Security and the democratic constitutional rule of law, risks and threats

Abstract

Since the dawn of human existence, people have sought security. In organized societies, individuals relinquish the use of personal violence in exchange for the state providing security. The concept of security can vary depending on the international context and the risks that each society perceives as most dangerous. These variations are captured in different security approaches, ranging from those that view the state as the central subject of security to those that incorporate political, economic, social, environmental, and other factors that may affect development. At the end of the 20th century, the UN proposed a human security approach that places the individual, rather than the state, as the primary subject of security. Following the 2003 OAS Special Security Conference, countries in the Americas adopted a multidimensional security approach that encompasses traditional threats alongside new threats, concerns, and other challenges. These approaches are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary, enabling analysis of global and regional scenarios. From these analyses, trends that pose risks have been identified. Combined with our polarized internal situation, this allowed us to determine which risks could escalate into threats to national security and to propose measures to neutralize them.