1 What Is Security?
At its most basic, security means freedom from threats. But not every threat we face counts as a security threat: if it did, the world would be saturated with “security issues”. Security specialists say only threats that could damage a group’s “core values” beyond repair count. Security remains a “slippery idea”: different societies, and even the same society at different times, do not share the same idea of what counts as a security threat.
All notions of security fall into two broad groups: traditional and non-traditional conceptions of security. Almost every question in this chapter asks you to place a threat into one of these two.
2 Traditional Notions of Security
In the traditional view, the greatest danger to a country is a military threat from another country, endangering its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. Facing war, a government has three choices:
Surrender
Accept defeat rather than fight: governments never announce this as policy in advance.
Deterrence
Raise the cost of attack to an unacceptable level, so war is prevented.
Defence
Fight to deny the attacker its objectives and turn back or defeat it.
Balance of power is when countries build up their own military (and economic/technological) strength to avoid being vulnerable to stronger or rival neighbours. Alliance building is forming a coalition of states that coordinate their actions to deter or defend against military attack: alliances shift when national interests shift (the US backed Afghan militants against the USSR in the 1980s, then attacked Al-Qaeda after they struck America on 11 September 2001).
Traditional security concerns itself with internal security too. After WWII the most powerful countries felt internally secure and focused outward, but newly-independent Asian and African countries faced threats from both outside (neighbours) and inside (separatist movements): sometimes the two merged when a neighbour backed an internal separatist group.
Internal wars now make up more than 95% of all armed conflicts worldwide. Between 1946 and 1991 there was a twelve-fold rise in civil wars: the greatest jump in 200 years.
3 Traditional Security and Cooperation
Even traditional security accepts that cooperation can limit violence: war should only be fought for the right reasons (self-defence, preventing genocide), and by limited means (sparing non-combatants).
| Form of cooperation | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Disarmament | Giving up certain weapons entirely | 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC); 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) |
| Arms control | Regulates acquisition/development of weapons, without a full ban | 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty; SALT II; START; 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) |
| Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) | Countries share information on military intentions/plans with rivals | Prevents war caused by misunderstanding or misperception |
The NPT did not abolish nuclear weapons: it only limited which countries could legally have them, letting states that had already tested weapons before 1967 keep them.
4 Non-Traditional Notions of Security
Non-traditional security asks a different question: “Security for who?” Whoever is being secured is called the “referent”. In the traditional view the referent is the state; here it expands to individuals, communities, or all of humankind, called “human security” or “global security”.
Human security is about protecting people, not just states: a secure state does not automatically mean secure people. In fact, more people have been killed by their own governments in the last 100 years than by foreign armies.
Narrow concept of human security
- Focus on violent threats to individuals and communities (Kofi Annan’s definition)
Broad concept of human security
- Adds hunger, disease and natural disasters: these kill far more people than war, genocide and terrorism combined
- Broadest version includes “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear”
Global security emerged in the 1990s for threats that cross borders, global warming, international terrorism, health epidemics, which no single country can solve alone.
5 New Sources of Threat
| Threat | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Terrorism | Political violence deliberately and indiscriminately targeting civilians to terrorise the public and pressure governments. Attention rose sharply after 9/11 (2001), though terrorism is not new. |
| Human rights | Three types: political rights, economic/social rights, and rights of colonised/ethnic/indigenous minorities. Debate on UN intervention (Rwanda genocide 1994; Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait; East Timor). |
| Global poverty | World population then ~760 crore, headed toward ~1000 crore by mid-century; most growth concentrated in six countries (India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia); widens the rich–poor gap. |
| Migration & refugees | Migrants leave voluntarily; refugees flee war/disaster/persecution: states must accept refugees, not migrants. Internally displaced people flee violence but stay within their own country (e.g. Kashmiri Pandits, early 1990s). |
| Health epidemics | HIV-AIDS (by 2003, ~4 crore infected, two-thirds in Africa), bird flu, SARS, ebola, drug-resistant TB and malaria: spread via migration, trade, tourism. |
Security threats vary by local context: the Maldives fears rising sea levels from global warming, Southern Africa fears HIV-AIDS (1 in 6 adults infected), and Rwanda’s Tutsis faced an existential threat in the 1994 genocide (~5 lakh killed in weeks).
6 Cooperative Security
Most non-traditional threats need cooperation, not military confrontation: force is often useless against poverty, migration or epidemics, and can make things worse. Cooperation can be bilateral, regional, continental, or global, and can involve international organisations (UN, WHO, World Bank, IMF), NGOs (Amnesty International, Red Cross), businesses and individuals. Force may still be used as a last resort, but non-traditional security works best when force is sanctioned collectively by the international community rather than used by one country alone.
7 India’s Security Strategy
India has faced both traditional and non-traditional threats, from within and outside its borders. Its strategy has four components, used in varying combination:
| Component | What it involved |
|---|---|
| 1. Strengthening military capabilities | Wars with Pakistan (1947–48, 1965, 1971, 1999 Kargil) and China (1962); first nuclear test 1974; nuclear tests in 1998, justified as safeguarding security given nuclear-armed neighbours |
| 2. Strengthening international norms and institutions | Nehru’s support for Asian solidarity, decolonisation, disarmament, the UN; push for a non-discriminatory non-proliferation regime and New International Economic Order (NIEO); non-alignment; the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; troops on UN peacekeeping missions |
| 3. Meeting internal security challenges | Militant/separatist movements in Nagaland, Mizoram, Punjab, Kashmir among others; preserving unity through a democratic system that lets communities voice grievances and share power |
| 4. Economic development | Lifting citizens out of poverty and inequality; democracy creates pressure on governments to combine growth with human development: democracy itself works as a security strategy |
- Security = freedom from threats to “core values”: traditional (state, military) vs non-traditional (people, wide threats)
- Traditional security: deterrence, defence, balance of power, alliance building
- Cooperation within traditional security: disarmament (BWC 1972, CWC 1997), arms control (ABM 1972, NPT 1968), CBMs
- Internal wars are over 95% of armed conflicts; 12-fold rise in civil wars 1946–91
- Human security = narrow (violence only) vs broad (+ hunger, disease, disasters); global security emerged in the 1990s
- New threats: terrorism, human rights, global poverty, migration/refugees, health epidemics
- Cooperative security beats military force for most non-traditional threats
- India’s 4-component strategy: military strength, international norms, internal unity, economic development
- 1 MarkWhat are the three choices a government has when facing a threat of war?
- 1 MarkDefine “balance of power”.
- 1 MarkWhat is the difference between disarmament and arms control?
- 1 MarkIn which year was the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed?
- 1 MarkWhat is the difference between a migrant and a refugee?
- 1 MarkIn which year did India conduct its nuclear tests, justified on security grounds?
- 1 MarkName any two components of India’s security strategy.
- 1 MarkWhat is meant by “internally displaced people”? Give an example.
- 2 MarksWhat is meant by “core values” in the definition of security?
- 2 MarksWhat are Confidence Building Measures (CBMs)?
- 2 MarksDistinguish between the narrow and broad concepts of human security.
- 4 MarksExplain the difference between traditional and non-traditional security. Which category would alliance-building belong to?
- 4 MarksWhat are the objectives of military alliances? Give an example.
- 4 MarksWhat are the choices available to a state when its security is threatened, according to the traditional perspective?
- 4 MarksWhy is cooperative security more effective than military force against most non-traditional threats?
- 6 MarksExplain the four components of India’s security strategy with examples.
- 6 MarksDiscuss any four non-traditional sources of threat to security in the contemporary world.
- 6 Marks“Nuclear weapons as deterrence have limited usage against contemporary security threats.” Explain this statement.
- 1 MarkThe Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in:
(a) 1968(b) 1972(c) 1974(d) 1997 - 1 MarkWhich of these is a “non-traditional” security threat?
(a) Military invasion(b) Health epidemic(c) Border war(d) Nuclear attack - 1 MarkIndia’s first nuclear test took place in:
(a) 1962(b) 1971(c) 1974(d) 1998 - 1 MarkThe 1994 genocide that killed nearly five lakh people took place in:
(a) Kosovo(b) Rwanda(c) East Timor(d) Somalia - 1 MarkWhich term refers to people who flee violence but remain within their own country’s borders?
(a) Refugees(b) Migrants(c) Internally displaced people(d) Asylum seekers
Options: (a) Both true, R correctly explains A · (b) Both true, R does not explain A · (c) A true, R false · (d) A false, R true.
- 1 Mark
Assertion (A): A secure state always means secure people.
Reason (R): More people have been killed by their own governments than by foreign armies in the last 100 years. - 1 Mark
Assertion (A): Military force is the most effective tool against poverty, migration and epidemics.
Reason (R): Non-traditional threats generally require international cooperation rather than confrontation.