(pdf) The growing threat of global poverty
Added on 2021-04-24
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Running head: THE SECURITY THREATS OF GLOBAL POVERTYIntroductionThe world has advanced itself with new technological innovations and social change.However, the most serious concern in today’s world remains to be the problem of poverty inmany countries. The debate of poverty as a threat to the global security have been going onfor decades but a solution is yet to be found for it. The fact that comes to question is ifpoverty is a global security threat, then to whom is it is threat and under what situations can itbe called as a threat. Global security threat is referred to as the actions that intend to harm thesafety of a nation or cause suffering to its people and could extend outside it perimeter (Kay2015). Hence, it is important to understand whether poverty does harm the safety of thenation and whether there are possibilities of it possessing a much greater threat to the globalsecurity. The essay will clarify on the prospect of poverty being a global security threat. Itwill also discuss the different theories that deals with poverty. The further paragraphs willdescribe the various circumstances in which poverty is a security threat and followed by aconclusion. Poverty as a security threatIt can be said that poverty is a security threat because where there is no satisfactionthere is no happiness and where there is no happiness there is no peace and rest. Poverty isroot of conflicts in a country and is often described as the condition of certain individualswho do not have access to sources of income and are deprived of the necessary humanrequirements such as food, shelter and water. Poverty is of two types, absolute or relativepoverty (Hagenaars 2014). Absolute poverty is the kind of poverty where the individual hasabsolutely no access to any monetary income and is obstructed from any basic necessity(Saito et al. 2014). On the other hand, relative poverty is derived by comparing individuals toother members of the society (Hagenaars 2014). If an individual is present below the set basicliving standard, then they are said to be living in poverty (Ravallion 2017). Poverty has many
1THE SECURITY THREATS OF GLOBAL POVERTYimplications which are health-related as well as possess a threat to the security of the nation(Snarr and Snarr 2016). Theoretical aspects of povertyPoverty also takes into account certain theories of international relations likeliberalism, realism and constructivism to explain its existence in the nation. Liberalism statesthat it is possible to eradicate conflict and threat with the assistance of the government(Baylis, Smith and Owens 2017). Realism states that the structure of industrialisation andreality has to change to remove poverty from nations (Guzzini 2013). Whereas,constructivism says that if individuals and government shift their ideologies towards poverty,rather than depend on tangible sources, then they can work towards the betterment of the poorpeople (Adler 2013).Taking into account the above-mentioned theories it can be said that, liberalism explains theproblems of poverty as a global security threat. Liberalism states that the government willtake the responsibility of protecting the people from getting harmed by others, but it can alsobe realised that the government in itself can be a threat for the liberty of the people (Weiler2016). The theory says it is the job of the government to remove those obstacles that can stopthe people from living a complete and fulfilling life. Liberals believe in the fact thatcollaboration with the governing bodies of different nations can help in the reduction ofsecurity threats for different nations. Liberals view poverty as an ever-growing aspect due tobeing ignored by the government (Best 2013). They are often treated as outcasts and ignored,as they cannot contribute to the economy of a nation (Hickey and Du Toit 2013). Therefore,liberals emphasise that the government should look after the people in poverty to reduce theglobal security threat that it possesses (Dean 2013). Monetary help could be taken from other
2THE SECURITY THREATS OF GLOBAL POVERTYnations, and collectively the government can help the poor by initiating different programsthat can help them to elevate the poor in the society. Circumstances of poverty as a security threat Poverty can lead to threat for the security of the nation in different circumstancessuch as spreading of infectious diseases, degrading of the environment, criminal activitiesnational and internationally, drug rings, distribution chains of arms and weapons for thedestruction of mass, human trafficking and even terrorism. The first and foremost thing that isaffected by poverty is the emergence of diseases which may be fatal to the human health(Ngonghala et al. 2014). When huge volume of people is absence from better sanitation andinfrastructure in many crowding areas create its danger intern of any major outbreak that mayor has transpire. For example, the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 begin in the poor communities inWest Africa. This disease outbreak was one of the fastest and the hardest to control amongall other contagious diseases creating dismay among constituents of those nations of gettinginfected from this disease. Due to lack of proper medical and public health system the diseasewas harder to contain and they started spreading like wildfire and even penetrated the elitecommunity people due to its contagious nature (Chan 2014). Ebola can be cured graduallywith good supportive care, but this becomes impossible for the people of the poorcommunities and hence leads to death of many infected individuals (Fowler et al. 2014).Although the Ebola crisis was in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and SierraLeone, but fear arose around the world when the first case of Ebola was discovered in Nigeriaat the airport. Therefore, it became a global security threat as people worry that travellersfrom that part of the world entering in big cities could potentially spread the diseases globallyand could cause many death (Chan 2014). On the other hand, if this Ebola epidemic tookplace in the Western World for example, it could have been contained in short period of time
3THE SECURITY THREATS OF GLOBAL POVERTYand fewer death, but due to the high level of poverty present in those countries thing whenout of control. Poverty is one of the most common reason for global conflict and security problems.Poverty acts as a substance to the emergence of civil wars and various conflicts in everynation (Cederman, Gleditsch and Buhaug 2013). Poverty can create conflicts in nations andcan lead to wars especially poor one usually due to the lack of opportunity within a country.Thus, wars usually occur in those poor countries which in the end put extreme pressure onneighbouring countries and the rest of the world to rescue its citizens (Nelson-Pallmeyer2017). Some of these refugees could be terrorists or criminals but no ways for nations takingrefugees to distinguish such people from the others and also put burdens on those countrieseconomy (Holmes 2015). Thus, the entry of such refugees could cause serious threat to thesecurity of the country. Poverty weakens the government and obstructs its power andauthority thereby making it hard to control the conflicts occurring in the country ("Povertyand conflict - GSDRC" 2018). Poverty is caused due to unemployment in the poor countrieshence providing no source of possible income and even stops them from getting educationand proper knowledge which makes them unable to elevate themselves in the society.Underdeveloped nations are unable to provide proper facilities to their citizens and perhapsdue to poor economy system and weak institution (Lewis 2017). The poor class always existsunder continuous threat and unrest as they have no future to consider and are not paidattention by the other sections of the society and even the government (Gupta 2015).Moreover, political parties often ignore the demands and development needs of the poor asthey do not contribute much to the benefit of the party and are hence excluded from anyprogress of the state or nation (Mulvey 2016). Due to the negligence and the lack ofopportunities among the poor, they tend to build up hatred for political parties and aim todisrupt the peace and harmony of the nation and engage in violent activities (Addison, Bach
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