International Migration and International Security: Why Prejudice Is a Global Security Threat

Through an interdisciplinary analytic lens that combines debates emerged in the fields of international relations, political science and sociology, Valeria Bello reveals how transnational dynamics have increased extremism, prejudiced attitudes towards others and international xenophobia.

Bello begins her analysis by tracing similarities between Europe today and Europe before World War II to explain why prejudice is a global security threat and why it is arising as a current global concern within International Organizations. In such a light, Bello shows how changes in the International System and the attack on the UN practice of Intercultural Dialogue have become sources of new perceived threats and the reasons for which new exclusionary patterns have arisen. She argues that both those outcomes have been exacerbating the perceived clash of civilizations and the root causes of different fashions of extremisms. Bello concludes by portraying alternative ways to deal with these instabilities through a partnership of the different stakeholders involved, including both state and non-state actors at global, regional, national and local levels.

International Migration and International Security provides a unique crosscutting angle from which to analyze the current socio-political crisis connected to the theme of international migration that the world is currently witnessing. Bello expertly shows that different paths for the world are possible and suggest ways to further promote Global Human Security through local, national, regional and global practices of Intercultural Dialogue.

Valeria Bello is a research fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM), Spain. She has also been the founding scientific coordinator of the UNU Migration Network from January 2013 to January 2016. Her research interests concern the role of non-state actors in the area of both migration and interethnic relations and in the fields of international relations and human security.