Ties that bind: DfID and the emerging security and development agenda

Abstract

The security and development nexus is on the public agenda of policy-makers and analysts as never before. It is becoming an article of faith that security and development are ‘inextricably linked’. The content and confines of the security and development agenda, however, are contested and confused. As one interviewee put it, ‘it's as if security is the new development and development is the new security’. This paper sets out to map the landscape of the development and security agenda in order that it might be navigated better. The focus is on how policy debates in this area are shifting, rather than on how these shifts are being implemented on the ground. Particular reference is made to the Department for International Development and its Strategy for Security and Development—an analysis of which throws into relief the tensions between the two spheres. It is argued that understanding the linkages between security and development must involve more than simply asserting that either one necessarily encompasses, requires or reinforces the other. Statements on security and development must be scrutinised against basic questions, not least whose security is at issue.