1.

0 Introduction
Security is a fragile
and significant issue
which conveys
different meanings to
scholars, analysts,
policy makers and
organizations across
the globe.
Fundamentally,
security has to do with
the presence of peace,
safety, gladness and
the protection of
human and physical
resources or absence
of crisis or threats to
human dignity, all of
which facilitate
development and
progress of any
human
society. The concept
of security has
become a
preoccupation for the
decades
following the end of the
Cold War which could
also be referred to as
landmark for
diverse school of
thought with security
studies. Security, as a
concept, has diverse
dimensions. It is aptly
used in psychology,
finance, information
access, public safety,
defense and military
matters.
The meaning of
security is ambiguous
fas its scope continues
to expand every
day. The elastic nature
of the concept of
security attracts
different meanings and
different views.
Security is an
important concept that
every human person
desires
and it has one or two
meanings though it
defies precise
definition. This account
for
the position of Barry
Buzan (1991) who
describes security as
an ambiguous and
multidimensional
concept in which
military factors have
attracted
misappropriate
attention. This
chapter therefore
examines the concept
of security taking into
cognizance diverse
views of different
scholars. It equally
covers the notion of
national security,
international security
and the concept of
human security, which
is
the basis of all other
forms of security.
1.1 What is Security?
Security has to do with
the process connected
with assuaging any
kind of threat to
people and their
precious values. This is
why Buzan asserts that
security is about
freedom from threat
and ability of states to
maintain independent
identity and their
Introduction

Security is a fragile and significant issue which conveys different meanings to scholars,
analysts, policy makers and organizations across the globe. Fundamentally, security has to
do with the presence of peace, safety, gladness and the protection of human and physical
resources or absence of crisis or threats to human dignity, all of which facilitate
development and progress of any human society. The concept of security has become a
preoccupation for the decades following the end of the Cold War which could also be
referred to as landmark for diverse school of thought with security studies. Security, as a
concept, has diverse dimensions. It is aptly used in psychology, finance, information access,
public safety, defense and military matters. The meaning of security is ambiguous fas its scope
continues to expand every day. The elastic nature of the concept of security attracts different
meanings and different views. Security is an important concept that every human person
desires and it has one or two meanings though it defies precise definition. This account for the
 position of Barry Buzan (1991) who describes security as an ambiguous and
multidimensional concept in which military factors have attracted misappropriate attention.
This chapter therefore examines the concept of security taking into cognizance diverse
views of different scholars. It equally covers the notion of national security, international
security and the concept of human security, which is the basis of all other forms of security.

What is Security?

Security has to do with the process connected with assuaging any kind of threat to people
and their precious values. This is why Buzan asserts that security is about freedom from
threat and ability of states to maintain independent identity and their functional integrity
against forces of change, which they see as hostile while its bottom line is survival
(Bodunde, et.al,. 2014). From the foregoing, security is generally agreed to be about
feeling of being safe from harm, fear, anxiety, oppression, danger, poverty, defence,
protection and preservation of core values and threat to those values. William (2008)
equally submits that security is most commonly associated with the alleviation of threats
to cherish values, especially those threats which threaten the survival of a particular
reference object. In line with the above, Imobighe states that Security has to do with
freedom from danger or threats to a nation's ability to protect and develop itself, promote
its cherished values and legitimate interest and enhance the well-being of its people.
Thus internal security could be seen as the freedom from or the absence of those
tendencies, which could undermine internal cohesion, and the corporate existence of a
country and its ability to maintain its vital institutions for the promotion of its core
values and socio-political and economic objectives, as well as meet the legitimate
aspirations of the people (Ogaba. 2010: 35-36).It could therefore be inferred that
security, be it classical, state-centric and traditionalist or non-traditionalist, is all about
protection of assets including living and non-living resources against loss or damage. There
are two major Schools of Thought to the concept of security – Traditional and Non –
Traditional. Traditional School of Thought favours the maintenance of the Cold War
conception of security. This school of thought defines security in this sense to mean safety
from danger and from external attack or infiltration. Traditional security paradigm is a
realist construct of security in which the referent object is the state (Abolurin, 2010). It
equates security with peace and prevention of conflict through military means i.e.
deterrence policies, non-offensive defence and the like. This is why Walt defines security
as a study of threat, use, and control of military force (Walt, 1991). It explores the
situations that make use of force more likely, the ways the use of force affects individuals,
states, societies and the specific policies that states employ in order to prevent or engage
in war. This school of thought is strongly tied to the military and that is why Barry
Buzan regards security as underdeveloped and needed to be rehabilitated. Nwolise
opines that the Cold War period gave the high level domination to the conventional
security doctrine to the extent that security rest on the believe that only a military system
can efficiently deter attack and threat of force (Nwolise, 2008). This also tallies with Ken
Booth position when he asserts that:One of the themes of the new thinking is the idea
that security policy should have political accommodation as a primary and persistent aim.
 The negative effect of identifying security almost exclusively with military was evident
throughout the cold war. This approach can be described as strategic reductionism
which is conceiving security in a technical and mechanistic military way as manifested in
an obsession with military balance and the use of state-of-the-art technology (Nwolise,
2008: 349).The second school of thought on the conceptualization of security is non-
traditional school. This school attempts to widen and deepen the definition of
security. It argues that other issues like environment, political, economic and social
threats endangers the lives and properties of individual rather than the concentration on
the survival of the state. It does implies that a predominantly military definition does not
appreciate the fact that the greatest threat to state survival may not be military but
environmental, health, political, social and economic. The contemporary ideas and
opinion about security are all-encompassing as rightly observes by Sola
Ogunsanwo:Security is more than military security or security from external attacks.
For many inhabitants in the developing countries, security is conceived as the basic level
of the struggle for survival. Therefore, in order to provide an integrated African Security
Assessment, the non – military dimension of security should be added. Henceforth,
security as a concept should be applied in its broader sense to include economic security,
social security, environmental security, food security, equality of life security and
technological security (Ochoche, 1997: 27).However, security in this sense is human
emancipation oriented. It means that people/citizens must be liberated from those
challenges, difficulties and constraints that may prevent them from carrying out what
freely they would choose to do which includes epidemics, poverty, oppression, poor
education, crises and so on. Today, politics, ecological issues, economic and demographic
issues which are non-military tend to pose serious threats to people's security. This gives
birth to the concept of human security which will be discussed subsequently in this
chapter.Barry Buzan gives a theoretical insight to the understanding of the concept of
security and he identifies three levels of analysis which are the individual level, national
level and international level. He is of the opinion that individual security which other
scholars called personal security involves those values people seek to secure which include
life, health, status, freedom and wealth (Buzan, 1991). Some of the threats which
individual person endeavor to secure themselves from is what is referred to as social
security. This captures physical threat, economic threat and human rights abuse.
Examples of these are pain, injury, death, seizure and destruction of properties,
inaccessibility to work or resources for human sustenance, injustice, unjust
imprisonment and the denial of normal civil liberties as well as threats to human dignity.
The other two levels of Buzan's analysis; national and international levels of security are
discussed as national security and international security.

Human Security

The concept of human security emanates from the conventional security studies which centers on
the security of the state. Its focus is individuals and its ultimate end point is the protection of
people from traditional and non-traditional threats. Centre to this concept is the belief that
human security deprivations can undercut peace and stability within and among states. The
Commission on Human Security (CHS) in one of its work defines human security as:The ability to
protect the vital core of all human lives in such a way that it enhances human freedoms and
human fulfillment. Human security means protecting fundamental freedoms that are the
essence of life. It means protecting people from serious and persistent threats and situations.
It means using processes that build on people's strengths and aspirations. It means creating
political, social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that together give people
the building blocks of survival, livelihood and dignity (Adedoyin, 2013: 125).It is important to state
that human security covers every area of human needs. This is why it serves as the basis of all
forms and categories of security. Hubert gives the importance of the concept when he asserts
that:In essence, human security means safety of people from violent and non - violent threat. It is
a condition of being characterized by freedom from pervasive threat to people's rights, their
ability or even their lives. It is an alternative way of seeing the world taking people as its point of
reference rather than focusing exclusively on the security of the territory or government. Like
other security concept - national security, economic security, and food security - it is all about
protection (Hubert, 1999:3).Since, human security gives primacy to human beings and their
complex social and economic interactions, it derives its convincing quality from the fact that is
based on the global concern and threats to human security are no longer secluded issues. It is
pertinent to state that threat to human security are very easy to manage if preventive
measures are taken at appropriate time before it advances to devastating state

1.3 The Seven Dimensions of Human SecurityHuman security is characterized by seven [7]
dimensions of security. These are:i. Economic SecurityThis type of security requires an assured
basic income for individuals mostly from productive and remunerative work or from a publicly
financed safety net. In this sense, only about a quarter of the world's people are presently
economically secure and the economic security problem may be more serious in third world
countries. Major threats of economic security are poverty, unemployment, indebtedness, lack of
income. It germane to state that aforementioned threats constitute pertinent factors causing
political tensions and other forms of violence in the developing countries.ii. Food SecurityFood
security demands that all people at all times have both physical and economic access to basic
food. Major threats to this include hunger, famines and the lack of physical and economic access
to basic food. Though United Nations maintain that the overall availability of food is not a
problem; rather the problem often is the poor distribution of food and lack of
money/purchasing power. In the past, food security problems have been dealt with at both
national and global levels. However, their impacts are limited. According to UN, the key is to
tackle the problems relating to access to assets, work and assured income (related to economic
security).iii. Health SecurityThis tends to guarantee a minimum protection from diseases and
unhealthy daily life. In less - developed countries, the major causes of death traditionally
were infectious and diseases, Inadequate health care, new and recurrent diseases including
epidemics and pandemics, poor nutrition and unsafe environment and unsafe lifestyles; whereas
in develop countries, the major killers are diseases of the circulatory system. However,
lifestyle-related chronic diseases are leading killers globally with 80 percent of deaths from chronic
diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In both developing and industrial
countries, threats to health security are usually greater for poor people in local areas,
particularly children. This is as a result of poor or bad nutrition and inadequate access to health
services, clean water and other basic necessities.
iv. Environmental SecurityThe primary goal of this is to protect people from the short and long-
term ravages of nature, man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural
environment. In the third world countries, lack of access to clean water resources is one of the
greatest environmental threats while the major threats in industrial countries are air pollution and
global warming which are caused by the emission of greenhouse gases. Again, environmental
degradation, natural disasters and resource depletion are general all over the world.v. Personal
SecurityThis is all about the protection of individuals and people from physical violence
either from the state or outside the state. It could be from violent individuals, sub-state actors and
from domestic abuse. Hence, the greater and the common threat to personal security from the
state (torture), other states (war), groups of people (ethnic tension), individuals or gangs (crime),
industrial, workplace or traffic accidents. The security threats and risks on persons and often
families are many and vary from place to place and also from time to time. These include: theft,
armed robbery, burglary, food poisoning, electrocution, fire outbreak, home accident and host of
others.vi. Community SecurityCommunity security aims to protect people from the loss of
traditional relationships, values and from sectarian and ethnic violence. Traditional
communities, particularly minority ethnic groups are often threatened. About half of the
world's states have experienced some inter-ethnic rivalry. Threats to community security are
usually from the group (oppressive practices), between groups (ethnic violence), from
dominant groups (e.g. indigenous people's vulnerability). In 1993, the United Nations declared the
Year of Indigenous People to highlight the continuing vulnerability of about 300 million aboriginal
people in seventy countries as they face a widening spiral of violence. In Africa, many nation-
states have witnessed ethnic clashes, land and boundary clashes, and intra - religious and inter -
religious conflict all of which constitute threats. vii. Political SecurityThis embraces guarantee and
protection of fundamental human rights of citizenry. It is concerned with whether people live in a
society that honours their basic freedoms. Some of threats attached to these are political or state
repression, including torture, disappearance, human rights violations, detention and
imprisonment. The assessment of the Amnesty International reveals that, political repression,
systematic torture, ill treatment, hostage taken and kidnapping are still being practice in about
One Hundred and ten (110) countries. Human rights violations are frequent during periods of
political unrest and by security agencies in the third world countries (UNDP, 1994).1.4 National
SecurityNations of the world prioritize the safety of its territorial integrity, resources and its entire
citizenry. This informs the belief that national security is the preservation of independence and
sovereignty of a nation state. In reality, every country has a large number of interests to protect.
These interest put together constitute the national interest which originates from values, good
governance and protection of social and economic well-being of the entire citizenry. Based on
this, one may describe national security as the protection and maintenance of national interest
of a state or nation. This corresponds with Harold Brown's [US Secretary of Defense from 1977 to
1981] perception when he defines national security as the ability to preserve the nation's physical
integrity and territory; to maintain its economic relations with the rest of the world on
reasonable terms; to preserve it nature, institutions and governance from disruption from
outside and to control its borders (Abolurin, 2011, Adedoyin, 2013). Hence, national security has
no universally accepted definition but there are two schools of thought to it - the old school
[Traditional Security Paradigm] and the new school [Contemporary perspective]. The old school
which is also referred to as the realist school views national security from militarist angle with
emphasis on military response and management of threat. Lippmann asserts that a nation is
secured when it does not have to resort to war or threat of war to preserve its legitimate
interest (Lippmann, 1944). Corroborating this view, Maniruzzaman sees national security as the
protection and preservation of the minimum core values of any nation's political independence
and territorial integrity (Maniruzzaman, 1982). Orwa also defines national security as comprising
the protection of the national interest, including national values, political and economic ways
of life against internal threat and challenges (Orwa, 1984). In line with the above view, Mandel
defines national security as the pursuit of psychological and physical safety which is largely the
responsibility of the national governments, to prevent direct threats primarily from abroad
endangering the survival of these regimes, their citizenry or their ways of life (Ngbale, 2011).
Examples of old school writers are Hans Morgenthan, Laswell, Walter Lippman and host of
others.The new school has moved national security beyond military realm to include non-military
factors. It maintains that old school conception of security cannot capture modern day
security threats like hunger, unemployment, poverty, environmental humiliation and so on. This
informed McNamara when he cautions that;Any society that seeks to attain adequate military
security against the background of acute paucity of food, population explosion, low level of
production, low per capital income, low technological development, inadequate and
insufficient public utilities and chronic problem of unemployment has a false sense of
security (Nwolise, 2008: 350, Abolurin, 2011: 186).This showcases the significance of
contemporary thinking about national security and this informed the thinking of Nwolise when he
postulates that:A country may have the best armed forces in terms of training and equipment, the
most efficient police force, the most efficient custom men, the most active secret agents and best
quality prisons, but yet be the most insecure nation in the world as a result of defence and security
problems within bad governments, alienated and suffering masses, ignorance, hunger,
unemployment or even activities foreign residents or companies (Abolurin, 2011; 184).Also,
Obasanjo conceives national security as the aggregate of the security interest of all individuals,
communities, ethnic groups and the entire political entity (Obasanjo, 1999:1-3). Also, Lynn and
Miller describe it as the politics and policies governed by a less narrow definition of security which
is concerned not only with military threats but with other problems that threaten directly to
degrade the quality of life of a national community (Ngbale, 2011: 220). The Reviewed Draft
National Defence Policy (RDNDP) conceptualizes national security as:All-encompassing condition
in which citizens can live in freedom, peace and safety; participate fully in the process of
governance, enjoy the protection of fundamental human rights; have access to resources and
necessities of life and inhabit in environment which is conducive to their health and well-being
(RDNDP, 2002:1)To Professor Charles Maier of Harvard University, national security is the capacity
to control those domestic and foreign conditions that the public opinion of a given society
believe are necessary for it to enjoy its own self-determination or autonomy prosperity and well-
being (Maier in Nwaogu, 2013). From the foregoing, national security can be seen as the totality of
a nation's effort to protect and preserve the state, its institutions, lives and property and the well-
being of its entire citizenry. In sum, the thought on modern security indicates that the concept
goes beyond the defence of the territory but also recognizes the various components and
institutions of state that have much responsibility in ensuring security of a state since no country
will allow itself to suffer internal or external risk. It is obvious that national security is not the sole
responsibility of the armed forces alone but also the citizenry, Customs, Prison, Immigration,
Police, Civil Defence and other private internal security organizations.1.5 International
SecurityInternational security is described as the efforts and measures taken by nations,
regional and international organizations to ensure mutual survival and safety through the use
of diplomacy and military actions. According to Ogaba (2010), the concept of security at the
international level is built on the basis of state - centric conception of security. International
security is therefore synonymous with a global political circumstance which defining attribute is
the distribution of power in the international system.International security is thus the national
security or state security in global arena. Buzan (2000) views the study of international security as
more than a study of threat but also a study of which threats can be tolerated and which
demands immediate action. He perceives the concept of security as not either power or peace but
something in between. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Report of 1994
defines international security as freedom from fear and freedom from want. The report perceives
that security can only be assured from two points of views. First, is the safety of the vulnerable
people and groups in numerous part of the world from violent conflicts caused by interstate and
intrastate crises and war. The second view is the safety of the people from poverty, hunger,
unemployment and other kinds of social, economic and political deprivations. International
security can also be called global security and some dimensions which include; human,
environmental, national, transnational, and transcultural security.However, the concept of
international security actor has been protracted from individuals, groups, nations, governmental
and non-governmental organizations. International organizations like United Nations and other
continental cum sub – regional organizations are working assiduously to promote and
maintain world peace as it constitutes the cogent objective of these organizations.

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303899299_Concept_of_Security