Deficiencies in Global Governance and Implications for Defense Education

Abstract

Those contributing to international peace and stability act in an ever-changing, increasingly complex and inter-connected global environment. The international security landscape has changed considerably during the last twenty years, with important power shifts in international affairs, an acceleration of globalization dynamics, the spread of modern information technologies, and a diversification of powerful actors in world politics. In addition, a multitude of transnational security challenges - ranging from the proliferation of weapons to organized crime, including the trafficking of human beings, the security implications of migration, and the challenges of information and cyber security - are on the agenda.Global governance, which is understood here as cooperative arrangements between various international actors - states, international and regional organizations, as well as actors from the private sector and civil society communities - to manage global processes under conditions of globalization and in the absence of a world government, is still weak when it comes to adapting to these developments. Significant deficits in global governance with respect to issues of peace and international security exist today, and will most likely continue to exist in the future. A key consequence is the continuous presence of insecurity and disorder. In such situations of uncertainty, there is a need for leadership and close cooperation among partners. Education will be crucial in enabling the armed forces to fulfill their role in this environment. Thus, leadership skills, political awareness, and versatility will all be important elements of defense education.The global governance deficit requires us to better understand and deal with the changes in the international security landscape, including changing patterns of armed conflict and other forms of violence, the increasing threat to our financial and economic security, and the development and spread of new technologies. All these factors determine our security and defense thinking.The Changing Security LandscapeThe international system has witnessed dramatic changes during the last twenty years, shifts that have an impact on national, regional and international security policies. The period of the Cold War was a stable but potentially apocalyptic period of nuclear superpower competition. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States remained the sole superpower, dominating the international system and promoting liberalism worldwide. During the post-Cold War era, international and regional organizations were empowered, becoming influential actors in international affairs. The United Nations has assumed a greater importance on the world stage, and NATO and the EU have also enlarged their scope of activities to include crisis management and stabilization missions. They also changed the political and strategic map of Europe by expanding eastwards to include the former members of the Warsaw Pact and some former republics of the Soviet Union.The beginning of the new millennium was then marked by the attacks of 1 1 September 2001 and the onset of the global war against terrorism. In the following years, asymmetrical warfare and the return to the use of force and interventionism have shaped international security policies. At the same time, the world has also seen the slow but steady rise of new powerful state actors, such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China (collectively referred to as the BRIC countries) and a redistribution of global power from the Atlantic to the Pacific. China, especially, has gained considerable power, developing into the world's second-biggest economy after the United States.In addition to these tectonic developments, today's security landscape is very much influenced by two recent game changers: the global economic and financial crisis of 2008, and the set of national movements in North Africa and the Middle East subsumed under the banner of the Arab Spring or Arab Awakening. …