IB Global Politics Topic Security Questionbank (HL)

Stimulus

Adapted from The Hungry Peace: Food, Power and the Security of States by Amara Diallo (2023), published in the Journal of Human Security.

Two ways of seeing food compete in global politics. 'National food security' frames the food supply as a strategic asset of the state: governments pursue self-sufficiency, build reserves and guard against foreign leverage, treating a reliable supply as a matter of national survival on a par with defence. On this view, the referent object to be secured is the nation.

'Human food security' shifts the referent object to the individual. It defines security as every person's reliable access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, regardless of nationality, and locates the threat not in rival states but in poverty, entitlement failure and disrupted markets. Where national food security asks whether the state is protected, human food security asks whether people are fed.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, between 'national food security' and 'human food security'.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, how the disruption of the global food supply became a security issue.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend a course of action that would make the global food supply more resilient to such shocks.

Stimulus

Adapted from Beyond the Drone Strike: Rethinking Counter-Terrorism by Yusuf Al-Amin (2022), published in the Review of Security Studies.

States confronting violent extremism rely on two broad strategies. 'Hard counter-terrorism' uses force and coercion: military strikes, drone operations, special forces raids, arrests and surveillance aimed at killing or capturing militants and dismantling their networks. Its promise is immediate disruption; its danger is that civilian casualties and mass detention can feed the grievances that recruit the next generation.

'Countering violent extremism', by contrast, works upstream on the conditions that produce radicalisation: education, employment, community engagement, counter-messaging and reintegration of former fighters. It is slower and harder to measure, and it cannot stop an imminent attack, but it aims to shrink the pool from which armed groups draw rather than merely thinning their ranks.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, between 'hard counter-terrorism' and 'countering violent extremism'.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, how a state or coalition has responded to a terrorist or insurgent threat.

(c) Based on your answer to part (b), recommend a change to the counter-terrorism strategy that would reduce the risk of further radicalisation.

(d) the extent to which military force is more effective than addressing root causes in defeating terrorism. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

Stimulus

Adapted from The Bomb and the Bargain: Nuclear Order in a Divided World by Reiko Tanaka (2020), published in the Journal of Strategic Affairs.

Two logics compete over how to keep nuclear weapons from being used. 'Deterrence' argues that safety comes from the weapons themselves: if any attacker would face unacceptable retaliation, no rational state will strike first, so a stable balance of terror preserves the peace. On this view, arsenals are a source of security and disarmament is dangerous.

'Disarmament' rejects this bargain as a permanent gamble. It holds that as long as weapons exist they may be used by accident, miscalculation or malice, and that real security lies in their verified reduction and eventual elimination. Where deterrence trusts the threat of annihilation to prevent war, disarmament trusts binding treaties and inspection to remove the threat itself.

(a) Using at least two examples from the stimulus, 'deterrence' with 'disarmament' as approaches to nuclear security.

(b) With explicit reference to a global political challenge from one of your researched case studies, how states have attempted to limit nuclear proliferation.

(d) the extent to which nuclear deterrence provides security rather than perpetuates global insecurity. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

Stimulus

Text extract (adapted): "In March 2022, after a weekend in which gangs killed dozens of people, El Salvador's government declared a state of exception, suspending certain rights and launching mass arrests. Within two years more than 75,000 people had been detained, many held in a vast new prison, and the homicide rate had fallen to among the lowest in the Americas. The president's approval soared. Human-rights groups documented arbitrary detention, disappearances and deaths in custody, and warned that emergency powers had become permanent. Supporters answered that ordinary Salvadorans could finally walk the streets in safety, and that critics abroad had never lived under gang rule."

(a) Using the stimulus, three things it suggests about El Salvador's crackdown on gangs.

(b) one political issue raised by using emergency powers to fight organised crime.

(c) Recommend a course of action that a government could take to reduce organised violent crime without permanently suspending rights, and consider its limitations.

(d) the extent to which militarised crackdowns on organised crime deliver security at an unacceptable cost.

Stimulus

Text extract (adapted): "Since late 2023 the Houthi movement in Yemen has fired drones and missiles at commercial ships passing through the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, saying it is acting in solidarity with Gaza. Major shipping lines rerouted their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding weeks and cost to journeys and disrupting a corridor that normally carries around twelve per cent of global trade. A United States-led coalition, Operation Prosperity Guardian, and later British and American air strikes tried to reopen the sea lanes, with limited success. A non-state group armed with cheap weapons had put one of the world economy's chokepoints at risk, and the world's most powerful navies struggled to stop it."

(a) Using the stimulus, three things it suggests about the threat to shipping in the Red Sea.

(b) one political issue raised by a non-state group's ability to disrupt a vital global trade route.

(c) Recommend a course of action that states could take to protect a vital maritime chokepoint, and consider its limitations.

(d) the extent to which non-state armed groups now pose as serious a threat to global security as states do.

(d) the extent to which food insecurity is best understood as a threat to human security rather than a matter of national security. Base your response on one researched case study and integrate links to at least two HL extension topic areas.

IB Global Politics Security Questionbank

IB Global Politics Security Questionbank