‘Sustainable Security’

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 commits the international community to promoting ‘just, peaceful and inclusive societies’ with a clear focus on security. Central to the goal, is the creation of ‘strong’ national institutions. Rather than taking this to licence the creation of repressive institutions, this chapter argues that SDG 16 invites a radical re-imagining of dominant discourses on security. This would see interpersonal insecurity as a core concern that must be addressed together with geopolitical insecurity, and recognize that strong institutions are those that are robust, well-resourced, responsive, and well-governed. In the absence of a shift towards sustainability in our pursuit of security, the transformative potential of Sustainable Development Goal 16 will be difficult to realize; indeed, the goal may instead be used to legitimate oppressive, repressive, and often fundamentally undemocratic measures and institutions said to be needed to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime.