The continued production of weapons, including with taxpayer monies, is contributing to insecurity at home and abroad.
“We have an elephant in the room,” said Igballe Rogova, KWN Executive Director. “When will we stop pretending it’s not there? We can see it.”
     Rogova was addressing an audience including representatives from European ministries of defence, diplomats, former parliamentarians and academics during a discussion on “Europe at Risk 2.0: new Paradigms for European Security” in Vienna on Nov. 24-25.
The “elephant in the room” is the financial interests behind the production of weapons. In rooms in which security is discussed, these financial interests are often ignored or obscured. Talk around the Women,
Peace and Security agenda that followed the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 also has said little about the financial interests involved in war and the production of weapons, which continue to undermine women’s (and men’s security).
    Officials have told KWN off-the-record that they support more public discussion surrounding this issue, but that they themselves are not in a position to speak about it openly or publicly.
In speaking about security, Rogova explained that as long as taxpayers’ money is prioritized for military spending and infrastructure projects such as roads (as in Kosovo), people’s human security is undermined.
    “So long as money is spent on roads and military, it is not spent on education, healthcare, childcare or care for the elderly,” Rogova said. “When people live in poverty and are disenfranchised, when people lack human security, this opens the door to ethnic hatreds and religious extremism, which aggressors use in order to maintain power, for their own financial interests. This leads to insecurity: not only growing involvement in terrorist organizations, but human insecurity as well: a general lack of wellbeing in terms of health, education and opportunities.”
She called upon decision-makers to stop seeing security in military terms and to stop funding the manufacturing of all forms of weapons with taxpayer monies.
    During her remarks, Rogova also spoke about visa liberalization. Europe is not respecting Kosovars’ right to freedom of movement, she said, which has several negative consequences. “Kosovo is a ghetto,” she said. “Even activists cannot travel and speak about their experiences because they lack freedom of movement.”
The discussion was organized by the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Centre for Liberal Strategies and Directorate for Security Policy of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Defence and Sports. Rogova raised similar issues during a symposium weeks earlier, on Nov. 3-4, entitled “Enhancing Women’s Share in Peace and Security” in Vienna, also organized by the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue.