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This major report was the result of an 18-month long research project examining the various threats to global security, and sustainable responses to those threats. Read more »

Have we missed an important news story, article or report? Would you like to contribute something to the site? If so, please use the form below or email us at .

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Current approaches to national and international security are dominated by the ‘control paradigm’: an approach based on the premise that insecurity can be controlled through military force or balance of power politics and containment, thus maintaining the status quo. The most obvious recent example of this approach has been the so-called ‘war on terror’, which essentially aims to ‘keep the lid’ on terrorism and insecurity, without addressing the root causes. Oxford Research Group (ORG) argues that such approaches to security are deeply flawed and are distracting the world’s politicians from developing realistic and sustainable solutions to the new threats facing the world in the 21st century.

An alternative approach is needed: that of ‘sustainable security’. The central premise of sustainable security is that we cannot successfully control all the consequences of insecurity, but must work to resolve the causes. In other words, ‘fighting the symptoms’ will not work, we must instead ‘cure the disease’. Such a framework must be based on an integrated analysis of security threats and a preventative approach to responses.

Sustainable security focuses on the interconnected, long-term drivers of insecurity, including:

• Climate change: Loss of infrastructure, resource scarcity and the mass displacement of peoples, leading to civil unrest, intercommunal violence and international instability.  
• Competition over resources: Competition for increasingly scarce resources – including food, water and energy – especially from unstable parts of the world.
• Marginalisation of the majority world: Increasing socio-economic divisions and the political, economic and cultural marginalisation of the vast majority of the world’s population.
• Global militarisation: The increased use of military force as a security measure and the further spread of military technologies (including CBRN weapons).

Sustainable security makes a distinction between these trends and other security threats, which might instead be considered symptoms of the underlying causes and tend to be more localised and immediate (for example terrorism or organised crime). It promotes a comprehensive, systemic approach, taking into account the interaction of different trends which are generally analysed in isolation by others. It also places particular attention on how the current behaviour of international actors and western governments is contributing to, rather than reducing, insecurity.

Sustainable security goes beyond analysis of threats to the development of a framework for new security policies. It takes global justice and equity as the key requirements of any sustainable response, together with progress towards reform of the global systems of trade, aid and debt relief; a rapid move away from carbon-based economies; bold, visible and substantial steps towards nuclear disarmament (and the control of biological and chemical weapons); and a shift in defence spending to focus on the non-military elements of security. This takes into account the underlying structural problems in national and international systems, and the institutional changes that are needed to develop and implement effective solutions.
 
By aiming to cooperatively resolve the root causes of threats using the most effective means available, sustainable security is inherently preventative in that it addresses the likely causes of conflict and instability well before the ill-effects are felt.

The sustainable security framework is being developed and promoted by Oxford Research Group. Please read the About page for more information.

Contributing an Article

We are always on the lookout for new authors with new perspectives to add to the debate on the blog – especially if you think we’ve missed something!

We aim to address a wide range of evident and emerging security issues and take a broad and integrated approach to the term ‘security’. Generally, we look for insightful pieces which seek to explore, question and suggest solutions for ongoing security situations and the underlying issues which drive them. While we do place an emphasis on our ‘key’ drivers (climate change, marginalisation, competition over resources and militarisation), contributors should not feel limited to these subjects alone.

Please note that, as a nonprofit blog that serves as a resource for interested readers, sustainablesecurity.org does not have the resources to pay contributors.

If you are interested in contributing an article, please get in touch with us using the form to the right.

Guidelines

• 1,400 words max.
• Please fact-check your article, especially if the subject is controversial or emerging . Although we check submissions carefully, authors are ultimately responsible for the factual accuracy of their contributions.
• We do not use footnotes or endnotes. Embedded links for information that is sourced from other websites are a great opportunity to support your argument and opinions, especially for subjects that are not common knowledge. Please be sure to include a hyperlink for specific statistics and quotations.
• Spelling: UK or US English – we don’t mind which, as long as it is used consistently throughout your article.
• Please avoid unnecessary jargon and explain any that is used in a clear and concise manner.
• You are welcome to cross-post your article in other places if we are accredited as the original site of publication.
• We do not reprint pieces published elsewhere (with the exception of Sustainable Security programme staff articles that have been featured in the media).

Would you like to contribute a video?

Our readers would love it if you did! Sustainablesecurity.org deals with an often complex interplay of difficult subjects.  We are therefore very interested in presenting analysis of these issues in a range of media for those who wish to interact in different ways with our content.

If you are interested and have the means to produce a video, get in touch with us using the form above with ‘VIDEO’ in the subject line. Thanks!

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SusSec Team

National Security and the Paradox of Sustainable Energy Systems  | Phillip Bruner

Causes of Conflict: A Strategic Perspective on US-Sino Relations in the Caribbean | Serena Joseph-Harris

The Global Land Rush: Catalyst for Resource-Driven Conflict? | Michael Kugelman

The Climate Security Council? | Joe Thwaites

Conflict, Poverty and Marginalisation: The case of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó (Urabá, Colombia) | Amira Armenta

Assessing the Security Challenges of Climate Change | Obayedul Hoque Patwary

Human Security and Marginalisation: A Case of Pastoralists in the Mandera Triangle | Abdul Ebrahim Haro

How the Competing Security Needs of Caribbean Community Members have Crystallized Through Multilateralism and Consensual Decision-Making | Serena Joseph-Harris

Mano Dura: Gang Suppression in El Salvador | Sonja Wolf, Univesidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Hot and Cold Wars | James Lee

Environment, Energy, Economy: A Threefold Challenge to Sustainable Security | Phillip Bruner

Arma Virumque Cano: Capital, Poverty and Violence | I R Gibson

Perpetuating Uncertainty: Trident and the Strategic Defence and Security Review | Tim Street

Climate Funding: Creating a Climate for Conflict? Insights from Nepal | Janani Vivekananda

Military Aviation and the Environment: Why the Military should care | Ian Shields

The Other Resource Wars | Roger Howard

A Spoon Full of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down? An analysis of the Obama administration’s ‘new’ National Space Policy | Jo-Anne Gilbert

Why START is only a beginning on the long road to nuclear disarmament | Andrew Futter

The UK and the NPT: Rhetoric, simulations and reality | Tim Street

A New Approach to Ballistic Missile Defence in Europe? Demystifying the End of the ‘Third Site’ | Andrew Futter

Climate Change, Conflict and Fragility: Understanding the Linkages, Shaping Balanced Responses | Janani Vivekananda

Swimming Upstream to Sustainable Security | John Sloboda