Security in the Contemporary World

Security in the Contemporary World

• Security assumes various meanings linked to internal, external, human security, etc. as a phenomenon. In the contemporary world, many factors constitute threats to human/national security
• On the outset, security simply means freedom from threats of any kind. Several threats loom large which put in danger the existence of a human or a Nation
• Security usually only takes into account the serious threats that could endanger the core values or damage them beyond repair if appropriate steps are not taken to remedy the situation

External Security

• Traditionally, the most serious threats for a country are military threats or wars with other States or Non-State actors
• Wars threaten values like independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty, also endangering the citizens’ lives as well as the soldiers

The Government in response to the war threat has three basic options:

• Though surrender is never publicized as a stated National Policy, it is certainly an option in case of the conventional military superiority of the attacking nation
• Preventive strategy is to raise costs to levels unacceptable and hence stop the other country from taking the attacking option
• Defend its country when there is a war and to refuse to attack the country’s objectives and to defeat the attacking forces or turn back (limiting/ending the war)

Traditional Security Policy’s components

The various components consisting of a nation’s traditional security policy include: 

• Deterrence: This is the notion of preventing war
• Defence: This is the notion of limiting/ending the war
• Balance of Power: It refers to the phenomenon whereby, a stronger and bigger country in the region, may choose to be aggressive with another nation in the future, pointing towards a disturbing power balance
•  The sensitivity of the governments is very high towards the balance of power between the country and the others
• They do work hard to maintain a favourable balance of power with other countries, especially those close by, with those they have differences, or with those they have had conflicts with during the past times
• They pour their resources and hard work in order to gain a favourable balance of power with the other countries, especially with the ones they are either neighbour, having some fundamental differences, or are in conflict with
• Balance of Power is highly dependent upon the build-up of one’s military power, though economy and technology are equally important as they are the factors upon which the Military Power is based upon

• Alliance Building: A state’s coalition coordinating its actions to deter or defend against any military threat is termed as an Alliance
• By a clear identification of the threats, most alliances are formalized via written treaties
• Alliances are undertaken by a nation to increase their relative power, in relation to any other country or an alliance
• Alliances, however, are co-terminus to the nation’s interest, and often change when the interests of the nations change

• In the traditional view of security, most threats to a nation’s security originate from outside its borders, as in the international system, there is no central authority to regulate or control the behaviour of nations, hence leaving each country responsible for its own security

Internal Security

• After the second world war, globally not much attention was paid to the internal security of a nation, as victors of the war assumed themselves to be stable systems and hence concentrated solely on their external security
• However, for the newly independent nations, the scene was different, they faced threats not only from outside their borders, mostly from neighbours, but also from within
• The internal threats are sometimes merged with the external threats. Internal threats constitute Separatist or Secessionist Movements which aim at breaking away a part of the State forming a Sovereign State
• A country that is a neighbour may at times exacerbate the internal separatist movements by providing support to the groups involved in such movements. This may cause tensions between the two countries.
• The greatest jump in 200 years has been seen in the number of civil wars, which is a 12-fold rise in number (Between 1946 and 1991). Internal Armed Conflicts now form over 95% of all the Armed Conflicts
• The New States have been facing threats on two fronts – External Wars with neighbours and Internal Wars

Conclusion

In today’s world, maintaining security from internal as well as external threats has become of utmost importance for every nation. From traditional viewpoint, military threats are considered to be one of the greatest dangers. However, in the current scenario, other threats related to human security, poverty, terrorism, migration, etc have also started receiving attention. Read about each of these traditional and non-traditional notions about security from these notes to ace your UPSC