Reassessing Security Studies: Incorporating Food, Health, and Gender

This essay explores the evolution of security studies and argues for a broadened agenda that includes issues such as food security, population migration, poverty, health security, and the concerns and security of women. It traces the development of security studies from a state-centric focus on military threats to a more comprehensive understanding that incorporates environmental concerns, food shortages, and global health issues. The essay highlights the interconnectedness of these challenges, emphasizing that poverty, disease, and environmental degradation can pose significant threats to national and global security. It also addresses the importance of considering gender perspectives in security studies, arguing that women's experiences and needs are often overlooked in traditional security frameworks. The paper concludes by advocating for a more holistic and inclusive approach to security studies that recognizes the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary security threats.

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Security Studies
Introduction
Security matters. It is almost impossible to make real sense out of a word deeply
enthroned on politics without referring to security. A body in power either in a monarch,
dictatorship or democracy has to provide security lest it fails. Every single day, people in
different regions in the world are starved, killed, impoverished, tortured, raped, displaced, denied
education, imprisoned all in the name of security. The concept of security in this case saturates
the contemporary society globally by littering the speeches of pundits and politicians, radio
waves, and newspaper columns that are full of it as well as the images of insecurity that flash
across the internet and television screens constantly. All these factors have accorded security a
fascinating, deadly, and important subject in academia. To many, security is viewed as a symbol
of protection from the emanating threats posed by hunger, disease, crime, unemployment,
political repression, social conflicts, and environmental hazards. However, the concept of
security remains a pillar that is widely contested through a logomachy that has given rise to
different schools of thought that empathize on differing nuances. In this paper, I will address the
extent to which the agenda of security studies needs to be widened and the rationale behind the
need to include issues such as food security, population migration, poverty, health security, and
the concerns and security of women in this broader picture.
Background
Security studies have over the past decades grown out of debate especially over the
measures that need to be deployed to protect the state against internal and external threats
following the aftermaths of the Second World War. Security has in this case turned out as a
watchword by distinguishing security studies from the early thinking on this discipline and

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military history, as it evolves, thus serving as a linking concept that connects a diverse set of
research studies. Referring back to the last sixty years of research on matters international
security, the first proverbial question remains in defining the elements that make up this sub-field
in an effort to comprehend the boundary zones that lie between it and other adjacent disciplines.
According to Magyar & Air University (2001), security is stipulated simply as the study of
diplomacy and war as confined primarily to a state-centric analysis. Biersteker (2014) therefore
considers the state as central in the discourse on security studies. This consequently denotes the
need to undermine the neo-realist assumptions in an effort to argue that security studies is more
than the mere balance and control of military powers and forces. However, the ideologies that
security should be defined from the perspective of safety found within a state are primarily born
from the anarchic life and the Hobbesian idea.
Security has been a subject of study for as long as the existence of human societies. As
studies from the world’s etymology reveal, security means different things to people depending
on the place of human history and time. According to Abrahamsen & Williams (2011), the field
has over time enjoyed a golden age since 1950 when the civil strategists benefited widely from
closer connections with the Western regimes and governments as well as other foreign security
policies. During this period, the Western governments relied on conceptual innovations,
academic institutions, practical proposals, hard research, and other willing recruits in establishing
security policies.
Until the 1980s, the aspect of strategic studies was viewed as a discipline primarily
responsible in the study of security matters, an aspect that reduced the element of military affairs
in this discipline. Since this period, security studies have turned out to be particular globally, an
aspect that is attributed to the widespread labels that intricate the discipline as responsible for

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studies on security (Ingwe, 2014). Such turns were to a larger extent informed by the critical
approach in which classical paradigms were questioned and new approaches of thinking on
security matters advanced. Underlying in these majorities of new methods lays the idea that
security remains a mere technical aspect that should not only be left for experts to discourse, but
deeply embedded in practice and that requires a careful look.
From 1980 onwards, especially in relation to the period that followed after the
culmination of the Cold War, studies on security started to broaden their agenda in an effort to
include issues that were previously considered as out of reach such as terrorism, migration,
environment, food security, health security, poverty, and the concerns of women in its broader
picture (Ingwe, 2014). At this same time, studies on Peace and Conflicts shifted their focus to
include emergent ethnic conflicts as well as other new conflicts emanating from the environment
and globalization as its parts. Curiously, the broadening of the agenda of security studies to
different areas has furthered the studies on security studies.
Environmental Security Concerns and its Reasons
Environmental security in the twenty-first century has taken on a new meaning as an
approach aimed at gaining sustainability and the protection of natural resources: an aspect that is
currently essential in foreign policy and national security. During the post-Cold War epoch, the
national security committees treated environmental security with contempt, considering it as a
domain related with the contaminations caused by military activities thus posing a threat to the
economic and human health from improperly maintained pollution resulting from industries and
nuclear weapons (Elliott, 2015). Throughout this period, the focus of environmental security was
directed on the use of ozone-depletes of substances and the manner in which this cross-border
contaminations issues that include water and air pollution may be addressed

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The world is accustomed to the thought that national security threats are event-driven by
attacks. During the period of the Cold War, there were imminent nuclear strikes that were
considered as a threat to the security of nations. However, recently, several terroristic attacks
have gained prominence, thus pointing to the fact that event threats are currently driving
preparations within the national security community. Currently, it is evident that there are
slower-onsets of other threats as well, with climate change being one (Katsos, 2018). Climate
change has therefore turned out as a threat to the stability of different economies given that these
changes have resulted in flooding as well as water shortages and the deplete of other natural
resources that have long term challenges.
A look into different maps reveals the growing scarcity of water sources and shortages of
resources, thus raising the realization of the depleting aquifers as well as glaciers in major
regions of the world such as the Himalayas that is melting at a faster rate while populations are
increasing. A global picture of these happenings therefore remains significant for the national
security community (Katsos, 2018). This therefore denotes the need for a growing appreciation
that is required for resilience especially in the establishment of social capital and infrastructures
for communities in an effort to withstand events and environmental disasters. Advancements in
social and behavioral sciences would in this case help in integrating dynamic processes of
addressing matters environmental security.
Food Security Concerns
The global food security issues remains an aspect that is straightforward given the fact
that by 2050, the world may need to feed close to 9 billion people. It is evident that the demand
for food will rise to 60% as opposed to the current level, thus sensitizing on the need to end
hunger in an effort to achieve food security and improve on the nutrition of the world: efforts

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that lie on the need to promote sustainable agriculture as evident in the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) (Schmitz, Kennedy, & Schmitz, 2016).In order to achieve this objective, there are
a host of issues that need to be addressed such as the ageing demographics, gender parity and
global warming to the development of effective skills.
Agricultural sectors, therefore, need to become productive through the adoption of
effective business models while on the other hand forging partnerships from the public-private
sector. On the other hand, there is a need to achieve sustainability by mainly addressing matters
related to greenhouse gas emissions, waste and water control, hunger, malnutrition, and conflicts
(Schmitz, Kennedy, & Schmitz, 2015). This is evident in the fact that everyone needs food in as
much as there are complexities in the delivery of sufficient food to meet the needs of a national
population as well as the whole world’s populace; thus revealing the rationale behind the demand
to make food security a priority for all nations whether developed or developing.
Poverty Security
Security as established in this paper has immensely played a significant role in
comprehending the element of poverty. Earlier studies revealed that poverty among the peasants
mainly focused on food security by studying the strategies inculcated by families, individuals,
and communities in ensuring their food security, efforts aimed at minimizing the risks emanating
from starvation. However, it is essential to note that the conjuncture that resulted in the rise of
discourses on the events of 9/11 and global poverty shifted discussions on the inclusion of
poverty as a security issue. Global poverty, also considered as poverty of the global South has
therefore been conceptualized as a national security issue or threat by defense experts and
intellectuals (Eadie, 2010). It is however interesting to consider that the conception of security

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underwent several changes before the events of 9/11, a move that increased the idea of poverty
as a means to achieve human security.
Illegal immigration, globalized health pandemics, drug smuggling, armed conflicts,
religious fundamentalism, radical politicization, and ecological degradation have therefore been
connected to the aspect of global poverty. In this regard, it is arguable that there are connections
between poverty and security given the long genealogy that is to a larger extent ignored in the
formulation of this problem (Eadie, 2010). This is supported by the fact that poverty is a problem
of security that is crystalized in the discourses on human security that arose in 2011, thus
pointing to the fact that this may not be treated only as a tragic event. Human security remains an
aspect that is widely affected by several forces, with poverty considered as one of the aspects
that threatens the sustainability of humans.
In this regard, if poverty is viewed as a security concern or threat by the security
community, then there is a need for effective measures driven towards combating it that are
different from measures that need to be deployed in the event that poverty is comprehended as a
issue of human basic needs and development (Eadie, 2010). On the other hand, if poverty is
viewed through a depoliticized point of view through the combination of its prospects with the
discourses on human security, there it is evident that there are few interventions into such
discourses that would make a difference in the lives of the poor. This established the need for
repealed thoughts in the formulation of policy interventions that are desirable and feasible in
addressing this security issue.
Health Security
Over the recent years, health security has acquired international recognition as security
issue. Global health matters have over time arisen, an aspect that is owed to globalization,

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contemporary conflicts, climate changes, augmented mobility of populations, emerging
infections illnesses, and bioterrorism that not only pose threats to the security of a nation but to
the global scale security as well (Herington, 2016). The emanating probable risks posed by
different epidemics, with precision to endemics are viewed as threats to the national security of
different states, and as such, have found recognition in the strategies established to address
matters of national security (Osterholm, 2017). The aspect of health security has therefore turned
out to be a heated debate over the past few years in political discourse as well as academia. In as
much as there is not a single universally accepted term that defines health security, different
literatures argue that this notion is profoundly linked to the toll in the blowout of infectious
illnesses that threaten not only individual populations but the society in its entirety, with this
hedged on the manner in which pathogenic microbes may be utilized as weapons of a biological
nature in addressing this issue.
Facts from literature also reveal that certain illnesses such as HIV/AIDS have the
capacity to impose economic, social, political, and military implications on a nation. This may
jeopardize the security and stability of a region or country, supporting the fact that health is a
major security concern. In as much as populations of people residing in developed economies
consider that terrorism in this age is the principal threat to the security of a nation, facts adduced
from literatures reveal that diseases are the main causes of 90% of all the deaths occurring
worldwide (World Health Organization, 2013). Evidence accrued from the World Health
Organization reveals that in 2010, over 22 million people died from infectious illnesses, with one
of the threats to the security of humanity being HIV/AIDS which has claimed the lives of more
than 1.5 million in 2013. According to data retrieved from the World Bank, the first time AIDS
was registered, more than 65 million individuals were infected (World Bank, 2013). Currently,

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reports from the World Bank reveal that there are 35 million more infections with the virus.
AIDS is not only considered as the foremost root of demises in Africa now, but has a casualty
rate that is 10 times higher than that of any armed conflict, an aspect that has led to profound
consequences on the health of families while on the other hand effecting social cohesion,
education, and the security system of several nations.
Women Security Concerns
Violence against still remains an endemic aspect in several nations amidst the climate of
state inaction and impunity. Dysfunctional criminal justice systems and discriminatory
legislative measures have with minimal efforts made strides in addressing this security concern
given the fact that it affects the welfare of women who are targeted by several violent extremists
with an agenda of gender repression (Hudson, Ballif-Spanvill, Caprioli, & Emmett, 2017). The
government therefore needs to make an international commitment and constitutional obligation
under several conventions in eliminating all the forms of discrimination against this gender,
efforts that need to be directed towards removing the barriers that hinder the empowerment of
women. This may be achieved by repealing the discriminatory legislations through the
enforcement of laws that have the capacity to protect women and guarantee them of their
security.
Critical Appraisal
Several schools of thoughts have however questioned the analytical appropriateness and
operational utility of linking environmental, food security, health security, poverty, and the
concerns of women with security, raising arguments on these lines. First, these elements are
considered as a threat to the well-being of humans, thus making them different from the threats
posed by insecurity. Secondly, the inclusion of these elements in the broader picture of security

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renders the aspect of security as useless since they are viewed as tactics for the developed nations
to impose their principles and values on the developing economies in an effort to infringe on
their sovereignty, views that are merely hedged on allegations and not facts.
Conclusion
In an effort to divorce facts from half-truths, this study has revealed that the concept of
security in this case saturates the contemporary society globally by littering the speeches of
pundits and politicians, radio waves, and newspaper columns that are full of it as well as the
images of insecurity that flash across the internet and television screens constantly. The agenda
of security studies therefore needs to be widened to include issues such as population migrations,
food security, poverty, environment, health security, and the concerns and security of women in
the broader picture.

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