Creating a Global Security System - by Norie Huddle

_© 1991, revised 1996, Norie Huddle, Center for New National Security

Creating a Global Security System

Technology has driven history

Throughout history, those who have controlled the most advanced weapons have been able to make the rules that govern the society. Because of this, for millennia competing powers have dedicated a good deal of effort to achieve the newest technological breakthroughs—to create the most destructive weapons with the greatest accuracy, range and maneuverability.

The arms race has absorbed an enormous amount of resources, including money, natural resources, human time and talent—most of which could instead be deployed in designing systems to enable humankind to live in a peaceful, creative and sustainable fashion.

Today, thanks to our remarkable creative abilities, humanity has designed weapons that are so destructive in their impact that they will cause death and destruction to those who use them as well as to those being attacked. Leading scientists also marshal impressive evidence suggesting that a major nuclear war would lead to a “nuclear winter.” In addition, chemical and biological weapons pose similar hazards to humanity.

We need a new way of thinking, for new ideas produce new actions

The desire and drive for survival and progress is now forcing humanity to come together to seek new ways of thinking, living and working together for common benefit. Once we were isolated tribes and groups of tribes, seeking to protect our small unit of "family" from the “others”—the strangers. Now, with increasing speed, we are coming to recognize human beings of all races, cultures and geographic location as "the same kind of being” and we are coming to see ourselves as a kind of “global family.”

A global family still has enemies, but increasingly we recognize that our real enemies are such problems as ignorance, fear, poverty, hunger, disease, low self-esteem, environmental degradation, and other conditions that threaten our health and well-being. To solve these problems will require humanity to learn how to live and work together with others in new ways, resolving conflicts peacefully through dialogue and increased understanding of cultural and other differences.

Solving our common human problems will also require that we learn to live in harmony with the natural systems that support the rich profusion of life on earth. For our own survival and security, humanity now needs to design new global systems to manage human affairs more wisely. To do this great task requires that we draw upon the best of our knowledge and technologies in every sector of life.

What is the goal of “national security”?

The great military strategist Metternich noted, “Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your original objectives.” The goal of today’s national security system has been to create greater security and well being for the people within a given nation; however, the activities in which we have been engaging in the name of national security have caused other nations—our “enemies”—to feel insecure.

But our activities have also created national and global environmental problems, great psychological and economic stress—problems which actually threaten the security of our own nation and strain our relationship with many of our allies.

We need to step back from our current activities to look at the big picture and ask ourselves, “What are the ingredients of true and lasting security?” And, “Realistically, how can we achieve that condition?”

We must also ask ourselves the question which certain indigenous peoples have asked themselves for tens of thousands of years: “What kind of people do we want to become?”

True National Security cannot be created at the level of the nation

Scientists like Albert Einstein, social philosophers like E.F. Schumacher and general systems theorists have all noted that in solving large, complex problems we must go to a higher level of order—to a broader system. A complex, multi-faceted problem simply cannot be solved at the level at which it has been created.

For example, in the Middle Ages when the invention of cannons caused the collapse of castles and feudal estates all over Europe, feudal leaders got together and created the nation state—recognizing that it was more in their interests to combine forces than to continue trying to destroy each other. Those leaders could not find answers to their problems of security without creating a larger unit of collaboration. This action was greatly supported by pressures from the commercial and trading classes that wanted lower tariffs, currencies that could be used in wider regions and a state of peace that would support their business activities.

In a similar vein, during the cold war period, as US leaders built up our weapons (doing what they believed was necessary for the US to be secure), Soviet leaders perceived those actions to be threatening to the USSR—and responded in kind. The reverse was also true: when Soviet leaders increased and improved their armaments, US leaders saw this as justification for further increasing and improving US weapons. Each side saw its actions as reasonable and appropriate, even while domestic security declined—leading to more poverty, and fear.

Today, similar to the response of thoughtful leaders in the Middle Ages, leaders around the world—pushed by citizens—have begun to discuss the notion of what someday our descendants might call a “global security system”—a complex, multi-faceted system which can enhance the security and progress of all nations and all peoples. A system which deeply values “environmental security” and supports humanity in meeting the basic needs of all the Earth’s people.

We need a Global Security System, with “security” broadly defined

The original concept of a global security system was proposed in the early 1950s by management expert Howard Kurtz and his theologian wife, Harriet Kurtz. In the late 1970s, at the First Special Session on Disarmament, the Kurtz’ concept was submitted to the United Nations by France's President, Giscard d'Estaing, who had learned of the Kurtz’ work from a top UN official, Robert Mueller. A panel of United Nations experts studied the proposal for four years and adopted it as "feasible".

Using satellites as “eyes in the sky”

One cornerstone of the Global Security Proposal is the use of satellites orbiting the Earth and photographing what is going on far below, on the earth's surface and beneath it, to better understand what we need to do in order to create security for all of us.

With the use of spectral photography, we can tell what areas of cropland and forests are thriving and which are not, making us able to predict famines well ahead of time. We can spot with great precision when factories are polluting—and what types of pollutants are being emitted. We can track herds of migratory animals and we can find ships lost at sea. We can detect troop movements, weapons testing and changes in military installations.

With advanced photographic technologies, we can even penetrate under the surface of the earth and locate underground mineral and water resources.

Data transmitted from satellites goes to ground stations, where the numbers are “crunched” by computers and analyzed by experts. These statistics can be translated into carefully considered policies and programs that serve the benefit of all.

A Global Security System: The Golden Rule in Action

In order for humanity to use satellite data most effectively to benefit the Earth and all the peoples of the Earth, we need

• Global systems that will utilize this wealth of information so that it may serve the wellbeing and advancement of all nations and all peoples.

• New types of professionals trained to manage global systems. This pressing need will lead to a vast range of new and inspiring jobs—jobs to create mutual security and well-being. This will inspire a generation of globally minded young people, as well as provide them with economic security.

• Integration of our collective wisdom, knowledge and creativity to develop the best possible sustainable technologies, new programs and projects which will inspire participation—because they are in the interests of everyone.

• New reward and incentive systems which will encourage us to work for the well-being and security of all. “Natural security” must become an integral part of national and global security policies. We must put "ecology" (oikos logos: the deep structures, logic of the home) before "economy" (oikos nomos: the rules of the home). Thus, to give one example, in order to preserve our global forests—one of the great "lungs" of our earth, we must make it more profitable to plant trees and maintain them in a healthy condition than to cut them down. Our current financial incentives work in just the opposite way, contributing to the loss of approximately 30 to 40 million acres of trees each year.

Additionally, to clean up our global environment, we must make it profitable to clean the air, water and soil we use in industrial and agricultural processes—before returning those precious natural substances back into the environment. And, perhaps even more important in the long run, we must make it extremely profitable to design technologies of all kinds so that they are environmentally sound in every way.

Government of, by and for the People

In general, changes of this magnitude require changes in leadership—leaders with new ideas and new vision that are in harmony with the changing needs of the times. Such leaders will need to reach out in new and unprecedented ways to marshal the ideas and talents of our people.

While each nation and each person can contribute to the emerging “global vision” for what humanity and Earth can become, here in the United States, our several centuries of “experimentation” with democratic processes put us in a unique position to play a leadership role in designing the systems and processes which will allow the emergence of a new and more inclusive American dream—of life, liberty and happiness...of security and well-being for *all* the Earth’s people and for the other creatures who make our Earth such a remarkable Garden in the Cosmos.

Together we can do what no one of us can do alone.

Norie Huddle

President

Center for New National Security

(A nonprofit corporation registered in the District of Columbia since 1979)