International Conflicts and Global Security

Global Security is the efforts taken by the community of nations to protect against threats which are transnational in nature. These threats usually fall under the jurisdiction of one of many UN agencies. For example, the threat of a global pandemic is one which is monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO). The threat of global famine is managed by the World Food Program (WFP). Then there is war/conflict which is the responsibility of the United Nations Security Council to address.

In many cases governments have similar agencies to address these threats and there are typically non-government organizations (NGO's) which take action on these issues. In every case Global Security is best defined as the means by which any threat to human stability and survival which is or has the potential to become transnational in nature is managed and mitigated.Definition:

Traditionally, the term "international conflict" referred to conflicts between different nation-states and conflicts between people and organizations in different nation-states. Increasingly, however, it also applies to inter-group conflicts within one country when one group is fighting for independence or increased social, political, or economic power (e.g., Sudan/South Sudan, Iraq (now that the US has largely left), and Syria.

Description:

A distinction is made between private-sector international conflicts, which are conflicts between individuals and/or businesses which just happen to come from two different countries, and conflicts between different national governments. Private conflicts are similar in nature to private domestic interpersonal or business conflicts except that they are further complicated by distance, culture, sometimes language, and an ambiguity regarding whose laws will be applied. Sometimes these issues become very difficult to handle, but increasingly, international business contracts call for dispute resolution through arbitration with one of many international arbitration organizations. This avoids jurisdictional disputes, and moderates some of the other complications as well.Public international conflicts tend to be much more difficult to resolve. While this term was originally limited to conflicts between sovereign nation-states, in the last two decades, an increasing number of so-called "international" conflicts have actually been inter-group or communal conflicts within one country. (Examples are Ireland, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Chechnya in addition to the ones listed above, and many others.) In most of these cases, the issue in dispute has been the sovereignty of a particular ethnic group or region, and/or the equality of those ethnic groups in the political, social, and economic structures of their own societies. Until recently, the concept of sovereignty suggested that other nations should not become embroiled in such "internal" disputes. However, the human costs and changing values have made international intervention in these "domestic" conflicts increasingly common.