Peace Building in Practice: Creating Shared Security at All Levels

Abstract

Never before have the fates of individual communities and nations been so intertwined, exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. And never before have our safety and well-being depended so much on the safety and well-being of others. A new approach to thinking about safety and security is required: an approach where we commit to our mutual well-being and equitable access to resources. Shared security is a paradigm that promotes the safety and well-being of people throughout the world. It is the idea that shared problems require shared nonviolent solutions and that our interests are best served when we foster peaceful and just relationships together. The vision of shared security is very simply the idea that “my peace is your peace”—the understanding that peace and security are indivisible. It is a peace-building paradigm and belief that we can find mutual solutions to societal problems without weapons or violence. A shared-security approach invests seriously in peace building instead of war building in the name of security. It imagines a world where leaders are mobilized not to build walls, separate families, and bomb targets but to work together to prioritize peace building, support people-powered movements, and invest in early interventions that address the root causes of conflict long before violence and discrimination erupt, dividing civil society and fracturing the institutions that enable cooperation and democracy.

Human Security Psychology: A Linking Construct for an Eclectic Discipline

“…Correspondingly, a key focus in psychology has been on the promotion of collective and national security and wellbeing by facilitating more equitable access to securitizing resources (income, shelter, food, and attachments) across the population (Kennedy & Hallowell, 2021;Zotova & Karpetyan, 2018).…”

“…Correspondingly, a key focus in psychology has been on the promotion of collective and national security and wellbeing by facilitating more equitable access to securitising resources (income, shelter, food and attachments) across the population (Kennedy & Hallowell, 2021; Zotova & Karapetyan, 2018). That is, insecurities in employment, for example, have been associated with reductions in personal, community and national security, whilst increased job security is associated with increased wellbeing (Kalleberg, 2018).…”

“…They are also reflected in the growing diversity of HS concerns with which psychology engages. These include risk appraisals regarding exposure to traumatic events (Marshall et al, 2007), issues of safety and effective responses to circumstantial hazards (Watson, et al, 2011); self-preservation, shared security and peace building (Christie & Montiel, 2013; Kennedy & Hallowell, 2021), impacts of colonisation on indigenous suicides and processes of self-determination (Lawson-Te Aho & Liu, 2010); initiatives to address economic and related precarities (Hodgetts & Stolte, 2017; Kalleberg, 2018); and efforts to understand and limit climate change (Nielsen et al, 2021).…”

“…That is, when such systems are well resourced and focused on meeting human needs over financial restraint, they can mitigate the impacts of adverse (insecure) living conditions on marginalised lives (Simpson et al, 2021). As Kennedy and Hallowell (2021, p. 4) note, ‘reducing inequalities is one key strategy in building shared security’.…”

“…Correspondingly, valuable work has been done to extend knowledge of the cognitive and behavioural factors evident in individual and group efforts to meet personal security needs within specific community or national contexts (Zotova & Karapetyan, 2018;Zinchenko, 2011). More recently scholars have called for the development of broader multilevel approaches to security as a psychological, material and socio-cultural phenomenon that intwines the fates of persons, communities and nations (Hopner et al, 2020;Kennedy & Hallowell, 2021;Zotova & Karapetyan, 2018). As Bar-Tal (2020) proposes 'security is an essential precondition of an ordered existence for an individual, a collective and a societal system'.…”