Chapter Ten
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production. All of these changes are necessary if we want to create new
opportunities for sustainable development in economic terms, that is, for
the growth that leads to increased productivity and subsequent
redistribution of income at the global level.
Security crisis
When we think about the security crisis, the first thing that comes to mind
is war. This is because war has been, without a doubt, the most serious
security crisis. This is especially true when a war involves several
countries, as was the case with the two world wars and the Cold War,
during the second half of the twentieth century. Probably due to the
terrible consequences of this experience, the majority of national security
resources were established to respond to such possible implications.
However, in the twenty first century, the risk of interstate war seems to be
lower, which is especially true for countries in Europe and North
America.^10 Indeed, of the 16 major armed conflicts which were underway
in 15 locations around the world during 2008, not one was a major
interstate conflict.^11 Instead, we are faced with the spread of insecurity, in
the sense that people are afraid of being killed, kidnapped, robbed, raped,
or expelled from their homes; of not having access to water, food,
electricity, or health care; or, in places more affected by natural disasters,
of being unsafe in case of emergency, where people may face both natural
and human dangers. The earthquake in Haiti is one such example, as it had
been characterized by a combination of poverty and crime, so the police
and the UN peacekeepers had not dared to go there even before the
earthquake. High levels of insecurity also exist in many parts of Africa and
Central Asia, particularly in Afghanistan, Syria and Lybia, and in certain
neighboring territories such as the Caucasus. In these regions we may find
many civil society actors, as well as various criminal gangs, militias,
jihadists, pirates, and mercenaries, who are creating an atmosphere of
violence that transcends borders and reaches the center of the developed
world by means of terror, organized crime, illegal migration, etc.
The most precarious areas are, in fact, territories without state control.
They are characterized by weak, failed, collapsed, or quasi-state systems.
This phenomenon is usually explained by backwardness and incomplete
(^10) Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff, General Branko Krga, who was head of the
Military Intelligence Agency, for two terms, said in a lecture to the students of the
University "Braca Karic" in the premises of the General Staff in February 2003
that, "war will no longer be part of Europe, at least in our lifetime."
(^11) SIPRI Yearbook, 69.