Human Security and World Disorder

A survey of the history of the last 100 years reveals two very different trends shaping the world we live in. On the one hand, peoples, governments, and individuals increasingly seem willing to abandon public goods and personal rights in order to ensure a sense of security. Yet, even as such fundamental values as equality, liberty, and justice are bargained away in the name of peace and stability, the world seems to slip further into a state of disorder and insecurity. Every day we are inundated with dire warnings about economic or environmental crises that cast a shadow over our future, threats of physical or cyber terrorism, concerns about wars that can engulf states and regions, or stories about governments with too much power making secret decisions that threaten out privacy and rights. It seems that, even with the sacrifices we've made for security, the world is as dangerous and disordered as it ever was.
How, then, can security be achieved and the world we live in be made safer, and at what cost? Are the measures we take to protect stability and order helping to make us more secure, or less? What impact is made on security by factors such as political instability, economic inequality, rapid technological change, and changes to moral traditions and values? These are the questions this course will address.
Students who have taken PHIL 400 Human Security and World Disorder cannot take this course.