Prevention of Conflicts for Sustainable Development and Human Security

“Security is a prerequisite for development,” as it is stated in the European Security Strategy (2003). Regional conflicts, spreading of small arms, organised crime and terrorism pose a threat to governments’ and in particular individual’s security and sustainable development. At the same time, they are obstacles to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. In order for the EU to efficiently prevent threats, which affect European security as well, it should act for solving the root causes of the threats, including poverty, bad governance and inequality. This means promoting human security which can be done especially with the help of development policy and civilian crisis management as well as by taking into account development policy perspective in European security and defence policy. Human security means individual’s freedom from basic insecurity and violations of human rights. Shortsighted pursue of one’s own interests does not promote sustainable security. Human security is today’s practical politics.

GROWING MILITARY EXPENSES DO NOT SOLVE PROBLEMS

At the moment, some 20 protracted wars or armed conflicts are under way. Most of these wars are civil wars in developing countries. In these countries, organised crime, drug trafficking and arms trade also rule societies’ life. Studies show that a country with a GDP per capita of US$ 250 has the probability of 15 % to get into a war. Whereas a country with GDP per capita of US$ 5000 the probability is less than 1 %. The problems evoked by the conflict cycle harm mainly the poor civilians of the developing countries, especially women and children. Along with the war on terrorism, the world’s military expenses have risen almost at the level of the Cold War’s top years. In 2004, a record-breaking 1000 billion dollars were spent on military expenses. However, the experiences from past conflicts show that new threats cannot be prevented with arms. Especially in action against terrorism, development policy and promotion of human rights and constitutional state are of primary importance. The European Union has to take into consideration that the additional clauses on actions against terrorism, which have been added in partnership agreements with Third World countries, are always subordinate to the actual development cooperation actions.

EU’S EXISTING RULES DO NOT PREVENT ARMS TRADE TO CONFLICT AREAS

Different small arms kill half a million people every year. Asian, African and Latin American countries spend 22 billion US dollars on military expenses. The EU is the third largest exporter of arms. In the years 1994-2001, The EU exported small arms worth 10 billion dollars to developing countries. So far, arms trade falls within national competence but the EU has established a common code of conduct of arms trade. However, these rules are mere recommendations and have not succeeded in preventing arms trade to conflict areas and to countries violating human rights. The “Guns or Growth” report (2004) produced by leading human rights and development organisations shows that most governments do not consult the ministry in charge of the development cooperation when permitting arms trade even if, in many cases, the arms are exported to the same country that government allocates development aid in. Especially, small arms trade to regions in developing countries that are susceptible to conflicts burns resources that should be allocated to development, education and health care. The European Union has politically committed to conflict prevention in its Security Strategy. Restricting arms trade to conflict areas, developing countries and countries violating human rights and weak states would be concrete conflict prevention. In this respect, the positive stance, which the EU took towards the basic principles of the global Arms Trade Treaty in autumn of 2005, is important. The Security Strategy of the European Union creates an image of a global actor that promotes peace and security and tries to prevent armed conflicts by means of policy. In practice, a part of the EU security and defence policy actions do not promote sustainable development or human security. The EU must advance comprehensive development programmes that take into account all policy sectors and possibilities to prevent conflicts. In addition, the cooperation between the EU institutions should be developed so that short-term crisis management, which is implemented under European security and defence policy and falls within the competence of the Member States, can smoothly be followed by a long-term reconstruction of which the Commission is mainly in charge.