Research Aim and Objective

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND ANALYSIS

RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVE

LITERATURE REVIEW

CURRENT EUROPEAN CRISIS

THEORIES OF SECURITY

HUMANITARIAN THEORY

PARIS SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS

PROBLEMS OF SECURITY

GAME THEORY, WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS OF SOVIET UNION AND AFGHANISTAN (PROBLEM OF SECURITY)

TIBETIAN CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

RECOMMENDATION

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTION

This assignment is aiming to critically evaluate the recent development of refugee inflow in European countries after the Syria and Libya conflict. This recent inflow of refugees in European countries and hundreds of thousands more waiting to getin has created a serious dilemma and security issue for European Union. There are different schools of thoughts and theories like “problem of security”, “paris school of thoughts” and “humanitarian theories” etc. there is a ongoing moral and political dilemma in the entire region regarding the status of these refugees and how to keep a check on them. Different school of thoughts has different opinion regarding this development and it would be very difficult to find an absolute solution to the problem. All though this is more of a regional problem than a global problem but similar situation can arise in any part of the world making it a problem with global implication. This research project would be a qualitative secondary research evaluating the impact of refugees entering in EU zone since years through literature review and case study analysis (Sharryn, 2000). This research project would aim in verifying the claim that accepting refugees without any checking mechanism would jeopardize the security of a country or not

BACKGROUND ANALYSIS

Over the period of time (in last 3-4 decades) millions of refugees from different countries of Middle East migrated to different European countries. Refugees brought with them difference of culture, difference of opinion, religion differences and sometimes even differences of allegiance towards a country. There are many academics and researchers who believe that many countries of EU who are open to refugees more openly are indirectly undermining the internal security of the entire region (Kaurnet, 2009). There is an ongoing debate among countries, politicians, academicians and security experts regarding the entire concept of accepting refugees by a country and how it impacts internal security of that country and neighboring countries.

There is an ongoing conflict between followers of both theories because one school of thoughts is of belief that troubled Middle Eastern region is facing a humanitarian crisis and the people who are fleeing from those areas are in dire need of basic security and necessities. As a part of civilized societies other countries should give aid to these people in crisis and accept them as refugees (CASE Collective, 2007).

Another school of thought has firm belief that by accepting large number of refugees without proper identification and verification procedure Europe is endangering security of its own citizens and federal system. According to the theory of problem of security it clearly is a security threat and a government should be first responsible towards security of its citizens and if that is compromised then such an act should not be done.

RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVE

Research aim of this essay is “critically evaluate the security threats on European countries due to migration of large number of refugees from middle east”. This research would be done in context of different theories of security and how they are defining and explaining the situation.

This entire essay would be based on secondary research approach which includes literature review and case study analysis as primary source of data collection. A literature review would be done on theories of security, their implementation and applicability with the current refugee situation of the EU and identifying possible solutions to the problem or resolution of the problem (SMITH, 2005).

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to the definition coined by Geneva convention of UN a refugee can be defined as “a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have well-founded grounds for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and is unable to obtain sanctuary from their home country or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country”.

There is a fundamental difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee. An asylum seeker is still looking for a state who is willing to accept him while a refugee is already applied for asylum at a state and as per the law of that state he is under consideration of giving an asylum. UN has also decided that the refugee status should not be hereditary in nature which means no other group can change its status into refugees and neither refugees after a generation would be given the same status. According to the data released by United Nations there are approximately 20 million refugees worldwide by the end of year 2014. There has been an increase of 23 percent in number of refugees in last year and the biggest growth was seen in Syrian refugee group which ballooned to 3.9 million refugees in a year. Turkey is the biggest host of Syrian refugees who is giving asylum to 2 million and above refugees from Syria. Rest of the refugees either migrating towards European Union or North African countries. The crisis of Syrian refugee started in year 2011 and the first drove of refugees settled in border areas of turkey and Lebanon and even a few refugees returned as well after a few months. However in September 2011 EU chalked out a plan to accept 120000 refugees and from there things spiraled out of control. There were committees and firm plans to relocate a few refugees to Canada as well where there is a dire shortage of semi skilled and unskilled labor. This was looked upon as a unique opportunity by many Syrian people to start a better life and they rushed towards EU for a refugee status. Social security offered by EU and better living conditions and wages are also a primary reason why EU is the preferred refugee destination.

CURRENT EUROPEAN CRISIS

Latest European immigration crisis began in year 2015 when a large number of refugees from Syria, Libya and other neighboring areas where a sectarian conflict is in progress. Most of them are taking the risky and illegal route across Mediterranean sea and hundreds of lives are lost while crossing these routes. This has created immense pressure on European Union and its countries regarding refugees and their acceptance. A few countries like Germany, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Hungary got the highest number of refugee applications than other countries and this made every one think that why a few particular countries are opted more by refugees even though they are geographically off limits and different in culture. There is a growing concern that this is not asylum seeking but it is more of asylum shopping where refugees are trying to get themselves a good deal by applying for refugee status in multiple countries.

Think tanks and academicians of European Union argues that these countries have a very high level of social security, freedom and high wages with relaxed norms for immigrants which makes them a preferred choice. This also indicates that refugees are not actually with lack of any support and it might be possible that this migration is not out of fear but out of greed.

In first three months of 2015 the number of asylum seekers in EU reached to 1 84000 application which is 86 percent higher than previous year’s same quarter. This is appearing to be the beginning of a crisis and many political parties and group of people are beginning to resist this ongoing acceptance of refugees. Some of the countries in EU temporarily stopped giving permission to any refugees and some of them even sealed their borders. This entire crisis has crossed the humanitarian ground theory threshold and now it is a international crisis which is posing a problem of security for the host countries.

THEORIES OF SECURITY

Security of a nation is a biggest concern for any country. Increase in attacks in last few years has resulted in rising concern for the security of their nation. There are various theories which are been used in designing strategies for maintaining the security of the nation. Theories like

HUMANITARIAN THEORY

Moving from state-centric strategy of providing security concentration on safeguarding the states from military aggression to humanitarian theory of security refers to the protection of the human lives in various ways which assist in enhancing the freedom and fulfillment of people. In simple words it means safeguarding the public from the significant and insidious dangers and circumstances. The main features of this theory are; it is people-centric, multi-sectored, comprehensive, context-specific and prevention-oriented. There are basically seven types of threat against human security;

While considering the dangers and their main problem, human security can be considered as preventive-oriented and concentrates over empowerment and protection. This is the first area where argument regarding status of the refugees and its impact on the security of the European citizens is initiated. While offering earlier asylum to refugees most of the leaders and parliamentarians of the EU were more of in a hurry to show the world their humanitarian side and they kept the security of their own citizens and their right on resources on a non priority list. Security theories suggest that primary duty of a state and its leaders is to ensure that their citizens are safe and secure. Problem of security theory directly challenges the action taken by leaders of EU who disregarded the obvious problem with the refugee acceptance plan and went ahead to show the world that they are better than others in humanity.

A similar situation was developed in Tibet, China and Myanmar regarding status of people of Tibet but those countries handled it in a very tactful manner and they never made it a international humanitarian show and did not rushed to give a promise regarding status of refugees. This case study would suggest what the right way to handle such situation is and how EU failed in their duties towards their natural citizens.

PARIS SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS

Paris school of thoughts on security theories by Michel Foucault, it shows the requirement of re-evaluating the theory of controlling, for instance; international relations which has the propensity to stay thin, Universalists and positivist. Generally, the main idea of power has largely got away from the critical inquiry. This paper tends to open up the strong conversation in international relations by finding the cut-off points in conventional approaches like realism and even critical theory, challenging for the post-positivist strategy which involves Foucault’s knowledge and information into the nature of force. Without any doubt, it passes the significant fraction of the “third debate” while directing its concentration on strength and re-articulating the structure and information as a classification of analysis in international relations (Wæver, 2004).

Paris school of thoughts emphasizes more on cultural conflicts and there are various live case studies where immigrant population eventually lead towards conflicting situation and even extremism in behavior of people. One good example or case study to further evaluate the Paris school of thoughts on security studies is Australian population and its recent cultural conflict.

The very famous incidence of 2001 terrorist attack in US and other similar incidences brought major changes globally and even had impact over major economies like UK and Australia. Religious extremist groups of Middle east area has to be blamed for generating a feeling of terror and insecurity in people leading to a mentality of general people to doubt people of a particular religion and community. Moreover, the way few religious leaders were asking their people to wear certain type of clothes and lead their life as directed by their religious norms, they got further detached from rest of the people. Things were such that these people were always looked up with doubt and scepticism (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 2008).

In addition to this, the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 worsened the situation. All the strong economies of world had to bear heavy losses and people were losing their jobs. At that time of limited jobs and economic meltdown, when every other individual was fighting to get a decent job, countries like Australia did not accept the thing that people belonging to other countries are getting jobs and their people are left jobless. Thus, during difficult times, society got strongly divided into closed community groups that were just concerned for their own good and welfare (Marsh, 2010).

PROBLEMS OF SECURITY

Complete change of security ambient and setting up the framework of international relations of strength and force by the end of Cold War and necessity of new security related challenges, dangers and risks all over again. In this paper, the theory of security is explained and its utilization al all level, though it specially indicate towards the country state. The main purpose of this theory is to define the security as a policy which is different from others. As security competes with various objectives for diminishing resources, it can be differing from other but yet can be compared to other objectives. It needed that respective importance for security should be left open instead of building into an idea on terms of ‘Vital Interests’ or ‘Core Values’ (Huysmans, 2006). There are two specific areas related to problem of security in a country which needs to be balanced to develop the right environment. They are

Protection: protection can be referred to the approaches utilized by the states, international agencies, non-profit organizations and private industries to create a protective layer around the people in order to safeguard them from all the dangers.

Empowerment: it refers to the approaches which allow the public to enhance their resilience to tough circumstances. Empowering them not only let them enhance their capabilities but it also permits them to explore new ways and participate in solutions (Yoshida, 2013).

GAME THEORY, WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Game theory is a mathematical model which studies the conflict and decision making process intelligent and rational decision makers. Game theory does not apply when illogical and irrational decisions are made. Different schools of thoughts like Paris and Welsh are rational and properly argued theories which can be compared with each other for advantages and disadvantages. Game theory is applied in political situations, war situations, economic decisions, and psychological evaluations. It was originally described as zero sum games. In game theory for each party associated a set of solution and strategies would be available and mathematical assessment regarding payoffs with each option they chose and probability of losses. Different school of thoughts have different viewpoints regarding status of refugees and ho Europe should react with the ongoing refugee crisis. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. Recommendations for this essay would be created considering the game theory and Pros and cons of each decision. One good example of application of game theory and how a decision can be hinged for years is the cold war era. The methodology of the conflict is described by the prisoner’s dilemma and game theory. The prisoner’s dilemma shows why two superpowers will not cooperate even if it appears to be in their best interest. Like this theory also led to security studies. In early 1950and 1960s many nuclear developments at large scale was made by two super powers and when the use of this system comes, is known as mutual assured destruction in recent perspective. Each nation has its strengths and vulnerabilities and placing mire players on either side to be clever won’t really rock (Schröter & Chakravorty, 2010). Looking back to eastern bloc where political events and economic changes in eastern Europe comes a factor where geopolitical situation in Europe transformed and it has been shifted by authoritarian regime of soviet bloc to the reforms as introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev and gradually policy opening to the west. The arms race and nuclear proliferation treaties and this compliance with non-compliances were deciding factor. If it is one nation that would change the power then the balance of power and game theory as applied here in cold war era will led to deadlock. The cold war is about running diplomacies where no direct target is made, yet confrontations carry out with their own way of settling disputes.