International security - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

International security consists of the measures taken by nations and international organizations, such as the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These measures include military action and diplomatic agreements such as treaties and conventions. International and national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

are invariably linked. International security is national security or state security in the global arena.

With the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, a new subject of study focusing on international security emerged. It began as an independent field of study, but was absorbed as a sub-field of international relations

International relations

International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...

. Since it took hold in the 1950s, the study of international security has been at the heart of international relations studies. It covers labels like “security studies”, “strategic studies”, “peace studies”, and others.

There is no universal definition of the concept of security, but concepts in international security studies have been defined, such as sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

, war

War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

, anarchy

Anarchy in international relations

Anarchy in International Relations is a concept in International Relations theory holding that the world system is leaderless: there is no universal sovereign or worldwide government. There is thus no hierarchically superior, coercive power that can resolve disputes, enforce law, or order the...

, security dilemma

Security dilemma

The security dilemma asserts that both strength and weakness in national security can be provocative to other nations. If a nation is too strong, this can be provocative since “most means of self-protection simultaneously menace others.” On the other hand, if a nation is too weak, “great dangers...

, etc. The meaning of "security" is often treated as a common sense term that can be understood by "unacknowledged consensus". As there is no universal concept, the content of international security has expanded over the years. Today it covers a variety of interconnected issues in the world that have an impact on survival. It ranges from the traditional or conventional modes of military power, the causes and consequences of war between states, economic strength, to ethnic, religious and ideological conflicts, trade and economic conflicts, energy supplies, science and technology

Science and technology

Science and technology is a term of art used to encompass the relationship between science and technology. It frequently appears within titles of academic disciplines and government offices.-See also:...

, food, as well as threats to human security

Human security

Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state...

and the stability of states from environmental degradation

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...

, infectious diseases, climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

and the activities of non-state actors.

While the wide perspective of international security regards everything as a security matter, the traditional approach focuses mainly or exclusively on military concerns.

Concepts of security in the international arena

There is no universal definition of the concept of security. Edward Kolodziej has compared it to a Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...

. Roland Paris (2004) views it as “in the eye of the beholder”. But there is a consensus that it is important and multidimensional. It has been widely applied to “justify suspending civil liberties, making war, and massively reallocating resources during the last fifty years”.

Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War...

(1944) views security as the capability of a country to protect its core values

Value system

A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code.-Personal and communal:...

, both in terms that a state need not sacrifice core values in avoiding war and can maintain them by winning war. David Baldwin (1997) argues that pursuing security sometimes requires sacrificing other values, including marginal values and prime values. Richard Ullman (1983) has suggested that a decrease in vulnerability is security.

Arnold Wolfers (1952) argues that “security” is generally a normative

Normative

Normative has specialized contextual meanings in several academic disciplines. Generically, it means relating to an ideal standard or model. In practice, it has strong connotations of relating to a typical standard or model ....

term. It is applied by nations “in order to be either expedient - a rational means toward an accepted end - or moral, the best or least evil course of action”. In the same way that people are different in sensing and identifying danger and threats, Wolfers argues that different nations also have different expectations of security. Not only is there a difference between forbearance of threats, but different nations also face different levels of threats because of their unique geographical, economic, ecological, and political environment.

Barry Buzan

Barry Buzan

Barry Gordon Buzan is Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and honorary professor at the University of Copenhagen and Jilin University...

(2000) views the study of international security as more than a study of threats, but also a study of which threats that can be tolerated and which require immediate action. He sees the concept of security as not either power or peace, but something in between.

The concept of an international security actor has extended in all directions since the 1990s, from nations to groups, individuals, international systems, NGOs, and local governments.

National and regional variations

The United States is focusing on "renewing American leadership so that [it] can more effectively advance [its] interests" under the international system. This is achieved by integrating all the elements of its power and means of defence, diplomacy and development to meet its objectives, including safety, welfare, values, and a righteous international order.

China thinks that "international security should be mutual while not one-sided, multilateral while not unilateral, and comparative while not absolute.... Security should be based on mutual trust. A country’s role should be evaluated objectively and one country should not seek confrontation with another country through exaggerating its threats." China views the safeguarding of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, solving border disputes with its neighbours on the basis of equal negotiation and mutual trust, and having the ability to cope with traditional threats as three prerequisites to its security concept.

Russia's aim is to protect the national interests of its people, society and nation in broad security terms. It seeks to form a multipolar world "on the basis of multilateral management of international economic, political, science and technological, environmental and information integration". In a world dominated by US-led unilateralism, Russia continues to "play an important role in global processes by virtue of its great economic, scientific, technological and military potential and its unique strategic location on the Eurasian continent".

The European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

has formed a broad security concept and a multilateral approach with the objectives:

to tackle threats;

to extend the zone of security around Europe;

to strengthen the international order.

Many countries in South America, especially Brazil, Argentina and Chile, treats strategic stability as its core concept. In terms of traditional security, South American countries tend to solve disputes by peaceful resolution. During the second half of the twentieth century, only two interstate wars occurred in South America. Non-intervention is still a core value in South America, although human rights and humanitarian crises, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and even state failure have become causes of concern.

The Australian security concept is to safeguard the homeland, maintain regional and international stability, ensure international economy and trade developments and to spread human rights and democracy. Australian security strategy is mainly based on its alliances with the United States and Japan.

Africa seeks to promote and maintain international peace, security and prosperity by having closer cooperation and partnership between the United Nations, other international organizations and the African Union

African Union

The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

Introduction

The traditional security paradigm refers to a realist

Realism (international relations)

In the study of international relations, Realism or political realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions...

construct of security in which the referent object of security is the state. The prevalence of this theorem reached a peak during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. For almost half a century, major world powers entrusted the security of their nation to a balance of power

Balance of power in international relations

In international relations, a balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces. The concept describes a state of affairs in the international system and explains the behavior of states in that system...

among states. In this sense international stability relied on the premise that if state security is maintained, then the security of citizens will necessarily follow. Traditional security relied on the anarchistic balance of power, a military build-up between the United States and the Soviet Union (the two superpowers), and on the absolute sovereignty of the nation state. States were deemed to be rational entities, national interests and policy driven by the desire for absolute power. Security was seen as protection from invasion; executed during proxy conflicts using technical and military capabilities.

As Cold War

Cold War

tensions receded, it became clear that the security of citizens was threatened by hardships arising from internal state activities as well as external aggressors. Civil wars were increasingly common and compounded existing poverty, disease, hunger, violence and human rights abuses. Traditional security policies had effectively masked these underlying basic human needs in the face of state security. Through neglect of its constituents, nation states had failed in their primary objective.

More recently, the traditional state-centric notion of security has been challenged by more holistic approaches to security. Among the approaches which seeks to acknowledge and address these basic threats to human safety are paradigms that include cooperative, comprehensive and collective measures, aimed to ensure security for the individual and, as a result, for the state.

To enhance international security against potential threats caused by terrorism and organized crime, there have been an increase in international cooperation, resulting in transnational policing. The international police Interpol

Interpol

Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

shares information across international borders and this cooperation has been greatly enhanced by the arrival of the Internet and the ability to instantly transfer documents, films and photographs worldwide.

Classical realism

In the field of international relations, realism

Realism (international relations)

In the study of international relations, Realism or political realism prioritizes national interest and security over ideology, moral concerns and social reconstructions...

has long been a dominant theory, from ancient military theories of Chinese and Greek thinkers to Hobbes, Machiavelli and Rousseau. It is the foundation of contemporary international security studies. The twentieth century classical realism is mainly derived from Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett "Ted" Carr CBE was a liberal and later Marxist British historian, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography....

's book The Twenty Years' Crisis
The Twenty Years' Crisis
The Twenty Years' Crisis': 1919-1939 is a book on international relations written by Edward Hallett Carr . The book was written in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe and the first edition was published in September 1939, shortly after the war' s outbreak. Carr...

. The realist views anarchy

Anarchy in international relations

and the absence of a power to regulate the interactions between states as the distinctive characteristics of international politics. Because of anarchy, or a constant state of antagonism, the international system differs from the domestic system. Realism has a variety of sub-schools whose lines of thought are based on three core assumptions: groupism, egoism, and power-centrism. According to classical realists, bad things happen because the people who make foreign policy are sometimes bad.

Neorealism

Beginning in the 1960s, with increasing criticism of realism, Kenneth Waltz

Kenneth Waltz

Kenneth Neal Waltz is a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars of international relations alive today...

tried to revive the traditional realist theory by translating some core realist ideas into a deductive, top-down theoretical framework that eventually came to be called neorealism. Theory of International Politics brought together and clarified many earlier realist ideas about how the features of the overall system of states affects the way states interact:

"Neorealism answers questions: Why the modern states-system has persisted in the face of attempts by certain states at dominance; why war among great powers recurred over centuries; and why states often find cooperation hard. In addition, the book forwarded one more specific theory: that great-power war would tend to be more frequent in multipolarity (an international system shaped by the power of three or more major states) than bipolarity (an international system shaped by two major states, or superpowers)."

The main theories of neorealism are balance of power

Balance of power in international relations

theory, balance of threat

Balance of threat

The balance of threat theory was proposed by Stephen M. Walt in an article titled published in the journal International Security in 1985. The balance of threat theory modified the popular balance of power theory in the neorealist school of international relations.According to balance of threat...

theory, security dilemma

Security dilemma

theory, offense-defense theory, hegemonic stability theory

Hegemonic stability theory

Hegemonic Stability Theory is a theory of international relations. Rooted in research from the fields of political science, economics, and history, HST indicates that the international system is more likely to remain stable when a single nation-state is the dominant world power, or hegemon...

and power transition theory

Power Transition theory

The Power transition theory is a theory about the cyclical nature of war, in relation to the power in international relations.Created by A.F.K. Organski, and originally published in his textbook, World Politics , power transition theory today describes international politics as a hierarchy, with 4...

Liberalism

Liberalism has a shorter history than realism but has been an prominent theory since World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. It is a concept with a variety of meanings. Liberal thinking dates back to philosophers such as Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...

and Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

, who argued that republican

Republicanism

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...

constitutions produce peace. Kant's concept of Perpetual Peace

Perpetual peace

Perpetual peace refers to a state of affairs where peace is permanently established over a certain area .Many would-be world conquerors have promised that their rule would enforce perpetual peace...

is arguably seen as the starting point of contemporary liberal thought.

Economic liberalism

Economic liberalism assumes that economic openness and interdependence between countries makes them more peaceful than countries who are isolated. Eric Gartzke has written that economic freedom is 50 times more effective than democracy in creating peace. Globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

has been important to economic liberalism.

Liberal institutionalism

Liberal institutionalism views international institutions as the main factor to avoid conflicts between nations. Liberal institutionalists argue that; although the anarchic system presupposed by realists cannot be made to disappear by institutions; the international environment that is constructed can influence the behavior of states within the system. Varieties of international governmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) are seen as contributors to world peace.

Comparison between realism and liberalism

Realist and liberal security systems
Theoretical base		Realist (alliance)	Liberal (community of law)
Structure of the international system		Material; static; anarchic; self-help system	Social; dynamic; governance without government
Conceptions of security	Basic principles	Accumulation of power	Integration
	Strategies	Military deterrence; control of allies	Democratization; conflict resolution; rule of Law
Institutional features	Functional scope	Military realm only	Multiple issue areas
	Criterion for membership	Strategic relevance	Democratic system of rule
	Internal power structure	Reflects distribution of power; most likely hegemonic	Symmetrical; high degree of interdependence
	Decision-making	Will of dominant power prevails	Democratically legitimized
Relation of system to its environment		Dissociated; perception of threat	Serves as an attractive model; open for association

Constructivism

Since its founding in the 1980s, constructivism has become an influential approach in international security studies. “It is less a theory of international relations

International relations

or security, however, than a broader social theory which then informs how we might approach the study of security.” Constructivists argue that security

Security

Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...

is a social construction. They emphasize the importance of social, cultural and historical factors, which leads to different actors construing similar events differently.

Prominent thinkers

Alexander Wendt

Alexander Wendt is one of the core social constructivist scholars in the field of international relations. Wendt and scholars such as Nicholas Onuf, Peter J...

– Constructivism

Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett Carr

Edward Hallett "Ted" Carr CBE was a liberal and later Marxist British historian, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography....

– Classical realism

Classical realism in international relations theory

Classical realism is a school of thought in international relations theory associated with thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes....

Hans J. Morgenthau – Classical realism

Classical realism in international relations theory

Classical realism is a school of thought in international relations theory associated with thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes....

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....

– Kantian liberalism

John Mearsheimer

John Mearsheimer

John J. Mearsheimer is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is an international relations theorist. Known for his book on offensive realism, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, more recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing...

– Neorealism

Kathryn Sikkink – Constructivism

Kenneth Waltz

Kenneth Waltz

Kenneth Neal Waltz is a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars of international relations alive today...

– Neorealism

Machiavelli – Classical realism

Classical realism in international relations theory

Classical realism is a school of thought in international relations theory associated with thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes....

Peter J. Katzenstein

Peter Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He was educated in his native Germany. Katzenstein has received degrees from the London School of Economics, Swarthmore College, as well as a Ph.D. from Harvard University...

– Constructivism

Robert Axelrod

Robert Axelrod

Robert M. Axelrod is an American political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan where he has been since 1974. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work on the evolution of cooperation, which has been cited in numerous articles...

– Liberal institutionalism

Robert Gilpin

Robert Gilpin

Robert Gilpin is a scholar of International Political Economy and the professor emeritus of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He holds the Eisenhower professorship...

– Neorealism

Robert Jervis

Robert Jervis

Robert Jervis is the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, and has been a member of the faculty since 1980. Jervis was the recipient of the 1990 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order...

– Neorealism

Robert Keohane

Robert Keohane

Robert O. Keohane is an American academic, who, following the publication of his influential book After Hegemony , became widely associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism in international relations...

– Liberal institutionalism

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

– Classical realism

Classical realism in international relations theory

Classical realism is a school of thought in international relations theory associated with thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes....

Thucydides

Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...

– Classical realism

Classical realism in international relations theory

Classical realism is a school of thought in international relations theory associated with thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes....

Human security

Human security derives from the traditional concept of security from military threats to the safety of people and communities. It is an extension of mere existence (survival) to well-being and dignity of human beings. Human security

Human security

is an emerging school of thought about the practice of international security. There is no single definition of human security

Human security

, it varies from “ a narrow term of prevention of violence to a broad comprehensive viewthat proposes development, human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

and traditional security together.” Critics of the concept of human security claim that it covers almost everything and that it is too broad to be the focus of research. There have also been criticisms of its challenge to the role of states and their sovereignty.

Human security offers a critique of and advocates an alternative to the traditional state-based conception of security. Essentially, it argues that the proper referent for security is the individual and that state practices should reflect this rather than primarily focusing on securing borders through unilateral military action. The justification for the human security approach is said to be that the traditional conception of security is no longer appropriate or effective in the highly interconnected and interdependent modern world in which global threats such as poverty, environmental degradation, and terrorism supersede the traditional security threats of interstate attack and warfare. Further, state-interest-based arguments for human security propose that the international system is too interconnected for the state to maintain an isolationist international policy. Therefore, it argues that a state can best maintain its security and the security of its citizens by ensuring the security of others. It is need to be noted that without the traditional security no human security can be assured.

Traditional vs Human Security
Type of security	Referent	Responsibility	Threats
Traditional	The state	Integrity of the state	Interstate war, nuclear proliferation, revolution, civil conflict
Human	The individual	Integrity of the individual	Disease, poverty, natural disaster, violence, landmines, human rights abuses

UNDP human security proposal

The 1994 UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) proposes that increasing human security entails:

Investing in human development, not in arms;
Engaging policy makers to address the emerging peace dividend;
Giving the United Nations a clear mandate to promote and sustain development;
Enlarging the concept of development cooperation so that it includes all flows, not just aid;
Agreeing that 20 percent of national budgets and 20 percent of foreign aid be used for human development; and
Establishing an Economic Security Council.

The report elaborates on seven components to human security. Tadjbakhsh and Chenoy list them as follows:

Components of human security as per the HDR 1994 report
Type of security	Definition	Threats
Economic security	An assured basic income	Poverty, unemployment, indebtedness, lack of income
Food security	Physical and economic access to basic food	Hunger, famines and the lack of physical and economic access to basic food
Health security	Protection from diseases and unhealthy lifestyles	Inadequate health care, new and recurrent diseases including epidemics and pandemics, poor nutrition and unsafe environment, unsafe lifestyles
Environmental security	Healthy physical environment	Environmental degradation, natural disasters, pollution and resource depletion
Personal security	Security from physical violence	From the state (torture), other states (war), groups of people (ethnic tension), individuals or gangs (crime), industrial, workplace or traffic accidents
Community security	Safe membership in a group	From the group (oppressive practices), between groups (ethnic violence), from dominant groups (e.g. indigenous people vulnerability)
Political security	Living in a society that honors basic human rights	Political or state repression, including torture, disappearance, human rights violations, detention and imprisonment

External links

The European Union Institute for Security Studies
http://paginas.pavconhecimento.pt/pessoais/dw/Mario%5FZanattiEvolution in international security through the United Nations: The presentation of the Eurocorps-Foreign Legion concept at the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

in June 2003]
Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Center for International Security Studies

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