Giorgio Shani - Religion, Identity and Human Security

Religion, Identity and Human Security seeks to demonstrate that a major source of human insecurity comes from the failure of states around the world to recognize the increasing cultural diversity of their populations which has resulted from globalization. Shani begins by setting out the theoretical foundations, dealing with the transformative effects of globalization on identity, religion and security. The second part of the book then draws on different cases of sites of human insecurity around the globe to develop these ideas, examining themes such as:

Highlighting that religion can be a source of both human security and insecurity in a globalizing world, Shani offers a critical human security paradigm that seeks to desecularize the individual by recognizing the culturally contested and embedded nature of human identities. The work argues that religion serves an important role in re-embedding individuals deracinated from their communities by neo-liberal globalization, and will be of interest to students of international relations, security studies, and religion and politics.

Giorgio Shani is the Director of the Social Science Research Institute and Senior Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at the International Christian University, Japan.

Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
London Metropolitan University, UK

This series aims to publish high-quality works on the topic of the resurgence of political forms of religion in both national and international contexts. This trend has been especially noticeable in the post-Cold War era (that is, since the late 1980s). It has affected all the world religions (including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism) in various parts of the world (such as the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, South and South-East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa).

The series welcomes books that use a variety of approaches to the subject, drawing on scholarship from political science, international relations, security studies, and contemporary history.

Books in the series explore these religions, regions, and topics both within and beyond the conventional domain of ChurchState relations to include the impact of religion on politics, conflict, and development, including the late Samuel Huntingtons controversial yet influential thesis about clashing civilizations.

In sum, the overall purpose of this book series is to provide a comprehensive survey of what is currently happening in the interaction between religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, in relation to a variety of issues.

Christianity and Party Politics
Keeping the faith
Martin H. M. Steven

Religion, Politics and International Relations
Selected essays
Jeffrey Haynes

Religion and Democracy
A worldwide comparison
Carsten Anckar

Religious Actors in the Public Sphere
Means, objects and effects
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes and Anja Hennig

Politics, Religion and Gender
Framing and regulating the veil
Edited by Sigelinde Rosenberger and Birgit Sauer

Representing Religion in the European Union
Does God matter?
Edited by Lucian N. Leustean

An Introduction to Religion and Politics
Theory and practice
Jonathan Fox

Religion in International Relations Theory
Concepts, tools, debates
Nukhet A. Sandal and Jonathan Fox

Religion in the Context of Globalization
Essays on concept, form, and political implication
Peter Beyer

Religion and the Realist Tradition
From political theology to international relations theory and back
Jodok Troy

First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2014 Giorgio Shani

The right of Giorgio Shani to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Shani, Giorgio, 1970

Religion, identity and human security / Giorgio Shani.

pages cm. (Routledge studies in religion and politics)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Globalization. 2. GlobalizationReligious aspects. 3. Group identity. 4. Human security. 5. Multiculturalism. I. Title.

JZ1318.S49 2014

306.6dc23 2013041412

ISBN: 978-0-415-50906-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-51925-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77903-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton

Cover image: Insecurity Surinder Shani

The twentieth anniversary of the publication of the United Nations Development Programmes Human Development Report , which introduced the concept of human security to an international audience, provides an opportune moment to reflect on its relevance to a world increasingly assailed by a variety of different challenges and crises. Despite its recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2012 and its institutionalization in the United Nations system through the Trust Fund for Human Security, human security has failed to contest the hegemony of the national security paradigm within the theory and practice of international relations. Widely discredited following its inability to provide security from the existential threats caused by hunger, poverty, disease, repression, environmental disasters and terrorism, the national security paradigm continues to provide the dominant framework for ascertaining and dealing with security threats. Human security, on the other hand, continues to be ensconced in a liberal straitjacket that reduces the human to a bundle of needs and wants, a poor, bare, forked animal ( King Lear , Act III, Scene IV), to be protected and empowered from a range of existential threats from physical violence to hunger, disease and illiteracy by the state and the international community of territorialized states. In its present instantiation, it lends itself to co-option and incorporation into the national security paradigm, which divides humanity into self-contained units with different interests and capabilities, thus naturalizing war, poverty and conflict.