What is Security?

The Security Dilemma

Resort to Armed Force

Causes of War

International Characteristics of Search for Security through Military Means

Towards a Re-definition of Security?

 

What is Security?

A classic attempt to define the term provides some insight into its elusive nature. Arnold Wolfers argued that “security in any objective sense, measures the absence of threats to acquired values and in a subjective sense, the absence of fear that such values will be attacked.”

 

The Security Dilemma

A central tenet of realism and the realist paradigm, the security dilemma arises from a situation of perceived international anarchy that states find themselves in. By striving to increase their own security, by following policies that enhance their military capabilities, sovereign states inadvertently make others feel less secure. As a result of this behaviour, states find themselves caught in a vicious spiral of security and insecurity to which there appears to be no lasting solution.

 

The Resort to Armed Force

During the Cold War, the world was spared from conflict on a global scale.  But there was no shortage of local or small wars.  Between 1945 and 1990, 140 wars took 25 million lives.  Most of these conflicts occurred in the Third World. While the incidence of inter-state conflicts has declined with the end of the Cold War, intra-state hostilities have sharply increased. In the 12 year period between 1989 and 2001, there were 57 different major armed conflicts in 45 locations. All but 3 of these conflicts occurred within states.

 

Possible General Causes of War

  1. Human Nature
  2. Societal and Political Conditions
  3. International Configurations of Power

 

International Characteristics of Security through Military means

  1. The Burden of Military Spending
  2. The Global Arms Business
  3. The Militarization of Politics of Society

 

Towards a Re-definition of Security?

Has the end of the Cold War fundamentally changed the nature of security? Observers are divided on this point.  Michael Renner says there is an urgent need for a new more comprehensive approach towards security which addresses issues such as environmental decline, demilitarisation and poverty. But Michael Quinlan disagrees.  He says the notion of common security depends on the convergence of political norms and values.  At present, that remains unrealistic.