African Environmental and Human Security in the 21st Century By ...

annually, and 30 million people in Africa alone who die of HIV/AIDS, it primarily describes the myriad human insecurities of underdeveloped regions and the increasing global gap between the haves and the have-nots.¹⁸ Many of the human insecurities exist in the non-Western world, primarily in underdeveloped regions. These regions consist of weak states with porous borders, overlapping ethnicities, and colonial histories. Many of these weak states entered the international system late and, interestingly, attained legitimacy from the international system but not from their own citizenry. Moreover, the threats facing these states have historically been internal, many times reflecting ineffective institutions, a weak state identity, a lack of state capacity, and a bankrupt economy, as well as dangerous neighbors. Clearly, the formation of many of these states did not follow the Western, Westphalian path. Some scholars suggest that their development has led to state-nations as opposed to nation-states.¹⁹

While there are some commonalities among underdeveloped regions, they are far from all alike. One commonality, however, is that many of these transnational forces are directly harmful to people, and often the state either cannot or will not deter or address them. As the name implies, these transnational threats do not recognize borders and are particularly harmful to susceptible regions that are already weak in myriad ways. Moreover, many of these forces are interrelated and reinforcing, and therefore exacerbate conditions that create widespread suffering.

Human security is a concept that both describes these conditions and provides an approach to better understand their effects. Due to variations among regions and localities, a first step in designing strategy is to understand the dynamics and circumstances at the ground level. The UN recognized this approach in 1994: