Covid 19 shows that Australia’s security means a lot more than military preparedness

The scope of national security policy needs to transcend traditional defence and law enforcement models by comprehending climate change, human security against pandemics, environmental (and soil) degradation, food security, water shortages and refugee flows

In times of coronavirus and climate change, we must rethink national security, Guardian, Allan Behm, Mon 20 Apr 2020

We are facing existential threats to human security that are not amenable to solution by military forces.

The catastrophic summer bushfires incinerated the livelihoods and the lifestyles of so many Australians who live along our coastal fringe. And while the landscape is recovering, albeit slowly, their circumstances are not. Indeed, the arrival of the pandemic has smashed their personal and economic security even further. The hit to the national economy from the combined events will be comparable to that of the second world war, the debt taking decades to run down.

Australia has not been at war. We have not been attacked by an enemy using armed force to subject the nation to its will. Yes, some troops were called out in an act of political theatre, and the navy put to sea, but not a shot was fired, nor a bombing sortie flown. Yet millions of Australians are significantly less secure now than they were six months ago. And if our citizens are not secure, how can the nation be secure? This is not just a local phenomenon. People around the world no longer feel safe. Nor are they confident that their governments can keep them safe. For the individual citizen, security now has more to do with managing a global pandemic, mitigating and adapting to climate change, preserving clean water, maintaining reliable food supplies and protecting individual and community wellbeing than with supporting the ability of the state to protect its sovereignty against threats from other states.

Prosperity and individual security are now key considerations in national security policy. If we are to deal with the disruption that now characterises the global economic, climate, health and political environments, it is imperative that we rethink the foundations of national security policy.

Social inclusion, the protection of rights, the promotion of values and resilience – all of them supported by a strong economic base – are basic elements of security policy. The scope of national security policy needs to transcend traditional defence and law enforcement models by comprehending climate change, human security against pandemics, environmental (and soil) degradation, food security, water shortages and refugee flows – to identify just a few issues.

A key challenge for Australia is to build these changing concepts of security into our national governance…..

The wellbeing of both the citizen and the state is the goal of all sound public policy. Traditional security thinking fails to deal with the new security issues presented by global warming, and now, pandemics. These constitute existential threats to human security that are not amenable to solution by military forces. Yet they go to the heart of national security in current circumstances.

For Australia, much of our national security effort needs to be redirected towards these issues domestically. Abroad, more effort needs to go into an energetic and properly resourced diplomacy, a focus on international institution building, and a development assistance program that invests in the human security of our region. Creating international coalitions is hard work. But that’s where Australia’s national security investment needs to be.

• Allan Behm is head of the international and security affairs program at the Australia Institute https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/20/in-times-of-coronavirus-and-climate-change-we-must-rethink-national-security

April 21, 2020 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News

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