Global security

Global security

Welcome

Dear students,

Because of Corona we are going to try something new. Working with Wikiwijs. From what I understood you have never worked with Wikiwijs before. So here is a short introduction of what you can expect.

On the left you can see the content of this Wikiwijs. There are several headings you can use to navigate through all the topics. On the different pages you will find information regarding different topics, exercises you will have to make, little clips to help you understand everything better and links to other types of exercises.

You are expected to make all the exercises, however to make sure you fully understand the content, it is expected to remake the exerises untill they are correct. So if you find it difficult, you can keep trying again after reading through the information again.

At the end of this Wikiwijs you will have to make a final report/test which will be graded.

Goals of this Wikiwijs

  • At the end of this wikiwijs the student can explain what a dictator is
  • At the end of this wikiwijs the student knows why piracy exists
  • At the end of this wikiwijs the student can recognise a dictatorship

A little introduction

For this Wikiwijs, we will talk about Global Security. You will learn about all kinds of factors that will influence Global Security and what effects they have on society.

You will be given a lot of information and tasks to practice with. If you like the topic or just need a little bit more information for your final report, you can look in your Global Security book.

When you click on the Padlet Link, you will open a new tab in which you can write down what you think global security is in your own words. I will be able to collect and see your answers this way.

padlet

Threats around the world

There a different kinds of threats around the world. But what is a threat actually?

It has 2 very similar meanings:

  1. A statement of an intention to inflict pain, injury, damage, or other hostile action on someone in retribution for something done or not done.
  2. A person or thing likely to cause damage or danger.

The world knows a lot of different types of threats such as:

  • Drug cartels
  • Poverty
  • Pirates
  • Terrorists
  • War
  • Dictators

These are all threats that influence global security. Meaning they can influence if we feel safe or not.

There are other kinds of threats in the world such as global warming and recently the corona virus. These a threats that threaten our surivival.

Global security ► Also knows as international security. Refers to measures taken by states and international organizations, such as the United Nations, European Union, and others, to ensure mutual survival and safety.

War

What is war?

What do other people think?

Everyone has heard of different wars that took place throughout history or might even still be taking place right now. But do you actually know what a war is exactly? What makes a war, a war and not just a simple conflict between for example two countries?

We call it a war when we refer to a highly organised form of conflict that lasts for an extended period of time. Which comes down to it being a fight that takes a long time. However we contradict ourselfs since there are wars recorded in history that took no time at all. The shortest war in hisrtoy only took 38 minutes!

So now you must be thinking: There must be more reasons for calling a conflict a war besides the timeframe. Well you are right. Officially there are 3 requirements for a war.

  1. It must involve two or more groups that are at odds with each other.
  2. There is a certain level of organisation amongst these groups.
  3. There must be evidence that these groups are fighting to achieve their goals.

Now seeing these requirements it is still a relativly open definition. Because of this there are a lot of conflicts that are being called a war and we have made different types of wars to make it more clear.

Intra and interstate wars

Different types of war

Watch the Kennisclip that you see at the top of this page first and then read the information afterwards

Example of an interstate war

 

 

When you think of a war most of you will probably think about 2 or maybe more countries fighting with each other. This is a type of war we call interstate wars.

Inter means between so the name is between states. for interstate wars the armies of the countries at war will be used to fight each other.

 

 

 

Example of an intrastate war

 

 

 

Another type of war is intrastate. Intra means within, so a war within a state. For this type of war to happen you need different groups within a state or country to go against each other. These wars are often called Civil wars and they are the most common type of conflict in the world.

An example is rebels going against the government. We call rebels insurgents.

Insurgents ► Someone who uses illigal violent force to overthrow the government.

 

Extrastate, terrorism and lone wolfs

Example of an extrastate war

Extrastate wars are between a state or country and a group that doesnt we call a non-state actor, this is a group that excists somewhere else in the world.

A great example of a non-state actor is a terrorist organisation. They are not a country so it is not interstate, and they are not in the same country so it is not intrastate.

Terrorist organisations are groups of people who work together to achieve their goal through terrorism.

Terrorism are all forms of violence that can be used to make people afraid.

 

Important to note is that terrorist organisations and terrorism can be an example of extrastate wars. However that does not mean that acts of terrorism are always part of an extrastate war.

This is only the case when its about lenghty conflicts. So conflicts that take a long time.

Now you must wonder what acts of terrorism are when they are not part of an extrastate war. If these terrorists are not part of an organisation we call them 'Lone Wolves'. They act alone and these attacks can be quite random.

 

The most well known examples of terrorist organisations are Al Qaeda and IS. And the most well known act of terrorism would be '9/11' which refers to a series of attacks in the United states.

An example of a Lone wof is Anders Breivik who staged attacks in Norway in 2011 which consisted of bombings and a shooting. Anders reasoning for his actions was that he disagreed with his government.

Task:Lets see if you paid attention

Socrative

Piracy

While you might think that pirates are something we only see in movies and history books, piracy still happens today. However they won't be swinging onto a ship holding a sword and certainly don't have a parrot on their shoulder.

Piracy nowadays mostly happens around Somalia. Why here you might wonder, well the answer is quite simple. Somalia is located along the route trading ships most often take while travelling between Europe and Asia. Since taking another route would take a lot longer, most ships will still travel on this route and risk meeting pirates instead of finding another way.

The modern day pirates mostly consist of young fishermen that have joined forces with former militia members.  

Militia: Non-proffesional fighters ► similar to the an army

They start shooting at a ship and enter the ship to take control. Then they ask for money in exchange for giving back control of the ship. This is how modern day pirates make money.

The reason these people turn to piracy is because the Somalia cannot provide enough ways to legally earn enough money.

Piracy is a global security threat because not only does it threaten the safety of the ships, it also threatens the economy because ships will have to take a different route and this will cost a lot more money and take longer.

 

Drug cartels

You might have heard of this threat before. Drug cartels are criminal organisations that control, sell and traffic illegal drugs. Drug cartels mostly excist in North and South America.

Drug cartels have 2 different enemies.

  1. The government. ► They try to stop the cartels because what they do is illegal.
  2. Other drug cartels ► Drug cartels fight their rivals to make sure they stay in control of the drug supplies and sales.

 

You might have heard of the Mexican drug war before. This is the war between Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government. They started calling it a war around 2006 when they started sending the military to deal with drug cartels.

One of the most important reasons for this war is that these cartels are responsible for 70% of the drugs smuggled into the U.S.  Another reason the government is fighting the drug cartels is to reduce drug related violence.

Because of this armed conflict a lot of businesses refuse to settle down in Mexico, this causes a lot of unemployment. Since it is dangerous to settle down in Mexico. Furthermore a lot of people nowadays depend on the drug cartels for making money. Meaning that when the government takes down a cartel it causes even more unemployment.

Dictators

What is a dictator?

 

First of all we need to know what a dictator is. A dictator is someone who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power.

For example they show their power by taking away freedom, people are no longer allowed to write in the papers exactly what they think, writing bad thigns about the dictator is forbidden.

A lot of dictators try to emphasise their connection with the military. They can do this by for example wearing military uniforms.

Dictators have excisted throughout time. Meaning that dictators were around in the past but also in the present.

Some dictators you might have heard of such as Hitler, Mao Zedong, Jozef Stalin and Kim Jong-un.

 

 

Onderschrift
Onderschrift

Democracy

A dictatorship is the opposite of a democracy. However to learn about these differences we first have to understand what a democracy is.

A democracy is a form of government in which the citizens of a country decide. 

There are 2 types of democracies

  1. direct democracy 
  2. indirect democracy

Direct demcoracy sees citiznes themselves voting about laws and decissions made. 

Indirect democracy is a democracy in which the citizens vote for a chosen representative such as a parlement or president.

Dictatorship vs Democracy

First watch this clip before you continue reading. Maybe Anakin and Padme can help you understand what this chapter is all about.

Now that we have learned what a dictatorship is and what a democracy is, it's time to look at the differences. To make it easies for you, we have put them down in the little chart below.

 

Dictatorship Democracy

One leader with total control over the political party and country

Leader with the most votes is in control but can’t decide on their own

No rights for individual citizens

Fair elections

Control through police, law and spying

Free press

Only one party, opposition is destroyend banned and not allowed

You can join clubs and any political party you like

No free press

  

 

The map below is a map of freedom. It shows how free countries are.

Green: Free
Yellow: Partly free
Grey: Not free

 

Lets practice:Now it's your turn

test

Task:Lets see if you paid attention

Final report

Final report upload

Feedback

The last thing I would like to ask all of you is to give me some feedback by clicking the following link.

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