What is security?
Security means being free from threats to the things we value most, such as life, land, freedom and well-being. In politics, security usually means protection from very serious threats that could harm core values badly if not handled.
Traditional notion: external security
In the traditional view, the biggest danger is military force from another country: it threatens sovereignty, independence and territory. A government has three choices: surrender, prevent the attack, or defend itself.
- Deterrence: preventing war by being strong enough to make an attack too costly.
- Defence: limiting or ending war once it starts.
- Balance of power: keeping power roughly equal so that no one country becomes dominant.
- Alliance building: a group of states joining to deter or defend against attack, based on shared interests (e.g. NATO). Alliances change when interests change.
Traditional security also accepts that force should be limited: war should be for a just cause (self-defence or protecting people from genocide), and should spare civilians. It supports disarmament (giving up weapons, e.g. the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions), arms control (limits on weapons, e.g. the NPT, 1968) and confidence building (sharing information to avoid surprise wars).
Traditional notion: internal security
Internal security means peace and order inside a country. After 1945 Western countries felt mostly safe inside, but many new states in Asia and Africa (the Third World) faced both external threats from neighbours and internal threats from separatist movements wanting their own country. Many wars after 1945 were civil wars rather than wars between states.
Non-traditional notions: human and global security
Non-traditional security goes beyond military threats. It asks security for whom and from what.
- Human security: protecting people rather than only states. The narrow view covers violence; the broad view adds hunger, disease and natural disasters (freedom from want), and some add human dignity (freedom from fear).
- Global security: threats that affect the whole world and that no country can handle alone, such as global warming, terrorism and epidemics.
New sources of threats
- Terrorism: political violence that targets civilians to create fear, e.g. the attack on the World Trade Center (9/11, 2001) and the Mumbai attacks (2008).
- Human rights: political, economic and social rights, and the rights of indigenous and colonised peoples. Debate: should the UN act to stop abuses inside a country (humanitarian intervention)?
- Global poverty: most population growth is in poor countries; the gap between rich and poor states pushes migration. Refugees flee war or disaster across borders; internally displaced people flee within their country.
- Health epidemics: HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, bird flu, SARS, Ebola and COVID-19 spread through travel and trade.
- Environmental threats: climate change, loss of forests and water scarcity.
Co-operative security
Because new threats cross borders, co-operation is needed. It can be bilateral (two countries), regional, continental or global. It includes the UN, the WHO, the World Bank, the IMF, NGOs (such as Amnesty International and the Red Cross), businesses, and famous people. Force may be used only as a last resort, for example against terrorists or those who commit genocide, and preferably with the approval of the international community.
India's security strategy
- Strengthen military capability: India has faced wars with neighbours; it tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and follows a no-first-use policy.
- Strengthen international norms and institutions: India supported decolonisation, the Non-Aligned Movement, disarmament, UN peacekeeping and the Kyoto Protocol on climate.
- Meet internal security challenges: handle movements in the North-East, Punjab and Kashmir through democracy, talks and power-sharing.
- Develop the economy: lift people out of poverty and reduce inequality, because a strong economy and content citizens make a country secure.
Try it yourself
Make two columns in your notebook: 'Threat to the country' and 'Threat to people'. Read today's newspaper and place each news item in a column. Which column is longer? Then use the free-play step in the 3D to match each threat with the best answer.
Key formulas and definitions
- Traditional security: protect the state from military threats
- Tools: deterrence, defence, balance of power, alliance
- Limits on force: disarmament, arms control (NPT 1968), confidence building
- Non-traditional: human security + global security
- New threats: terrorism, human rights, poverty/migration, epidemics, environment
- India: military + international norms + internal security + development
Worked examples
1. Distinguish between deterrence and defence.
Deterrence tries to prevent a war by making an attack too costly; defence tries to limit or end a war after it has begun.
2. What is human security?
Security that protects people, not only states, from violence, hunger, disease and disasters, and protects their dignity.
3. Why is co-operative security needed today?
Threats like terrorism, epidemics and climate change cross borders, so no country can deal with them alone; states, the UN, WHO and NGOs must work together.
4. List the four components of India's security strategy.
Strengthening military capability, strengthening international norms and institutions, meeting internal security challenges, and developing the economy to reduce poverty.
Common mistakes
- Thinking non-traditional security ignores the military. It adds new threats to the old ones.
- Mixing up disarmament (giving up weapons) and arms control (limiting weapons).
- Calling refugees and internally displaced people the same. Refugees cross borders; IDPs stay within their country.
- Writing only military points for India's strategy. Development and international norms are equally part of it.