Security and defenders’ work space

All security strategies can be summarised in a few words: You want to expand your work space and sustain it in that way. Speaking strictly in security terms, defenders’ work space requires at least a minimum level of consent by the main actors in the area - especially by political and military authorities and armed groups who might become affected by defenders’ work and decide to act against them.

This consent can be explicit, such as a formal permit from the authorities, or implicit, for example, in the case of armed groups. Consent will be more solid if the actor can see some benefit resulting from the defenders´ work. It will be lower if the actor perceives related costs. In this case, their level of consent will depend on the political costs carried by an attack on defenders. These issues are especially relevant in armed conflicts where defenders face more than one armed actor. One armed actor might see defenders´ work as helpful to their opponent. Another actor’s open acceptance of defenders´ work may therefore lead to hostility by their opponent.

Defenders’ work space can be represented by two axes:

• one representing the extent to which the actor will tolerate or accept your work based on the extent to which your work impacts on the actor’s objectives or strategic interests (the tolerance-acceptance continuum)
• one representing the extent to which you can deter attacks, because of high political costs, expanding to when you can dissuade the actor on rational/moral grounds or even persuade them of political benefits to not attacking you or violating human rights (the deterrence-dissuasion continuum).

The expansion of your work space can be achieved over time. Achieving acceptance of defenders´ work through a strategy of dissuasion should take into account working for the needs of the population, your image, procedures, integration etc. But in areas of armed conflict the space usually remains limited to just that which follows from the armed actors’ consent, partially generated as a result of the costs of attacking the defenders (dissuasion).