Security Programme - [11/08/2007]

Javier Solana and Mary Kaldor discuss human security in Madrid

Javier Solana and Mary Kaldor debated the European Union's commitment to the doctrine of human security at a seminar held at the Centre for National Defence Studies (CESEDEN). Organised by the CIDOB Foundation and the Centre for the Study of Global Governance (LSE), the seminar was based around the presentation of A European Way of Security, the second report by the Study Group on Human Security.

Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, questioned the idea that it is obligatory for all EU operations to be supervised by a civil operation, given that military commanders can sometimes be suitable for the task, especially when it involves directing both military and mixed operations on the ground. In Solana's opinion, the context in which the EU’s civil and military operations are framed is so ambiguous that it requires a flexible approach to conflict. That is to say, that neither solely theoretical approaches nor purely practical ones can be employed to create a perfect model that can be implemented successfully. Solana, who claimed that any model should be able to move “from theory to practice and from practice to theory”, reaffirmed his commitment to the human security agenda, albeit with several clarifying comments.

The report was presented by Mary Kaldor, Director of the Study Group on Human Security, who urged the EU to define “a suitably European Way to make securityan alternative agenda for dealing with global security issues”. The report presents six basic principles for deploying human security, the main ones being the primacy of human rights, an ascending approach and effective multilateralism. Kaldor claimed that all EU overseas security missions ─ even those involving the use of military force ─ should be under civil control, as this was the best way to achieve improved planning and post-conflict reconstruction.

Meanwhile, the Spanish government expressed its commitment to human security, through interventions by Bernardino León, Secretary of State for Foreign Policy, and Luis M. Cuesta, Secretary General for Defence Policy. León stressed that Spain's commitment to the doctrine of human security had been brought to fruition in “the Alliance of Civilisations and in the defence of multilateralism as essential elements of our foreign policy”. Meanwhile, Luis M. Cuesta highlighted the need to have new mechanisms available and to strengthen cooperation and coordination in order to become more efficient in conflict resolution. On this point, Cuesta added that both Spain’s presence in Afghanistan and the 2005 National Defence Law have sought greater cooperation between military and civil actors, a concept that is one of the pillars of human security.

The seminar also featured an assessment of some of the civil and military missions in which the EU is participating in terms of how far they comply with the principles of the human security doctrine. By way of a conclusion, the Study Group on Human Security proposed that the European Union and its Member States should support a public declaration of commitment to the principles of human security, in addition to adopting these principles as the strategic framework for the development of European Security and Defence Policy missions.

As well as the abovementioned speakers, the seminar also featured participation from Klaus Reinhardt, ex-NATO Commander in Kosovo; Senad Sabovic of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and Denisa Kostovicova, Mary Martin, Kirsten Shulze and Yahia Said, from the LSE (Centre for the Study of Global Governance).

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