Human Security and Science and Technology

Organized by:

Sponsored by:

The Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs Austria
The Office of the United Nations at Vienna
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Introduction

Otmar Höll, Austrian Institute for International Affairs

The seminar was organized by the Permanent Mission of Chile to the International Organizations in Vienna, and sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Austria, the United Nations Office at Vienna, UNIDO, and IIASA. The meeting took place in the IIASA premises in Laxenburg, near the Austrian capital Vienna.

Chile has been acting as Chair of the Human Security Network, founded in 1999 in Bergen, Norway. The Network meets twice a year at the Foreign Minister level, and provides for an inter-regional platform for reviewing and developing joint policies and various issues related to Human Security.

At the opening of the meeting, in the inaugural panel, the Ambassador of Chile, Mr. Raimundo Gonzalez, the Austrian Foreign Minister, Dr. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, Mr. Pino Arlacchi, the Acting Director of IIASA, Mr. Arne Jernelov, the Director-General of UNIDO, Mr. Carlos Magariños, and Major General Muhammad Shiyyab, representing the President of the Club of Rome, HRH Prince El Hassan welcomed the participants and expressed their strong commitment to the Network's tasks to improve Human Security worldwide.

The speakers pointed out, among other things, that in a globalizing world in which great imbalances between countries and societies still exist, the impact of science and technology for Human Security can be a powerful tool to strengthen and accomplish security for individuals and for people in general. But science and technology have sometimes been misused in the past; technologies for protection were transferred into weapons or were used for military purposes and then brought on mass destruction. It is especially the task of the community of states and public policy to find answers for the new challenges of the 21st century and to bring more order, security, and peace into a highly vulnerable world. In doing so, human rights education and the social and humanistic sciences--which have been often neglected in a compartmentalized scientific landscape-- as well as the use of scientific and technical knowledge for all stakeholders in the South and in the North, must be improved.

Substantive Panel Discussions

Panel 1: "The Concept of Human Security"

In his introductory remarks, Ambassador Raimundo González stressed that science and technology are central to Human Security to cope with natural disasters and that both must contribute more to fight injustice and poverty.

The Slovenian Secretary of State, Ignac Golob pointed to the fact that the list of threats at present is increasing and even individuals are often targeted. Human dignity, prosperity, and development must be integrated into a broad concept of Human Security. The Human Security Network should function as an initiator of innovative ideas, at the same time being more action-oriented and consequently become more visible to the international public.

The head of the UN department in the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Walter Lichem, in his statement, said that public policies must find adequate answers for more demanding civil societies. He pointed to, among other things, the existing relationship between Human Security, human development, and human rights, and said that the partnership between civil societies and international diplomacy must be strengthened. In addition to the basic elements already written down in the UN Charter to work for a peaceful world, in addition to "freedom from fear and freedom from want" and Kofie Anan's "the freedom of future generation to inherit a healthy natural environment," nine main categories build the concept of Human Security. These areas are the economical, financial, food, health-care, environmental, personal (including the gender aspect), community, and political security. "Global governance" as a strategy proposed by the UN can function as a means to reach these goals, but as he stressed, there are no strategies so far to impose "global governance" on the practical level. And he concluded that we have to find proactive strategies to implement global governance structures on institutional levels.

Walter Dorn from the Canadian Ministry of Defence took up these ideas and pointed out that the Canadian Human Security Concept distinguishes seven main categories in line with the above mentioned. He also stressed the necessity to find better ways and means to combine technical and human aspects of science and technology, since technological science must not forget the human consequences. He then asked how sciences could be best used to contribute to construct improved strategies for crisis and conflict management and especially to prevent the outbreak of violent conflicts. Conflicts should be dealt with early, and technologies are already contributing to early warning, peace building, and peacekeeping alike. But, he said, UN Groups are still under-equipped and under-technologized. Concluding, he stressed the necessity that technical progress must be followed by progress in the humanities.

Panel 2: "Science and Technology: Their Contribution to Human Security"

The first speaker, Lord Selborne, representing the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology, spoke first. He quoted Albert Einstein, saying that in a truly civilized world, all people should have at least the chance to participate in science and technology. But, in fact, he said, we have left the people of the Third World far behind, so that many in the South have no access to adequate nutrition or fresh water. Also in industrialized societies, often local people and stakeholders are not integrated in the process of problem solving, and insofar, strategies have often failed. Therefore he proposed to rely more on bottom-up strategies and the frequent usage of "best practice" measures.

The Rector of the Technical University of Vienna, Peter Skalicky then stated that science and technology can bring answers to everyone and to quite a few problems and risks of our modern world. Although the threats and risks of modern societies will be still there, they can be better calculated through science than ever before. He said that he regrets that modern societies would like to take no risk at all, although modern sciences and technology have evidently brought more security for all, taking the increased average life expectancy of people worldwide as an example and as an indicator. But, in concordance with other speakers, he pointed also to the fact that the results of science and technology can be
and have been abused, not in the least by politicians and political decisions.

Vittorio Canuto from the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University showed, by giving three examples, how high technologies and scientific knowledge implemented to strengthen security and diminish risks can lead to ambivalent or even contradictory results. In touching on the fields of space activities, space defenses, and global warming, he convincingly pointed to the discordance between the technological progress and the moral primitiveness of modern societies and the necessity of bridging this gap in the near future. As an example, he pointed to the fact that the more money that was spent on satellite programs for increasing national security through space militarization, the less secure and more vulnerable society becomes because of the danger of an increased overall paralysis from above. The same holds true of increased engagement in anti-ballistic missiles systems, and of abandoning the ABM Treaty of 1972. On technical as well as political grounds, these options might create more problems than solutions. On the other hand, non-reaction to global warming would endanger regions and people, especially in the South more than in Northern industrialized parts of the world, and at the same time aggravate the gap between rich and poor societies.

Panel 3: "Politics of Science and Technology Necessary to Guarantee Human Security"

The Director-General of the Austrian Ministry on Transport, Innovation and Technology, Norbert Rozsenich stressed in his statement that Human Security be universal and could be best insured through preventive strategies. The use of science and technology should always be people-centered. From his point of view, the key factors of Human Security are population, inequity, environment, and poverty, which are closely interrelated. As the world's population constantly grows more and more together, sciences must strengthen inter- and transdisciplinary forms of research. Sustainability and all questions relating to environment and population growth are of prime importance for Human Security.

Enrique D'Etigny, Scientific Adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, mentioned in his contribution the necessity for and prime aim of sciences to understand the laws of Nature. But, apparently, however, new technologies have also brought about more insecurity, especially in the arms and in the environmental fields. Although there exists adequate knowledge worldwide to overcome most of the central global problems, in many cases the local and affected people are not able to use this knowledge, because they cannot afford it, or it is not adequately adapted to different surroundings and different cultural contexts. More investment in education and sciences to overcome the gaps in the ability to absorb and apply knowledge will be necessary to empower people on a basic level.

As the last speaker of the substantive panels, Kurt Komarek from the Austrian Academy of Sciences in his contribution raised the pertinent question whether Human Security can be guaranteed by science and technology. His very clear answer was "No." Science and technology could only try to improve or to increase security, but they cannot guarantee it. Since today's professional scientists do not live in an ivory tower, they must give scientific advice to politicians. However, the factual decisions must then be made by politicians under their own responsibility. In giving scientific and--as far as possible--objective advice to politicians, scientists must be autonomous and not be directed or influenced by politicians, as both sides can only lose, if the advisory process is faulted. He also pointed out that a frequent source of conflict and misunderstanding between science and politics arises because of different time horizons; the fact that science can never give 100% certainty; and, as always, predictions in the future are more than difficult to give. But politicians mostly want immediate advice, 100% certainty, and also reliable data for the future. He especially stressed that there is a strong need for young scientists to interact and to start to interact on international levels, and they should start their work as soon as possible.

In the concluding session that was chaired by Ambassador and former Foreign Minister of Austria, Peter Jankowitsch, the chairman himself, the rapporteur and the panelists drew some conclusions and perspectives, trying to give recommendations to the Human Security Network concerning the many tasks lying ahead of it.

Some Personal Remarks on the Human Security Concept. What Remains?

The concept of Human Security is more or less the "unofficial" follow up of the UN "Summits"--the global conferences of the 1990s, when we realized we were entering a "new world." In spite of the high expectations raised through these conferences, not too much has remained at the top of the international agenda until today. The atrocious attacks of New York and Washington on 11 September may perhaps change this habit of "benign neglect" as the one and only positive result of this human catastrophe. Just think about the frequently used and even stereotypic phrase of Maurice Strong--the main organizer of the UNCED Conference--that structural changes must begin in the 1990s. And the chairwoman of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, stated in the Commission's report "Our Common Future" that measures had to start immediately, or as she then put it, "NOW."

As seen from today, not much has been realized, if we think about the lack of progress on the climate convention and the nonratification of the Kyoto protocol by the US Senate. The Human Security agenda is also, or at least seems to be, the program of those many "concerned" people (scientists, diplomats, and politicians, experts in international civil services, etc.) who have realized, that the more we progress in our industrial and technological societies--the more this world becomes technical or "modern," and at the same time highly complex on many socioeconomic levels--the more vulnerable and dependent it has become.

In our International Relations' language we call these rather new transnational phenomena the field of the "interdependency problems." Individual or even groups of states cannot resolve these effectively, even by cooperating. This means that states (and other actors of the international arenas) must cooperate much more intensively in the future, to cope with ever-increasing common threats and risks, that all countries are facing.

The fact that the International System has become an ever more globalized world[1] cannot be denied any more. And it can not be reversed, because the costs in economical and political terms would be tremendous. That means we have to live with it and try to come to terms with its numerous challenges. As we can see so far and for the foreseeable future, this will mean that we have to deal with more imbalances and contradictions in international relations, and consequently even more responsibility-taking on the part of the North.

11 September 2001--so far as we can draw early results and consequences from the cruel attacks--has brought policy and the states back in as the most important international actors. But the single state, for structural reasons and as a consequence of the continuing process of globalization, has lost at least quite some influence and competences, and that will remain. It is only by cooperation between and among states and their representatives, international organizations, and the "international civil society," that "common politics" can play a stronger role and can limit and restrain the hybrids of the economic dimensions in the International System: we need more global and regional regimes, more order, and therefore we need global governance structures. And we have to recognize that there is no concrete strategy so far to implant the concept of "Human Security" as an adequate answer to growing insecurity problems and fears by the people.

Thus, there is a need for a more structured dialogue. A more visible "process" of discussion must occur first, and global governance structures should be constructed upon it. Similar to the practice in all ecological fields, "end-of-pipe solutions" must be avoided, and more real alternatives--i.e., more proactive measures--must be found (in the sense of "soft" sciences and on the basis of partnership and communicative procedures). These must be integrated into the scientific and political dimensions.

Recommendations/Perspectives: The Human Security Network Should Function as Initiator of Innovative Ideas

The Human Security Network is a kind of a relaunch of other or similar interest networks that existed in previous periods (UN Global Conferences of the 1990s), where most of the interdependence problems (which are at the same time comprehensive security problems) have been important or central issues of the international agenda. This Network should cooperate more closely with other like-minded international networks and interest groups, because it is--openly or latently--also competing with other "networks and interest groups," some of them certainly more influential and powerful, ranging from arms or military networks to more esoteric or exotic ones. It is only my guess--since I am not well enough familiar with the comprehensive agenda of the Human Security Network to give a profound answer--but I have the feeling that closer linkages to those groups in the scientific circles or in the (international) civil society, that deal with important single-policy issues out of the more complex Human Security Concept, like human rights groups, developmental organizations, environmental organizations, etc., might offer meaningful and effective (robust) coalitions in a very competitive international arena. The idea is, to broaden the basis of supporters, like-minded groups, and partners and in doing so, the Human Security Network could become more visible and its proposals more generally accepted.

In short, the groups to approach would include those who generally look more for "root causes", and not quick fixes. Paradoxically, or consequently, after 11 September the stakes seem to be easier to grasp than before; the network should wisely but consequently make use of this fact. Time is pressing.

Notes

[1] A world in which almost everything relates to everything, or as Robert Keohane/Joseph Nye put it, a world in the state of "complex interdependence," in: Power & Interdependence, New York, 1977.

arunrung 3/45 Chairman's summary