The Strategic Logic of the Contemporary Security Dilemma

This monograph stems from the tactical and operational frustrations of the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) regarding citizen and collective security in the Western Hemisphere. These frustrations have been demonstrated in each of the annual colloquia that the Strategic Studies Institute and its partners, Florida International University, the National Defense University, and USSOUTHCOM have conducted over the past 8 years. This monograph also reflects similar frustrations expressed by other U.S. Government organizations and agencies, as well as by various hemispheric governments and security institutions. The urgency and importance of the security issue have generated four related themes. First, several countries in Latin America are paradigms of the failing state and have enormous implications for the stability, development, democracy, prosperity, and peace of the entire Western Hemisphere. Second, the transnational drug and arms trafficking, paramilitary, insurgent, and gang organizations in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Basin are perpetrating a level of corruption, criminality, human horror, and internal instability that-if left unchecked at the strategic level-can ultimately threaten the collapse of various states and undermine the security and sovereignty of neighbors. Third, poverty, social exclusion, environmental degradation, and politicaleconomic- social expectations-and the conflicts generated by these indirect and implicit threats to stability and human well-being-lead to further degeneration of citizen security. Fourth, these threats constitute a serious challenge to U.S. national security, well-being, and position in the global community. Unfortunately, a strategic-level debate has largely been absent from all this discourse. The reality and severity of the threats associated with transnational security issues indicate that the United States and its national and international partners need a new paradigm for the conduct of contemporary warfare and an accompanying new paradigm for strategic leader development. The strategic-level basis of these new paradigms can be found in the fact that the global community is redefining security in terms of nothing less than a reconceptualization of sovereignty. In the past, sovereignty was the acknowledged and/or real control of territory and the people in it. Now, sovereignty is the responsibility of governments to protect the well-being of their peoples and to prevent great harm to those peoples. The security dilemma has now become: Why, when, and how to intervene to protect people and prevent egregious human suffering? Thus, we address some of the strategic-level questions and recommendations that arise from this elaboration. We will probably generate more questions than answers, but it is time to begin the strategic-level discussion. This monograph comes at a critical juncture-a time of promise for globalization, creating a world that has become increasingly interconnected and a positive force for good government, human rights, the environment, peace, and prosperity. At the same time, there is profound concern that the fragmentation associated with globalization is acting as a negative force-leading people everywhere to seek refuge in smaller groups, characterized by isolationism, separatism, fanaticism, and deteriorating citizen security and well-being. Strategic Studies Institute