Security in the Contemporary World
When we discuss world politics, the terms security or national security often come up. These terms are frequently used to imply that a topic is too important, secret, or dangerous for public debate, making it seem like something only governments and experts should handle. However, in a democracy, citizens need to understand what security means. This chapter explores two different ways of looking at security—traditional and non-traditional—and explains how our understanding of security depends on different situations and contexts.
The 1994 UNDP Human Development Report highlighted that the concept of security has been too narrowly focused on nation-states rather than on the "legitimate concerns of ordinary people who sought security in their daily lives."
At its most basic level, security means freedom from threats. However, life is full of threats, and not every threat can be considered a security issue. If we viewed every potential danger as a security threat, our world would be overwhelmed.
Therefore, security studies focus on threats that endanger core values to such an extent that these values would be damaged beyond repair if nothing were done.
The idea of security is not fixed. Conceptions of security change over time and differ between societies. To understand these variations, we can group the different notions of security into two main categories: traditional and non-traditional.
The traditional concept of security, often called national security, primarily focuses on military threats.
In response to the threat of war, a government has three main choices:
Traditional security policy includes two other key components:
Governments constantly assess the power of other countries, especially their neighbors. A country that is much more powerful could become a threat in the future, even if it shows no aggressive intent now. To counter this, governments work to maintain a favorable balance of power. This is often achieved by building up military strength, but economic and technological power are also crucial as they form the foundation of military power.
An alliance is a coalition of states that work together to deter or defend against a military attack.
In the traditional view, the international system is a brutal place with no central authority to control the behavior of states. Each country must therefore be responsible for its own security.
Traditional security also includes internal security, which deals with threats from within a country's borders. For a country to be able to defend itself from external threats, it must first have internal peace and order.
After the Second World War, internal security seemed less important for the world's most powerful countries, like the US and the Soviet Union, as they were internally united. Western European nations also faced few serious threats from within. As a result, they focused primarily on external threats, particularly the Cold War rivalry between the US-led and Soviet-led alliances.
However, for the newly-independent countries of Asia and Africa, the security challenges were different and more complex:
Even within the traditional, military-focused view of security, there is room for cooperation to limit violence. This cooperation focuses on both the reasons for going to war and the methods used.
Other forms of cooperation in traditional security include:
Non-traditional notions of security expand the concept beyond military threats to include a wide range of dangers that affect human existence. This approach questions the traditional focus of security.
The key question is, "Security for who?" This is known as the referent of security.
These broader views are often called human security or global security.
Human security is about protecting people, not just states. A secure state does not automatically mean its people are secure. In fact, over the last 100 years, more people have been killed by their own governments than by foreign armies.
There are two main concepts of human security:
The idea of global security emerged in the 1990s to address threats that are global in nature, such as global warming, international terrorism, and health epidemics like AIDS and bird flu. No single country can solve these problems alone, and international cooperation is essential.
Non-traditional security focuses on new and different types of threats.
Terrorism is political violence that deliberately and indiscriminately targets civilians. Terrorist groups use force or the threat of force to change a political situation they dislike. Civilian targets are chosen to create terror and use public unhappiness as a weapon against governments.
Human rights are generally classified into three types:
There is disagreement about which rights are universal and what the international community should do when they are violated. Some argue the UN should intervene with force to stop abuses, while others believe powerful states will only act when it serves their national interests.
The world's population is growing, with most of that growth occurring in six countries: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. High population growth and low incomes in poor countries make them poorer, while low population growth and high incomes make rich countries richer. This gap between the global North (rich countries) and South (poor countries) is a source of insecurity. Most armed conflicts now occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region.
Poverty in the South has led to large-scale migration to the North in search of better economic opportunities, creating political friction.
Diseases like HIV-AIDS, bird flu, and SARS have spread rapidly across borders through migration, business, and tourism. By 2003, an estimated 4 crore people were infected with HIV-AIDS worldwide, mostly in Africa and South Asia. While new treatments are available in rich countries, they are too expensive for poor regions, where diseases like HIV-AIDS are driving communities deeper into poverty.
Dealing with these non-traditional threats requires international cooperation rather than military force. Using military force to solve poverty, manage migration, or control epidemics would likely make things worse.
Cooperative security involves strategies of international cooperation, which can be bilateral, regional, or global. It involves a wide range of actors:
Cooperative security may involve the use of force as a last resort, but only when sanctioned and applied collectively by the international community, for example, to stop a government from killing its own people or to act against international terrorists.
India faces both traditional (military) and non-traditional threats from both inside and outside its borders. Its security strategy has four main components:
Strengthening Military Capabilities: India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbors, including Pakistan (1947-48, 1965, 1971, 1999) and China (1962). To safeguard national security in a region with nuclear-armed countries, the Indian government conducted nuclear tests, first in 1974 and again in 1998.
Strengthening International Norms and Institutions: India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, promoted Asian solidarity, decolonisation, disarmament, and the UN. India has advocated for a fair international economic order and used non-alignment to create a peaceful space outside the Cold War power blocs. India is also part of initiatives like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to address global warming and contributes troops to UN peacekeeping missions.
Meeting Internal Security Challenges: India has faced challenges from militant groups in regions like Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, and Kashmir who have sought to break away. To preserve national unity, India has used a democratic political system that allows different groups to voice their grievances and share political power.
Developing the Economy: India has tried to develop its economy to lift citizens out of poverty and reduce massive economic inequalities. A democratic government is under pressure to combine economic growth with human development, which provides greater security for its people.
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