Gabrian Dora-Maria

Oportunity and Relevance of Threats, Risks and Vulnerabilities

The field of international relations has consistently focused on national security as the

primary objective and interest of all states within the international system. From this

point of view, national security policy is the single most important public policy of any

state. Though national security has been a constant goal of every state, the meaning

of security has greatly evolved throughout history in response to specific historical,

geographical and overall power contexts, from purely military and focused on the

state, to a multitude of actors and dimensions of security.

About Brauch’s chapter internal and external threats have been increasingly

blurred by globalization on the widening beyond the military dimension and the

use of force and its close link to a dynamic of threats, dangers and urgency. The

threat concept as the basis for military planning and legitimating military programs

at least among many NATO countries, has fundamentally changed after 1990.

In security policy and studies ‘threat’ is used as a ‘po-litical term’ and as a ‘scientific

concept’ that remains undefined in many social science dictionaries.

dictionaries. Robertson used the concept ‘threat assessment’ as an analysis of “the

reasons behind an opponent’s armament programmes” that was often made during

the Cold War “on a worst case basis”, where “besides personnel and hardware totals”

the opponent’s strategic doctrine had also to be taken into account.

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Several countries reacted in their national defence white papers and national

strategic documents to the fundamental change in the nature of threats with an

extended security concept that included many new non-military soft security threats

such as: economic vulnerabilities, environmental challenges, political and societal

instabilities (e.g. German Defence White Paper; BMVg 1994: 25–26) pointing to a

“multitude of risk factors of a different nature with widely varying regional

manifestations”.

A threat which we can find in the National Defense Strategy is “the

perpetuation of the frozen conflicts in the Black Sea Region and the instability in

the Western Balkans that generates additional pressures for Romania. Inter‐

ethnical tensions and the regional imbalances in the states situated at the

proximity may lead to the unleash of some regional conflicts.” This means that

the conflicts that emerged in the black sea region, not only affects our country

but it affects NATO as an alliance. Russia was the main focus of the NATO summit

in Warsaw in July 2016 where the allied leaders clarified that “Russia’s recent

activities and policies have reduced stability and security, increased

unpredictability, and changed the security environment.”

While the concepts of threats and challenges are often used synonymously for hard

and soft security dangers, the vulnerability concept has been utilized more widely by

many different policy and scientific communities with different meanings.

According to Webster’s ‘vulnerability’ is “the state or property of being vulnerable”

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where vulnerable refers to: “1. capable of being wounded or physically injured...; 2.

open to criticism or attack...; 3. open to attack or assault by armed forces. ...; 4. in

contract bridge, liable to increase penalties and entitled to increased bonuses”; or

“the quality or state of being vulnerable”. British dictionaries offer additional mean-

ings: “someone who is vulnerable is easily harmed or hurt emotionally, or morally”;

“susceptible to injury, exposed to damage by weapon, criticism, etc.”; as well as:

“open to temptation, censure etc.”; as “unprotected against attack; liable to be hurt or

damaged”.

Wisner distinguished four approaches on social vulnerability: a) demographic; b)

taxonomic; c) situational; and d) contextual or proactive approach. He criticized that

many studies on social vulnerability have devalued local knowledge and coping

capacities and he supported efforts to empower people to reclaim their local

knowledge.

The inability to implement national and European policies further explains there is

lack of development overall and why is it considered an vulnerability. The lack of

proper resources is considered a vulnerability alongisde corruption which affects the

entire system and alters the entire decision-making process and may cause many of

the risks and threats that the state is facing.

As a scientific concept, risk is defined in major encyclopaedias and scientific

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dictionaries in many disciplines, including philosophy, political science, sociology,

psychology, economics and in the geosciences. The term ‘risk’ evolved since the

15th century referring to the financial danger associated with trade. This concept was

primarily used with reference to insurance in economic activities.

In the 1990’s, a new school doubted the existence of objective risks pointing to the

social constructionof risk that influenced risk perceptions and risk-taking

behaviour. Others have criticized risk comparisons because they ignored the societal

risk context. A cultural theory of risks emerged in the UK but the empirical results in

other countries were mixed. In the 1980’s and 1990’s research moved from ‘risk

perception’ to ‘risk communication’ including the role of the media and of the social

amplification of risk. In analysing the failure of risk communication initiatives,

research increasingly has focused on the lack of trust towards policy-makers with

regard to hazardous industrial plants and installations.

The security part of the EU Commission’s “Strategic Objectives” reflected the debate

on reconceptualization of security by shifting the focus from narrow military threats to:

a) non-military security challenges for justice and home affairs (to counter crime,

terrorism, human and drug trafficking); b) natural disasters,environmental and health

risks; c) energy supply crises and vulnerability of traffic and energy infrastructure; and

d) promoting global solidarity with sustainable development.

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These declaratory policy goals of the UN’s Hyogo Declaration and the EU’s Strategic

Objectives reflect both a reconceptualization and a redefinition of security ‘threats’,

‘challenges’, ‘vulnerabilities’ and ‘risks’ with an application to natural hazards.

Addressing the environmental dangers to security requires a complex combination of

strategic instruments and policies to reduce the vulnerability to natural hazards and

the related risks for human beings and affected societal groups. Thus a dual strategy

is needed for dealing with: short-term situational impacts of extreme weather events

and natural hazards; and longer-term structural impacts of global environmental

change. While the global environmental change, the climate change and the hazard

research communities have used different concepts of enviromental, social and

economic vulnerabilities and risks, a conceptual and a policy-oriented mainstreaming

is needed to address both impacts. Three groups of vulnerability and risk indicators

are needed: for both climate change and hydro-meteorological hazards; for specific

hazards (storms, floods, drought), and for temperature increase and sea-level rise.
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Bibliography

1. Romania National Defence Strategy

2. Concepts of Security Threats,Challanges, Vulnerabilities, and

Risks- Hans Gunter Brauch

3. Romania National Security Strategy-a Critical Aproach of

Transformational Politics-Simona Soare