PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Contemporary Global Concerns — I
Explain the non-traditional security threats in the context of food and environmental crises.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 security once state-centred / military → non-traditional turn → welfare threatened by non-military, transnational sources (Caballero-Anthony) → food + environment as the clearest cases R2 the widening of “security” beyond the state → food and environmental crises named as non-traditional threats → both erode livelihoods and stability
Body flow
non-traditional security defined (Caballero-Anthony) → food crisis: reduced supply, rising staple prices, hunger (Timmer) → scale: ~258m / 58 countries / 2022; ~9m hunger deaths a year (WFP) → unequal burden: women, children, poor households, small producers → environment amplifies: climate extremes cut farm labour productivity (up to 14% in low-income tropics) → Homer-Dixon: supply / demand / structural scarcity → resource capture + ecological marginalisation → state capacity weakened → insurgency, communal
Counter-view
violence → responses: equity-centred adaptation, rights-based access, flexible transboundary governance
Conclusion routes
food and environmental stress as a “development” concern vs a genuine “security” threat → Homer-Dixon's scarcity-conflict link settles it on the security side R1 these are security threats precisely because they hit livelihoods, weaken states and breed conflict R2 the durable answer is equity-centred, rights-based and transboundary — not military
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
