Economic (in)security in globalization challenges

The issue of security in modern society is a question for all of us because modern society is a "risky society" (U. Beck) viewed from political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, medical, or any other aspect. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, the rapid progress of technology only accelerated the process of globalization, which led to more and more thinking and talking about security. All these changes that have taken place in society on a global level have conditioned a more serious approach to this problem, so today, much more attention is paid to the study of security at universities.

The greatest dangers for one society today, besides wars, are economic and political crises, migration, then corruption, crime, social insecurity, climate change, etc. Wars, as we know them throughout history, have become a rarity in modern society, changing their shape thanks to the progress of science and technology, which has resulted in dealing with security alongside the national interest of a country. Due to the changes that took place after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the national interest was replaced by the global one, that is, it all comes down to the big business interests of big corporations.

In such a distribution of power, where the interest of one corporation is more important and more powerful than the interest of the state: national resources are sold off, the economy is destroyed, it comes to deregulation, and the dismissal of workers, which further results in increasing poverty and migration in search of a better life.

Of course, this development of the situation on a global level makes everyone normal ask the question, how to get out of this "spontaneous chaos" of "economic primitivization"(E. Reinert), in which profit is more important than people (N. Chomsky), where we are drawn not of our own free will?

-lthough security studies are generally deal in a vast context with the military aspects, political, economic, environmental, and information aspects, this paper will primarily deal with economic security, ie, insecurity, where we will try to explain what consequences economically insecure societies encounter.

2. The concept of security

To approach the economic analysis of security and the consequences it brings, it would be worth defining the very concept of security, i.e., to single out some of the definitions of different authors, to obtain the widest possible picture of this term and its dealing aspects.

However, the modern concept of security was developed in the 17th century during the Thirty )ears' War in Europe and the English Civil War, on the other hand, the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 constituted that nation-states establish sovereign control, not only over internal but also over foreign affairs. -ssuredly, today the concept of the nation-state is quite common. However, the pre-Westphalian international system was based on the assumption that there is some kind of global principle of governing affairs run by emperors, popes, kings, etc. This idea, challenged by Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, who, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment, renewed the thought of "universalization", which was supposed to replace the old idea viewed in a religious context with a new, secular one. (Holmes, 2015)

Kant believed that "the civil constitution in every state should be republican one" (Kant, 1995: 38). He saw the republicans state as "peacekeepers", and that they are "more inclined to peaceful behavior" concerning other states (P. Williams), where points out the following: "Republican constitution, with its bright origin from a pure legal source, contains the hope that it will lead to the desired consequence - to eternal peace". (Kant, 1974: 143) Kant's optimism was reflected in the fact that he believed that in the event of war, the consent of all citizens would be sought, who, after consultation, "would not easily agree to war". However, Kant's, we can say, romantic view of the world should be replaced by Hobbes' because history teaches us differently, and that is, "man treats a man like a wolf". (T. Hobbes)

In his Introduction to Security Studies , Paul Williams presents several different theoretical versions of the origins of security studies. Thus, Williams points out that one of the versions of begin of the research of academic security refers to the period after the Second World War. For this theory, which is an -nglo--merican invention, Williams also points out that it is one of the most popular versions of this field, if not the most popular one. That is because "security studies are understood as the most important subfield of academic international relations" and that "international relations are rightly considered the disciplinary home of this sub-area". This is important because other areas are "defined as international history, international theory, international law, international political economy, and regional studies". (Williams, 2012: 41)

When we talk about the connection between security studies and international relations, we should also mention the work of -lan Collins Contemporary Security Studies , where he emphasizes that "the study of security is at the core of international relations". (Collins, 2010: 10) Unlike Williams, who cites the example of the Second World War, Collins cites the example of the First World War, where points out that the discipline of international relations was created in 1919 in the United Kingdom, and was made precisely out of a desire to avoid similar bloodshed and horror, which should have allowed international relations to be diverse regarding related disciplines such as history, economics, geography, and international law (Sheehan in Collins, 2010). Chronologically viewed at the historical events from the First World War until today, we can see that there was bloodshed and horror despite the development of international relations and that (still) "eternal peace" (I. Kant) did not prevail and that (yet) we have not experienced the "kingdom of freedom" (D. Basta).

Orhan Dragaš singles out two types of security, horizontal and vertical. For him, horizontal security is "the security of individual structures - the state, the international community, companies, socially important systems, the environment, etc." while on the other hand, vertical security, according to the same author, is "the security of the social community, nations, individual social groups and individuals". (Dragaš, 2020: 87) -s a historic milestone in the study of security, Dragaš cites September 11, 2001, when the Twin Towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on the United States. He cites the speech of former US President Barack Obama from 2013 in San Jose, where he said the following: "I think it is important to recognize that you cannot have 100 percent security and also 100 percent privacy and zero inconveniences. We, as a society, will have to make some choices". (Dragaš, 2020: 90)

In contemporary literature, three theoretical approaches to the security study stand out, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism. The Realistic School of International Relations mainly deals with macro issues such as political and military, in the context of power and security, which are the driving force in the international system, based on military capabilities. For them, other issues remain secondary, as they see national security as synonymous with the national interest, suggesting that security policy subordinates all other interests to the interests of the nation (Wolfers inDegaut, 2015). Hans Morgenthau, one of the most important representatives of realistic theory, came closest to security with the following definition, stating the following: "National security must be defined as the integrity of the national territory and its institutions". (Morgenthau in Mes3asz, 2004: 3) Williams points out that Morgenthau's Politics -mong Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace is an "indisputable standard of political realism" that had six editions between 1948 and 1985. (Williams, 2012: 57)

Liberals, on the other hand, believe that international politics does not have to be conflicted and violent. They accept Immanuel Kant's idea of peace and consider that states can rely on cooperation in solving global problems. Here is where "commercial liberalism" emerges, which, according to Moravčik, is defined as "incentives created by opportunities for cross-border economic transactions" because "trade is generally a cheaper means of acquiring wealth than war, sanctions or other coercive means". (Moravčik in Williams, 2012: 75) Here, Moravčik alludes to the mercantilist state that -dam Smith criticized in his works, calling it corrupt and accusing it of trying to protect its un3ustly acquired wealth by waging wars and financing the army.

The third theoretical approach, constructivism, appeared in the eighties of the twentieth century and is becoming increasingly important in international relations. Williams points out that constructivism is "a combination of sociological approach and critical theory". He also claims that "constructivists argue that the world is socially built through the interaction of sub3ects, that factors and structures are mutually constituted and that ideological factors such as norms, identity, and ideas, in general, are of central importance for the construction and dynamics of world politics". (Williams, 2012: 107) Constructivists start from the idea that in assessing security, they pay more attention to ideological factors than to material ones, and believe that security will be achieved when "perceptions and fears of security threats, challenges, vulnerabilities, and risks are mitigated and overcome". (Brauch in Degaut, 2015)

3.    Economic (in)security

In the first part of the paper, we briefly introduced some of the definitions and theoretical divisions of security. In the following, we will focus more on the economic element of(in)security, on what it represents, and what consequences it brings. Because when the previously mentioned Cold War between the Western and Eastern blocs finished, with the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was an aggressive penetration of capitalism into the former communist countries, which represented a break with the centrally planned economy and the transition to neoliberal capitalism. That meant that a transition in the form of mass privatizations of socially-owned companies, deregulation, and liberalization should be implemented. How is all this related to economic (in)security?

When we talk about economic insecurity, for most people, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the economic crisis followed by hyperinflation. One of the more interesting definitions of hyperinflation given by Hannes Hofbauer, an -ustrian publicist and publisher, who in his Critique of Migration: Who Gains and Who Loses , points out the following: "From a socioeconomic point of view, hyperinflation is nothing but a robbery of those who had nothing but their labor force and savings book". (Hofbauer, 2020: 97) Furthermore, the same author analyzes the period from 1989, where he presents startling data on the transition in Eastern European countries, which resulted in a struggle for survival because all possibilities of consumer expectations were destroyed. Namely, Hofbauer points out that in some Eastern European countries, inflation reached three digits, so it is:

"In Poland, prices increased by 600% between 1989 and 1990, in Bulgaria hyperinflation was 320%, in Romania 200%. In 1992, merely after a year of independence, Slovenia had inflation of 200%. Russia had inflation of 1500%, Ukraine of 1200%, and a year later 5300%. While, on the other hand, the inflation rate in the Czech Republic in 1991 was 60%, in Hungary 35% for the same year". (Hofbauer, 2020: 98)

Hofbauer did not mention here one of the most ma3or inflation in the history of humankind, and it is the one that is well known to the people of

Serbia, that is then, the FR of )ugoslavia. Namely, in the period from 1992 to 1994 in the former FR of )ugoslavia, one of the greatest hyperinflations in the economic history of one country was recorded, which had devastating consequences in terms of length and intensity. Inflation in FR of )ugoslavia at that time amounted to an unimaginable 19,810.2%.1 (Nova.rs, 04.01.2021) There is no doubt that this hyperinflation has left lasting effects on the economic development of Serbia because we certainly still feel its consequences today. It did not come by itself, it was accompanied by the disintegration of )ugoslavia, wars between the former republics, and, finally, sanctions. It will probably take "decades to fix what failed in 3ust those two years". (Kovačević, 2018: 65)

Why is it important to mention this detail? Precisely because of that, which largely determined the future of "developing countries", that is, Third World countries. Namely, the term "developing countries", we can freely say, sounds paradoxical because most of these countries, as we saw earlier in the text, immediately after the collapse of socialism, fell into debt slavery. Because deindustrialization of these countries has created "dependent societies of the world's periphery and semi-periphery" (L3. Mitrović).² Erik Reinert, in his work Global Economy: How the Rich Got

Rich and Why the Poor -re Getting Poorer , gave an interesting example of how deindustrialization and the disintegration of the state lead to massive unemployment, where he points out that "many have returned to nomadic pastoralism" the lives of their ancestors, and that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country liberalized foreign trade overnight, blindly believing the advice coming from Washington - the World Bank and the IMF, the holy trinity of neoliberalism. Reinert points out that result was "that Mongolia's economy was restored from the age of industry to the age of the nomadic economy", which further resulted in ecological and economic catastrophe.³ (Reinert, 2006: 116-117)

Most Southeast European countries today are "occupied", not militarily, but economically, by large companies that mostly come from the West, but recently also from China, which is aggressively penetrating the European market and thus, apparently wants to gain control, and perhaps at some point takes over the role of economic leader from the United States.4

However, that does not change the position of Southeast European countries. They do not care which imperial power will be dominant at the moment when all empires have a single policy - the exploitation of resources. Because the rules brought by the Washington Consensus tightened the loose around the necks of countries in transition and have put the workers back in shackles.

Table 1. Basic principles ofthe Washington Consensus

1.	Fiscal discipline . It comes down to the requirement that public revenues cover public expenditures since the budget deficit i.e. the deficit of public finances, leads to inflation and the balance of payments (current) deficit.
2.	Changing the priority of public expenditures . Public spending should be directed to programs that support economic growth and the poorest.
3.	Tax reform . -nd such that it combines the reduction of (marginal) tax rates and the increase of the tax base. That will increase taxes and thus total public revenues.
4.	Interest rate liberalization . If there is interest rate control, it should be abolished.
5.	Competitive exchange rate policy . The central bank should ensure that the overvalued domestic currency does not 3eopardize the competitiveness of the domestic economy in foreign trade.
6.	Liberalization of foreign trade . -nd that as a general direction, without indicating the speed at which it should be reported.
7.	Liberalization of inward foreign direct Investment . It refers only to FDI, not to the entire capital account. Therefore, the necessity is to enable all foreigners who want to invest in the country or buy or build something could do it without any restrictions.
8.	Privatization . It starts from the fact that, if privatization is carried out correctly, it brings benefits, whether the privatized companies operate in a competitive market or are appropriately regulated.
9.	Deregulation . First of all, it implies the removal of regulatory barriers by the entry of new companies into the branch, which increases competition, as well as the exit of companies from the branch, and not the removal of production safety regulation, environmental regulation, or economic regulation in the case of natural monopolies.
10.	Property rights . It is necessary to protect property without high costs.

Unfortunately, most of these countries have committed to implementing the ideas from this document which determines the rules. The seventh point of this document is the most important for us, and it concerns the liberalization of the inflow of foreign direct investments. Namely, the problem is not foreign investments, but the lack of restrictions on what they can buy and what they can build on the territory of another country. That brings us back to Immanuel Kant and his idea of "eternal peace". Where he points out that "no state should violently interfere in the constitution and rule of another" (Kant, 1995: 31). Why is it important to mention this? We will cite the example of the Republic of Serbia, more precisely the FR of )ugoslavia, which in 1999 experienced what "humanitarian" military interventions are, which aim at only one... violent implementation of a plundering ideology in the name of democracy.5

-fter that, Serbian society, which was already fragile in the early 1990s and was maintained artificially due to internal unrest, started its downfall in every aspect (economic, cultural, and educational). It is difficult to say today what the economic plan of Serbia is, that is, the economic interest. Public officials boast about the highest GDP, while half of the population is in debt. The data of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications published in February 2021 showed almost 37% of the basket of goods refers to food, while about 20% refers to housing and energy costs. If we look at the data of the Republic Bureau of Statistics from March of the same year, we will see that the median salary for that month was 49,328 dinars, while the average basket of goods amounts to 75,000 dinars. (Biznis.rs, 26.05.2021) It is clear to everyone that such data show that the citizens of Serbia need a magic wand to survive one month.

-nother indicator of Serbia's disastrous economic policy is that Serbia imports more than it exports. -ccording to the data of the Republic Bureau of Statistics, the economy of Serbia exported goods worth 1.96

billion euros in September 2021, while on the other hand, it imported goods worth about 2.47 billion euros. -lthough compared to the previous year, exports 3umped by 24% and imports by 21%, foreign trade from January to September 2021 amounted to approximately 36 billion euros, of which about 15.6 billion euros went to exports, while 20,3 billion euros went to imports. When we do recalculation, we get a deficit of 4.763 billion euros. (Danas, 29.10.2021)

Serbia faces immense challenges in the future, both economically and politically. -bove all, Serbia should achieve good cooperation with neighboring nations and pursue a policy of peace, which should be based on mutual respect. We are all aware of the past events with the countries around us and with their then, but also present (hidden) pretensions. However, we should be aware that there are still Serbian citizens in the former )ugoslav republics, and for the sake of their security "any cooperation with clearly defined principles would be well-intentioned, because cooperation bridges historical misunderstandings and conflicts between peoples" where "pro3ects in which the standard of citizens is raised in every aspect from economic to cultural, are welcome". (-nd3elković, 2019: 464)

4.    In conclusion - Migration as a consequence of economic security

Migration has been an integral part of human society since it existed. The motives for migration are different. Sometimes the reason for migration is economic causes. -lso, environmental causes (lack of natural resources necessary for everyday needs, such as water or uncultivated land), while the most common cause is war-torn areas or political migration. The wars in Syria, Iraq, -fghanistan, and some -frican countries have resulted in a large wave of migration from these countries to Western European countries. Serbia was also affected by the migration wave during the wars of the 1990s, when many people from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later from Kosovo and Metohi3a, found refuge in various shelters and humanitarian centers throughout Serbia.

War-induced migration can be a significant economic, social, humanitarian, and security problem for a country. In the case of Serbia, migration in the 1990s was not 3ust a security problem, as it was mostly "members of the same people, so there was no fear that a massive wave of refugees could change the ethnic, cultural, or religious image of Serbia". (Dragišić, 2015: 369 ) While Serbia was facing war-induced migration, other Southeast European countries were facing economic migration at the time, that is, after deindustrialization.

Hannes Hofbauer points out that there are several reasons for mass migration, such as: "devaluation of savings due to inflation, 3ob losses, which led to the closure of thousands of companies, the collapse of social and health insurance and the extreme difference in wages of 12:1 in most Eastern European countries, compared to Germany, -ustria, and Switzerland". (Hofbauer, 2020: 100) The same author points out that the main reason for migration from Eastern to Western Europe was the standard of living and that according to research, 57% of Czechs and Slovaks left their country, while the number of Hungarians was 51% and 49% of Poles. (Hofbauer, 2020: 100-101)

Serbia today, unlike the 1990s, has the most problems with economic migration, which is directly related to people's living standards, 3ust like the people of Southeast Europe. Namely, according to the data of the European Statistical Office for 2019, about 51,000 people emigrate from Serbia annually, about 4,250 people a month. (RTP, 10.10.2019) -ccording to the OECD, about half a million people have left Serbia in the last eleven years, while, according to the same source, the number of returnees is unknown. (Danas, 21.12.2019)

From the year 2000 until today, in the last twenty years, almost a million citizens have left Serbia due to economic insecurity, which has led to higher mortality than the birth rate and completely changed the demographic picture of this country. (Pob3eda, 11.07.2021) -ll this sounds devastating, but at the same time sobering, because it is high time we asked ourselves: "Where is this ship sailing to?" and will the last citizen who leaves this country "turn off the light".