Building Human Security

Abstract

Because successful US security policies in the future will require implementing the correlates of peace rather than simply maximizing US military power, forward-looking policymakers and citizens will need to exert substantial pressures within the United States, as well as to build support from friendly transnational social movement organizations, to bring desired policies into being. To achieve change at home and to engage effectively abroad necessitates bolstering US democracy by requiring the electoral college to follow the popular vote; reducing gerrymandering; stopping voter suppression; encouraging honest public debate and civic education on global issues; countering threats to democratic integrity from officials’ dishonesty, populism, social media amplification of falsehoods, and the influence of huge monetary contributions on electoral and legislative processes; and broadening US national interests to serve the human security needs of all. Transnational networking also helps to address increasing democratic deficits that every country encounters from growing interdependence and globalization.