal aspects of the future governance of volcanic risks. After a general introduction to relevant terminology in the first section, the second section describes the significant threat posed by periods of volcanic unrest. The third section contains a general introduction to the critical concept of risk which lies at the heart of governance and provides a more detailed description of the many roles that national laws play. Reference is also made to international law which has an increasingly important role in the absence of relevant national laws, or when national laws are inadequate, ineffective or unenforced.

Volcanic Unrest Simulation Exercises: Checklists and Guidance Notes

When a volcano emerges from dormancy into a phase of unrest, the civil protection authorities charged with managing societal risks have the unenviable responsibility of making difficult decisions balancing numerous competing societal, political and economic considerations. A volcano that is threatening to erupt requires sound risk assessments incorporating trusted hazard assessments that are timely, relevant and comprehensible. Foreseeable challenges arise when the inevitable uncertainties of hazard assessment and communication meet societal and political demands for certitude. In some regions that host volcanic hazards, it would be both realistic and prudent to adopt three working assumptions. The complex legal and administrative infrastructures of risk governance will be largely untested and possibly inadequate. Many volcano observatory scientists, and probably even more risk managers and at-risk individuals/communities, will have inadequate recent experience of the challenges of hazard communication during a period of unrest. And lastly, the scientists may also have inadequate practical experience of the needs and management capacities of the risk-mitigation decision makers with whom they must communicate. “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice reduces the imperfection.” (Beta 2011). If this statement is correct, volcanic unrest simulation exercises (VUSE) have a vital role to play within the complex processes of volcanic risk governance. Consistent with the broad approach of the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction 2015–30, this chapter argues that practical knowledge of VUSE can and should be analysed and recorded so that key lessons can be shared for the widest possible benefit. This chapter investigates five recent simulation exercises and presents six complementary checklists based upon data, insights and practice pointers derived from those exercises. The use of checklists, supported by guidance notes, is commended as a pragmatic way to create, test and develop acceptable standards of governance practice. It is argued here that well planned and executed simulation exercises are capable of informing and motivating a wide range of risk governance stakeholders. They can identify process and individual shortcomings that can be mitigated. Simulation exercises can and should play a vital role in reducing volcanic risks.

Hazard communication by volcanologists: Part 1 - Framing the case for contextualisation and related quality standards in volcanic hazard assessments

Scientific communication is one of the most challenging aspects of volcanic risk management because the complexities and uncertainties of volcanic unrest make it difficult for scientists to provide information that is timely, relevant, easily comprehensible and trusted. When poorly handled, scientific communication can cause social, economic and political problems, and undermine community confidence in disaster management regimes.This is the first of two related papers that together investigate the interface between the scientific consideration of volcanic hazards and the governance of volcanic risks. Both papers are principally concerned with issues of risk governance, and their focus is hazard communication by volcanologists at this hazard-risk interface (the interface) during periods of volcanic unrest. In this paper, we argue that the working practices of contextualisation must be more methodical and propose four quality assurance standards that will enhance hazard assessments.To improve hazard communication between volcanologists and risk-mitigation decision-makers (decision-makers), we argue that volcanologists need to adopt a more iterative and structured approach that openly embraces the benefits, and confronts the challenges, of stakeholder-orientated ‘contextualisation’.Our analysis of the published literature reveals evidence of a slow paradigm shift from practices based upon strict linear technocratic approaches to more iterative stakeholder participation. The extent of this shift varies in different regions, however, the rules and practices of deliberation often appear ad hoc and unstructured.Since there is currently insufficient guidance for managing the practicalities and standards of contextualisation, we introduce two novel concepts; the ‘scrutiny dimension’ of risk governance, which is the slow changing governance context that may influence the processes of contextualisation, and the dynamic ‘equilibrium of contextualisation’, which is the metastable product of regulatory standards, natural and organisational constraints, and stakeholder pressures.We argue that the working practices of contextualisation must be more structured and should strive to be open, transparent and fully articulated. Contextualisation, which meets proposed quality assurance standards of materiality, proximity, comprehensibility and integrity, will enhance hazard assessments and, thereby, the utility of their outputs. In our second paper (Bretton et al, J Appl. Volcanol. DOI 10.1186/s13617-018-0079-8, 2018), the focus is directed away from the perceived qualities of more ‘socially robust’ hazard assessments towards the actual process of contextualisation.

Hazard communication by volcanologists: part 2 - quality standards for volcanic hazard assessments

Contextualisation is the critical process of interactions between volcanologists and risk governance decision-makers and specifically the tailoring of hazard assessments to ensure they are driven by the needs of decision-makers. Quality assurance standards for the contextualisation of the analysis and communication of volcanic hazards do not formally exist. For volcanologists this governance lacuna creates a foreseeable and avoidable managerial hazard.This is the second of two papers that together investigate the interface between the scientific treatment of volcanic hazards and the governance of volcanic risks. Both papers are principally concerned with issues of risk governance and their focus is hazard communication by volcanologists at this hazard-risk interface (the interface) during periods of volcanic unrest. In our first paper “Hazard communication by volcanologists: Part 1 - Framing the case for contextualisation and related quality standards in volcanic hazard assessments”, (Bretton et al, J Appl. Volcanol. DOI 10.1186/s13617-018-0077-x, 2018) we investigated the perceived qualities of more ‘socially robust’ hazard assessments and argued that the working practices of contextualisation must be more methodical.In this paper, we focus on the actual process of contextualisation and argue that quality assurance standards need to be devised and adopted by volcanologists undertaking hazard assessments that are robust enough to bear legal scrutiny. Such standards are necessary: (1) to facilitate a more structured approach to contextualisation; (2) to preserve the core values of traditional scientific methodologies; (3) to address a working assumption that, in the absence of effective regulation, the ‘equilibrium of contextualisation’ may be unduly influenced by the demands of decision-makers; and (4) to mitigate the managerial risks related to volcanologists assuming responsibility for contextualisation.Our initial literature review reveals the realities of contextualisation in the absence of effective regulation and identifies many of the foreseeable practical challenges historically faced by volcanic hazard assessors. We investigate and characterise these challenges in order to develop quality standards tailored for practical use. In addition, we present new empirical data acquired from a survey of 33 experienced volcanologists, 18 of whom were selected for one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The survey captures a snapshot of working practices and related sentiments that might indicate whether a more structured approach to contextualisation would find favour amongst volcanologists and, if so, what principles of contextualisation would be most acceptable. This evaluation of published evidence and new data permits us to identify seven aspects of volcanic hazard assessments relevant to quality assurance - the methods and status of hazard analyses, and the delivery, content, status, perception and advice content of hazard communications.Our proposed quality standards and related proto-type code of practice together address issues of materiality, comprehensibility, proximity and integrity. They offer the possibility of hazard assessments having greater validity and utility in that they will be framed by reference to the sentiments and actions of their users.

Gender, Humanitarianism and the Military

In contrast to many other areas of military endeavour, the roles of soldiers and their broader institutions in humanitarian action have received relatively little attention within critical scholarship broadly and gender research specifically. Christie explores how the intersection of gender, humanitarianism and militaries has been studied, mapping out the important trends of gender analysis. The relative lack of critical engagement can be explained by a broad acceptance of the aims of humanitarianism by many scholars, and by a tendency to focus a critical gaze on the roles of militaries in other arenas. The chapter argues that some gender analyses of the roles of militaries in humanitarianism, which focus on the plight of women and children in crises, can reproduce and validate the place of militaries.