Science, security and sustainability: Global interdependency, diplomacy and research policy

JOSEPHINE ANNE STEIN, UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON, UK
The 21st century is characterised by increasing global interdependency and global insecurity brought about by a combination of certain impacts of the networked political economy and the “collision of civilisations”. Insecurity emerges as much from societal changes related to scientific and technological developments as to new types of vulnerabilities to human aggression. This paper analyses how science and technology can be enlisted to promote global security, particularly through policies designed to address both human and technological aspects of sustainable development. It derives from European Union experience of security building strategies based on cooperation, including in research, and critically appraises more recent moves towards the Europeanisation of more traditional approaches to maintaining security associated with the nation state, such as military capacity and border control. The argument is made that such traditional approaches are increasingly irrelevant in an age in which the mobility of people, ideas, trade in both goods and services, finance, and production have made territorial defence superfluous. The paper identifies structural, thematic and diplomatic approaches that could be used to enhance global security through research cooperation for common objectives related to sustainability.
Keywords: Science; Technology; Security; Sustainability; Cohesion; Policy; Globalisation.

Comments

Add a comment

mood_bad
  • No comments yet.
  • Add a comment