Dr. Norman Cook
Visiting Scholar
Nagoya University Graduate School for International Development.

A Human Security based agenda for International Development

Summary;

"The presentation will examine some of the assumptions in the post 9-11 international context in which the sudden accelerated re-ordering of the security programs of already weakening nations states has come to dominate an international agenda for development cooperation at the expense of both previous commitments to poverty reduction and an effective rights based approach to governance. The failure of states both industrialised and on the path of development as well as many of the international institutions or non-governmentals who represent them to establish or implement an
appropriate definition of human security that is both multi-faceted and integrative and that seeks to strike a balance between individual and collective rights against the rights of states and dominant political classes has exacerbated and prolonged a number of regional and sub-regional conflicts. Current security driven patterns of ODA flows and many of the on-going programs of major donors may be reinforcing this trend and reflect an inability to integrate issues in state security, individual and collective security and longer term development objectives."