When in Gothenburg… What is security?
Good afternoon.
We are a few hours from leaving Gothenburg. The fleet is probably sleeping at the time I am writing this publication.
We can´t leave Gothenburg without sharing something about the Swedes. As you may know, I worked for ABB Structured Finance in Switzerland HQ offices some years ago.
Handelshögskolans Library, University of Gothenburg.
And I had the opportunity to interact with many Swedish people who worked for ABB and their respective friends. ABB was full of Swedish people working in Switzerland, and as Head of my business unit for E-commerce Affairs, I went to Sweden several times. Stockholm, a secure city, was my main destination. Of course, now that we are all in Gothenburg, we can´t leave without talking about how secure was to live, work and interact with others there. Swedish Universities as Lund University, Uppsala University, and Gothenburg University are beautiful places to study. We decided to share about the University of Gothenburg today, which is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6,000 staff members.
The Swedish have a secure country. But what is security in the context of the Nordics? We are sure the concept of security for them is different than in post-war developing countries. For instance, we wanted to know how the Swedes understand the concept of security. And we found that the University of Gothenburg offers a course at a graduate level about it: Global Security and Democracy. This is a course of 15 credits required at several master degrees: 1) Master’s Programme in Political Sciences; 2) Master’s Programme in Global Studies and 3) Master’s Programme in International Administration and Global Governance.
The School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg.
For more information, we invite you to visit the website of the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. In addition, if you are someone interested in pursuing a political career, we recommend you to apply to postgraduate studies in Political Sciences, Public Policies, International Development, Sociological Environmental and Political Studies, Peace and Development, Social and Political Anthropology, and similar master degrees, etc. It is wise for you to receive formal education in these themes, particularly about security issues before your entrance to the Political field. Find a recognized faculty team in a good university as this one, and study these programs before anything else. Remember the main roles of any Government is to procure the justice for all its citizens and keep them safe and secure (security defined in holistic modern terms, security is not just about having nice policemen and trained military forces, OK).
We have prepared a quick summary of the concept of security for you. It is based in some research papers from people who know much more about this topic than us. Please take a look at the following slides:
If you wish to download the slides in PDF Format, click here please: Eliescalante When in Gothenburg.
Instead of sharing multiple sources of knowledge about the term “security”, we decided to narrow it to make you think about the term security. Countries as Sweden are at the top of the list in relation to the highest in terms of security to live. On the contrary, living in developing countries, with post-internal war consequences and higher levels of violence, just make us aim and wish for security. Right now, immigration is a key policy under the storm. People don´t want to live in non-secure countries. Why? Because without security (from the holistic perspective definition) there is no development, there is no hope to fulfill our dreams, there are no job opportunities, there is no place to hide from crime and death, and there is no peace for us to wish to go out of our homes to interact with others socially. How to work hard for our dreams in a place which doesn´t offer security?
We are not experts in the concept or term “security”, but Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi and I, have lived in places where security doesn´t exist. We know by heart why security is our most beloved wish to come true. Living in violent countries like mine has given us the perspective to treasure what we don´t have. Of course, El Salvador is in the process to become a secure place (we hope for it), but it has taken us more than 26 years to start to build it (since the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992). The Chapultepec Peace Agreement brought peace “on paper” to El Salvador in 1992 after more than a decade of civil war. The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United Nations. But we still have not reached the “real peace” in town, because of gangs, political and social polarization, lack of job opportunities, poverty, and many political-economic structural problems which were not solved once the war finished. We believe there are basic things which the Salvadoran baby-boomers leaders in my country did not detect or if diagnosed, these problems were not prioritized correctly 26 years ago, and in consequence, they did not define nor established the right solutions appropriately. The Salvadoran Baby-boomers were thinking linearly, instead of using a holistically 360-degree view of our problems. We, the Salvadoran Generation X, Millennials and Gen Z will inherit those problems. Still, the consequences of that Civil War have not disappeared yet.
We will stop this post here. Tomorrow we will start our journey to Den Haag. We are so happy to leave Gothenburg. Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi and I, are simply happy to go to The Netherlands together this time. By the way, I love you, Alex, with all my soul. Remember we have a list of many things to do together soon. I love you endlessly to the moon and back.
Thank you. See you tomorrow. Sleep tight.
San Salvador, 17:33 pm (CST)
Source References:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310495076_What_is_Security
http://www.weinstitute.org/human-security.html
https://utbildning.gu.se/education/courses-and-programmes/course_detail?courseid=SF2221
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 