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Collins: Contemporary Security Studies

Chapter 03

Instructions

Choose your answers from a-d by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 1

What events precipitated the emergence of Peace Studies as a field of research?

a) Peace studies emerged as a response to the new nuclear weapons as a means for the study of the way in which nuclear accumulation and strategic deployment could be used as a military tactic to deter potential aggression from communist states. Peace could be endorsed by military capability, and thus the international system stabilized.

b) The wars of liberation from colonial European powers in the post-war period in Asia and Africa marked the establishment of Peace Studies as a concentrated field of studies concerned with anti-colonial insurgency. Fear of regional overspill, and the destabilization of European powers as a balance to the Soviet threat.

c) The post-war era facilitated the emergence of Peace Studies as a profoundly optimistic and idealistic response to the Cold War. The proliferation of nuclear weapons would eventually give way to the need for intergovernmental cooperation to govern the use and development of the new weapons.

d) The hope of securing the effective replacement of inter-governmental action capable of controlling new nuclear weapons had failed at the end of the war. Nuclear accumulation meant that the prospect of globalized warfare remained undiminished and unchecked.

Question 2

In the formative period of the 1950s what were the key features that differentiated Peace Studies as a specific area of study?

a) A key feature of Peace Studies in the early years was that the development of research centers occurred primarily in the West marked by its interdisciplinary nature. The centers extended the scope of inquiry drawing on input from natural scientists and mathematicians. Thus peace studies were not limited to the social sciences.

b) Peace studies initially developed as a truly global sphere of activity with research centers and journals established worldwide facilitating an inter-cultural approach towards the social sciences that drew on an array of nation and ethnic sources.

c) Peace studies as an inter-disciplinary social science developed under the sponsorship of central government for the study of conflict resolution enabling it to flourish independently in spite of the prevailing political climate.

d) New centers for peace research were established at the behest of charitable "peace church" sponsorship. During the formative period the growth of the field was unstable and prospects of innovation severely limited their independence dependent on critical approval of their sponsor.

Question 3

Why was there a need to move the peace studies agenda beyond the immediate confines of responses to conflict situations?

a) Developmental disparities were considered an inevitable outcome of the competitive dynamics rising from the anarchical international system between stronger and weaker states and therefore a natural extension of state security needs.

b) Economic security and international development are interrelated areas of analysis because of the asymmetric development patterns and the potential limitations placed on economic growth by environmental constraints. Economic competition and the impact of inequitable socio-economic resources are therefore a potential source of insecurity and violence.

c) Development was contextualized by Cold War mentalities and military advancement. The competitive arms dynamic had environmental consequences whilst social and economic policy was frequently sidelined in favor of military expenditure. The level of developmental security was dependent on the extent to which defense was prioritized in the national budget.

d) The most important issue for the prevention of conflict was economic development and financial assistance to developing states. Externally sourced rapid industrialization programs were considered the most effective means with which the north-south divide could be bridged. Economic security as integral to state survival and stability was prioritized over environmental initiatives.

Question 4

What affect did the legacy of the Vietnam War have on the agenda of peace research?

a) The Vietnam War highlighted for those with a "Maximalist" peace agenda that peace research was critically engaged with defining peaceful societies as those entities in which justice genuinely prevailed. Vietnam society had no genuine justice and therefore was identified as non-peaceful by researchers legitimating intervention.

b) The reason why Cold War tensions over the regional conflict in Vietnam did not escalate to international warfare was primarily because of the decision not to use nuclear weapons. Thusly, the peace agenda was consolidated around the principle of non-proliferation as the means by which regional conflict could be prevented from escalating to global war.

c) The Vietnam War resulted in a divergence of opinion on when it was appropriate to use force. "Maximalist" peace researchers contended that the agenda of peace should not only be the absence of violence but that "structured violence" was in legitimate pursuit of the rectification of socio-economic injustice

d) The Vietnam War resolved that researchers should be engaged with the pursuit of justice, defined as the absence of conflict. Violence of any kind was not justifiable and was considered the surest means by which socio-economic grievances could be perpetuated.

Question 5

Why was there opposition in the 1980s and a "war on peace studies," and what affect did it have on the development of the field of peace studies?

a) Conflict resolution, mediation, conflict prevention and peacekeeping initiatives alongside socio-economic and environmental programs emerged as important conceptual advancements, an important consequence of which has been the involvement of NGOs and multi-level analysis which has served to break down the internal/external dichotomy of conflict thinking

b) Unyielding critical scrutiny of research produced a need to demonstrate success to consolidate a continuation in funding. This resulted in a lapse of practical standards and a tendency to over-state claims of advancement. Avoidance of condemnatory charges of appeasement served as the primary guiding methodological principle to research undertaken.

c) Research was contextualized by Cold War thinking serving to re-produce the patterns of norms and doing little to address the problems of the marginalization of people from conventional power structures as a potential source of conflict. The internal-external demarcation of the international community therefore continued unrestricted, conflict resolution residual with the state.

d) Reliance on governmental funding made multi-level analysis an untenable project, the predominant source of analysis coming from policy makers. Research potential stagnated, failing to analyze emerging norms of inter-state governance, democracy and freedom that were to prevail in the post-Cold War era. Conflict resolution was limited to strategic western cooperation.

Question 6

In what ways might the characteristics of contemporary peace studies be said to have established important practices of analysis?

a) Peace studies has developed a normative approach of analysis in which most peace researchers have brought strong ethical commitments and concerns which have facilitated the development of strong deterministic ideas about the international system and the transformative relationship between development, change and conflict, and inequalities from the level of the individual to the international.

b) Peace studies have facilitated the development of a strong relationship between the theory and practice of research undertaken, and thus may be regarded to be a normative and an analytical mode of practice. Peace studies has established critical standards by which theory is quantified, particularly the use of multilevel analysis of individual, group, state and inter-state levels which has broken down the traditional institutionalized dichotomy of internal and external dimensions of conflict.

c) Humanitarian intervention emerged as the conceptual approach for the reconciliation of the use of force and responsibility. Military force is legitimate in internalized conflicts if it meets the criteria of preventing recurring inequalities, will prevent further violence or escalation of violence, and if all other methods of conflict resolution have failed.

d) Despite a general consensus that the motivation of peace studies should be the commitment to address the causes and means of overcoming structural inequalities through equitable and cooperative relations, contemporary study has resulted in a schism between "analytical" and "normative" peace researchers. Analytical researchers place emphasis on quantitative empirical research whilst the normative peace researchers concern is with ideological motivation, the latter derided for a lack of academic rigor the former prioritizes.

Question 7

What is the predominant paradigm in security and threat perception post 9/11 and to what extent is it an adequate response?

a) The security paradigm has been the development of multi-level analysis to the understanding of radical responses of the disempowered involving the promotion of peace research and multi-level involvement by NGOs, policy-makers, and the academic community

b) The security paradigm of US led strategy has been the undertaking of short-terms measures drawn from research of the peace studies community for peace-keeping, peace-making and method of preventing further conflict.

c) The paradigm of post 9/11 security has been to some extent a reversion to "liddism" keeping the lid on a potentially fractured international system, without redress to the critical underlying causes of the problems.

d) The paradigm in security thinking has been a US led initiative which recognizes the need to undertake responsibility for inter-governmental cooperation, particularly for the commitment towards ethical intervention for securing peaceful transformations alongside demilitarization of the international community.

Question 8

In what ways have communication and technology changes posed a new security challenge?

a) The proliferation of non-western satellite news channels has resulted in the re-enforcement of traditional monopolies of power, dominated by transnational broadcasting organizations and local elites. News censorship has served to localize disaffection and keep the population ignorant of their marginalization serving to perpetuate asymmetric power relations.

b) The proliferation of communication networks accompanied by technological advancements particularly within the realm of non-western satellite news channels has served to break down time-space barriers. The division of international society into territorial units of analysis has been displaced by notions of common humanity and associated ideas of global citizenship grounded in an ethical commitment to universal human rights.

c) The proliferations of communication networks have resulted in a wider recognition of inequitable development and socio-economic opportunities creating a revolution of rising expectations, manifest in consumerism demands.

d) The key development underpinning socio-economic marginalization and environmental constraints is a marked advancement in technology which has facilitated the emergence of global networks, revolutionizing the nature of protest: the dispossessed are aware of their dispossession, exclusion occurring within a global context.

Question 9

What do conflicts in the Persian Gulf since the 1980s reveal about potential threats to security?

a) The presiding security problem is the extent to which international cooperation over Gulf oil reserves can be sustained to avoid the Persian Gulf from becoming the locus of conflict and whether the implications of environmental damage and human demand on the eco-system can be sufficiently resolved.

b) The establishment of a Rapid deployment Force at the end of the 1970s was primarily a response to the potential Soviet access to oil reserves which may undermine their defensive and military capabilities against possible attack. The body however, was defunct at the end of the Cold War and elevated to a peaceful international institution to oversee multi-lateral cooperation over access.

c) Potential source of conflict in the Persian Gulf is a symptom of pervasive inter-cultural conflict between Muslim and western cultures. The west engaged in a policy of cultural hegemony in which control of access is part of a larger agenda to retain ideological control.

d) The Persian gulf is essentially a product of American hegemony in the post-Cold Ware era vis-à-vis competent and rising economic powers in Asia. The potential conflict is a problem of peaceful transformation in international society wherein changes to balance of power inevitably result in violence

Question 10

In what ways is climate becoming a case for conflict resolution and the security agenda?

a) The climate modeling picture presented in the 1990s indicated the potential destabilization of the economic capacity of the industrialized northern states. Changes to rainfall distribution would mean a substantial rise in sea levels in the North leading to inland migratory pressures and sustainability of regional grown produce significantly in decline. The climate in tropical and sub-tropical land masses would become marginally warmer and wetter and may experience increasing number of storms, the "ecological carrying-capacity" is anticipated to fluctuate only in times of supra-normal storm conditions.

b) By the mid-1990s climate modeling showed a major impact on rainfall distribution which would decrease over landmasses and increase over the world's ocean and polar regions. Those that live in sub-tropical and tropical land masses, the majority of whom are dependent on locally grown food, are likely to "dry out" and decrease the ecological carrying-capacity" of croplands. This could create a potential humanitarian disaster in terms of increasing famine and malnutrition and increased migratory pressures.

c) By the 1990s climate modeling showed few global effects. Climate change would be limited to the richer countries of Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Italy and Greece who might see warmer, wetter, and windier weather but would be able to adapt to the new challenges. Potential challenges would take the from of freak occurrences of tropical storms which would however be limited to coastal cities and be intermittent, and liable to be reversed by moving away from excessive dependence on fossil l fuels.

d) By the 1990s climate modeling showed a disturbing picture; the likelihood that climate change would have a major impact on rainfall distribution in the tropics and sub-tropics and would result in the substantial increase of rainfall over the land-masses resulting in the need for different crops to meet the new climate changes which would lead to diversification of produce with international support.

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 03.