National Security and International Development: Implications for Northern Civil Society

INTRAC's workshops have enriched our understanding of the fallout from the 'War on Terror' (WoT). In South Asia we have seen links between CTMs and deprivation of rights of the poor. In the Middle East the WoT has added to the instability and misery brought about by foreign invasions, occupations, wars and state oppression. In Central Asia, many NGOs are struggling to maintain democratic rights to freedom of association and participation. The Somali diaspora has found CTMs complicating the hawala system of remittance transfers that act as the lifeblood of Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland. UK-based Somalis have come under heightened police suspicion and surveillance. US NGOs are struggling to find a balance between challenging their government and compliance, seeking to find ways of dealing with increasingly stringent CTMs whilst still maintaining independence and distancing themselves from the emphases of the WoT. Meanwhile, Northern civil society organisations (CSOs) in the aid chain are seeing increasingly clearly that overseas development aid is a branch of foreign policy, and that foreign policy has taken on strong overtones of national security priorities. The development sector includes ever- expanding elements of the WoT3; the securitisation of development; military manoeuvring to secure energy sources; a rising sense of xenophobia and intolerance; conflict and instability and the stark polarisation of a new cold war. These pose daunting challenges for the development sector and the CSOs who work within it. In this context INTRAC will continue to work with CSOs, researchers and policymakers to analyse the unfolding situation and expand space for analysis and debate.