Security & Safety Challenges in a
Globalized World Notes
Week 1: Global Challenges and Wicked Problems
Global Challenges
Security challenges are complex and oftentimes related to global topics. The security challenges
often have a global impact, or occur on global scale.
Global impact of a security challenge: countries around the globe are affected, but the source of risk
may be local
- Nuclear power plant meltdown (Chernobyl nuclear disaster: Ukraine in 1986, but the
radioactive material spread to Western SU and Europe)
- Refugees that flee regions of conflict (countries far from the battlefield are not affected
directly, but refugees flee to countries around the globe; mass migration in the 20 th century)
Global scale of a security challenge: the challenge doesn’t occur locally, but manifests itself in all, or
almost all countries of the world
- Global warming (not a singular, local cause on one location; global in scale and impact; result
of worldwide use of fossil fuels leading to increase in temperature > rise of sea levels)
Modern day security challenges are complex
- Global impact and/or scale
- Large systemic threats
- Affecting large amounts of people
- Multiple dynamic consequences
- Variety of challenges; environmental, economic, technology, international affairs
- What are the causes and effects?
- Glocality: issues that start locally can have a (near) global reach (key element of modern day
security challenges)
Wicked Problems
The term wicked problems is introduced by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber (UCLA, 1973) where they
pointed out that in policy making, professionals must often find solutions for societal issues that have
no clear answers.
Chess is not a wicked problem. It’s easy to assess when the goal is accomplished, outcomes can be
calculated easily and if you don’t solve the problem you can keep trying it. That doesn’t count for
societal issues.
Societal issues are wicked problems
- Social issues can be viewed in different ways: people often disagree on whether something
is a social problem or not, how to understand it and what the solution will be
- Societal issues are highly interconnected: with other issues; an intervention can have
unintended/unforeseen side effects in other domains (a single intervention has multiple
effects and can lead to other societal issues)
- Societal issues are shaped by political and economic constraints: that influence both
scoping of the problem, as well as the potential solutions (political parties/government focus)
, - Societal issues are always unique: since they arise in specific historical, socio-economic and
political context and there are no easy of quick solutions
- Societal issues cannot be solved through trial and error: a solution for a societal challenge
affects the lives of many people and costs a lot of money, so the first try needs to be the right
try (which isn’t easy)
Modern day security challenges are wicked problems
- Disagreement: on what is a security challenge and how it should be addressed, different
actors have different views and solutions
- Interconnectedness: glocality and attempts to solve security and safety risks may lead to
new societal problems
- Security agendas are shaped by political and economic concerns: labeling something as a
security or safety risk has high consequences (it requires response/costs) and thus some
actors keep these issues off their agenda or make security issues bigger than they are to hide
other issues
- Uniqueness: no two security risks are alike in the context of their physical, social and
economic context
- Security challenges cannot be solved through trial and error: the challenges involve risks to
large groups of people and have significant impact
Optional: Crowdsourcing Exercise
Safety and security concepts have a different meaning to people all over the world and include a
wide variety of issues.
- Societal: over population, social inequalities, riots, disturbing public order, terrorist attacks,
shortage of clean water, contagious diseases
- Geopolitical: interstate conflicts, failure of the rule of law, conflicts over weapons of mass
destructions, military coups, violent regimes
- Technological: breakdown of critical infrastructures and networks vital for safety and
security such as transportation and telecommunication; cybersecurity, data theft, identity
theft, cyberterrorism, cyberespionage
- Environmental: natural disasters and extreme weather (hurricanes, floods, earthquakes,
tsunamis) vs man-made natural disasters (pollution of land, water or air)
- Economic: poverty, large different in social and economic status, malfunctioning financial
systems and institutions (financial crisis 21st century), money laundering, tax fraud and
financing organized crime
