Border Transcending in a Multipolar World – A Pathway to Human Security?

Rather than herald a post-hegemonic era, the concept of multipolarity has been employed to promote new regional hegemonies and/or reanimate, for example through violent conflict, defunct imperial ideas. Moreover, multipolarity has not strengthened the international system and the possibility for global responses to crisis situations appears to have diminished proportionately to the increase in need for such responses. Alternatively, a robust multilateralism could hold out promise for change. Given a lack of forceful and enforceable rules to address pressing global issues, the potential of agenda-setting through polycentric and multiactor forms of governance requires more focused attention. Human security is about providing the material, social and environmental conditions for societies to thrive (Tadjbaksh and Chenoy 2007) and it is a key example where the advancement of local self-interest and the improvement of welfare worldwide become inseparable. However, the achievement of human security as a global objective would require transcending constraints of political, social and cultural borders. One alternative would be to link domestic ontological security concerns (security of the body, the mind, and a sense of national self) to more effective forms of cooperation across societies. Polycentric forms of cooperation that for example involve civil societies, foundations, international organisations and, if they are willing, states can potentially promote a more expansive notion of shared human security. This panel welcomes contributions that offer theoretical ad practical insights regarding the potentials of polycentric human security initiatives worldwide. To what extent can they promote wider international cooperation through agenda-setting and setting precedents? Can they successfully negotiate neo-liberal economic and political conditions? How might they operate in regions affected by ongoing conflict? Are they on the other hand too limited in scope to effect change in the longer term? These and other questions set the tone for this panel.