Conceptualizing Peace, Security and Development: A Critical Discourse

Abstract

This professorial inaugural lecture critically attempts to examine the concepts Peace, Security, and Development. Peace, is understood to be not only the absence of direct and physical violence, but more importantly, the absence of structural violence connoting social justice and social cohesion. On the other hand, security is not just the absence of military threats to a state's core national interests, but more significantly entails the absence of socio-economic and political threats to the interests and well-being of individuals and communities. This, therefore, introduces a related contemporary concept of human security. Development, consequently, becomes the direct by-product as well as the sum-total of our conceptualization and reconceptualization of peace and security. This lecture employs the case study of Somalia and Ethiopia in a comparative perspective to evaluate and analyze the three related concepts: Peace, Security, and Development. Overall, the lecture demonstrates and justifies two concluding observations: the emerging importance of the analysis of political values and variables on/of the development process, and thus the significance of development politics as an emerging subfield of political science; and the increasing significance of the disciplines of peace and conflict studies. The lecture recommends the establishment of relevant research institutes that can address the complex relations and interplay among the three concepts. Consequently, the formulation of Institute for Security, Environment and Development (ISED).