Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World Class 12 Political Science Notes

What is Security?

• Security implies freedom from threats. Security relates only to extremely dangerous threats that
could so endanger core values that those values would be damaged beyond repair if we did not do
something to deal with the situation.

Traditional Notions: External

The greatest danger to a country is military threats from another nation, which jeopardize
sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.

In response, a government has three options: surrender, deter the enemy by raising war costs, or
defend itself.

Security policy focuses on deterrence to prevent war and defense to limit or end it.

Balance of power means ensuring equilibrium between larger and smaller countries.

Alliance building involves states coordinating to deter or defend against military attacks.

Traditional security views emphasize external threats, as the international system lacks a central
authority to control behavior.

Within a country, violence is regulated by a central authority, the government.Traditional

Notions: Internal

• Traditional security concern itself with internal security. After the Second World War, internal
security was more or less assured to the powerful countries on the Earth.

• Most of the European countries faced no serious threats from groups or communities living within
those borders. Hence these countries gave importance to external security.

• The security challenges facing the newly-independent countries of Asia and Africa were different
from the challenges Europe in two ways.

→ The new countries faced the prospect of military conflict with neighbouring countries.

→ They had to worry about internal military conflict.

• Internally, the new states worried about threats from separatist movements which wanted to form
independent countries.

Traditional Security and Cooperation

Traditional security recognizes that cooperation in limiting violence is possible, both in the ends and
means of war.
• It includes disarmament, arms control, and confidence-building.
• Arms control regulates weapon development, such as the 1992 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty,
which aimed to prevent the US and Soviet Union from using ballistic missiles for nuclear defense.
• The US and Soviet Union also signed treaties like SALT II and START, while the 1968 Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regulated nuclear weapons acquisition.
• Confidence building involves countries sharing information to avoid violence.
• In traditional security, force is both the primary threat and means of achieving security.

Non-Traditional Notions

• Non-traditional notions security go beyond military threats to include a wide range of threats and
dangers affecting the conditions of human existence.

• Non-traditional security focuses on human and global security.

• Human security is about the protection of people more than the protection of states. All
proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals

• Proponents of the ‘narrow concept’ of human security focus on violent threats to individuals
while proponents of the ‘broad concept’ of human security argue that the threat agenda should
include hunger, disease and natural disaster.

• The idea of global security emerged in the 1990s in response to the global nature of threats such as
global warming, international terrorism, and health epidemics like AIDS and bird flu and so on.

New Sources of Threats

• Terrorism refers to political violence that targets civilians deliberately and indiscriminately.
International terrorism involves the citizens or territory of more than one country.

• The classic cases of terrorism involve hijacking planes or planting bombs in trains, cafes,
markets and other crowded places.

• Human rights have come to be classified into three types:

→ The first type is political rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.

→ The second type is economic and social rights.

→ The third type is the rights of colonised people or ethnic and indigenous minorities.

• Global poverty is another source of insecurity. High per capita income and low population growth
make rich states or rich social groups get richer, whereas low incomes and high population growth
reinforce each other to make poor states and poor groups get poorer.

• Health epidemics such as HIV-AIDS, bird flu, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have
rapidly spread across countries through migration, business, tourism and military operations.

Cooperative Security

• Dealing with many of non-traditional threats to security require cooperation rather than military
confrontation.
• Cooperation may be bilateral, regional, continental, or global which would all depend on the nature
of the threat and the willingness and ability of countries to respond.

India's Security Strategy

• India has faced both traditional and non-traditional threats to its security. Its security strategy
depends upon four broad components:

• The first component was strengthening its military capabilities because India has been involved in
conflicts with its neighbours - Pakistan in 1947–48, 1965, 1971 and 1999; and China in 1962.

• The second component of India’s security strategy has been to strengthen international norms and
international institutions to protect its security interests.

• The third component of Indian security strategy is geared towards meeting security challenges
within the country.

• Fourth, there has been an attempt in India to develop its economy in a way that the vast mass of
citizens are lifted out of poverty and misery and huge economic inequalities are not allowed to exist
which has not quite succeeded.