FACULTY OF LAW, ACCOUNTANCY &

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

IRB 00103

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

The Changing of Concept of International Security

HANDOUT 2
INTRODUCTION
 Since the end of the Cold War (1989-91) the
definition of international security has expanded to
include more issues and actors.

 The threats of the 21st century requires careful

engagement with this extended constituency and a
new kind of integrated strategic thinking
INTRODUCTION
 The Cold war witnesses war between the two
blocs and their allies . That is, it oversees United
State as the survival and it remains the only super
power, a new era of uni-polarity system
 While the collapse of the Warsaw Pact has left
Central and Eastern Europe in a security vacuum.
INTRODUCTION
 Regional organizations such as the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

 Bipolarity was replaced with uni-polarity, this implied a new

security agenda

 On the global level, major wars were now fought in an

asymmetrical manner, that is to say between the only
remaining super power supported by its associates; may it be
on behalf of international community; Iraq and Taliban regimes
INTRODUCTION
 or fought by forces authorized by international
Society, that is UNSC acting on behalf of all UN
member states in matters of international peace
and Security. e.g. the Kosovo war, although it did
not get UN mandate in the first place but it was
tactically accepted afterward.
 INTRODUCTION
Despite the disparity of views among the IR Scholars, three themes
emerge;

First, military power has declined in importance in international

politics

That is military threats are less prevalent, while for others it means
that military force is less useful as a tool of statecraft
 INTRODUCTION
Second, there is a need to re-examine the way we
think about international relations and national
security.
For some this need stems from the changed
circumstances of the post-Cold war world; for others
it grows out of the collective failure of scholars to
anticipate either the timing or the nature of the end of
the Cold war
INTRODUCTION
Third, there is a need for a broader view of national
security
For some this means including domestic problems on
the national security agenda; for others it means
treating non-military external threats to national well-
being as security issues.
The decade after World War II
 During the period 1945-55 scholars are well aware of
military instruments of statecraft, but security studies
was not yet as pre-occupied with nuclear weaponry and
deterrence as it would become later on

 First, security was viewed not as the primary goal of

all states at all times but rather as one among several
values, the relative importance of which varied from
one state to another and from one historical context to
another.
The decade after World War II
For instance, Brodie described security as "a derivative
value, being meaningful only in so far as it promotes and
maintains other values which have been or are being
realized and are thought worth securing, though in
proportion to the magnitude of the threat it may displace all
others in primacy

That is other values, such as economic welfare, economic

stability, and individual freedom are also important as
security.
The decade after World War II
Second, national security was viewed as a goal to be
pursued by both nonmilitary and military techniques
of statecraft. While warnings against overreliance on
armaments were common

Third, awareness of the security dilemma often led

to emphasis on caution and prudence with respect to
military policy
The decade after World War II
Fourth, much attention was devoted to the
relationship between national security and domestic
affairs, such as the economy, civil liberties, and
democratic political processes
 The Decline
 If the Cold war stimulated and nourished security
studies before 1965, the decreased salience of the
Cold war during the next fifteen years contributed
to a period of decline

 The US turned her interest from the Cold war with

the Soviet Union to the hot war in Vietnam, their
interest in security studies waned
 The Decline
 Security studies at the time had been so
preoccupied with U.S.-Soviet relations, NATO,
and nuclear strategy that it offered little help to
those seeking to understand the Vietnam War
 Interest in security studies did not revive
immediately after the Vietnam War; rather the
lessened Cold war tensions associated with detente
allowed other issues, such as economic
interdependence
 The Decline
Third World poverty, and environmental issues, to
increase in salience. And the Arab oil embargo served
as a sharp reminder that threats to the American way
of life emanated from nonmilitary sources, as well as
from military ones
 The Decline
 The breakdown of détente (release from tension)
and the renewal of Cold war tensions in the late
1970s and 1980s once again stimulated interest in
security studies.
 Student interest was revived, foundation money
poured in, and research burgeoned, as the old
national security studies was replaced by the new
international security studies
 POST Cold WAR
 The beginning of the 21st century witnesses the
process of globalization accelerated to the point where
the clear outlines of a global society are now evident.

 The emergency of global economic system, global

communication, and the element of the global culture
have helped to provide a wide network of social
relationships which transcend state frontiers and
encompass people all over the world
 POST Cold WAR
 A situation that led to territorial war between great powers.

 Similarly, new risks associated with the environment ,

poverty, and weapons of mass destruction are facing
humanity.

 Therefore, the end of the Cold war has been characterized

such as increasing global awareness, creation of a range of
global social movements and fragmentation of nation-states.
 POST Cold WAR
 The new issue areas of security are;
 1- Societal Security:

is an important element of this concept and collective

identity appears as a reference object within it. The
identity of community, rather than the sovereignty of
state, is the value that is protected in this case.
 POST Cold WAR
2- Individual Security:
This is due to renewed emphasis on human rights and
international crime.

That is, the security of individual within the society,

freedom against all kinds of aggression.
 POST Cold WAR
3- Security for the Human Body: that is security
against worldwide epidemics, pollution of food, and
the lack of food

4- New Technology Security: due to threats to the

vulnerable IT systems, hacking , Cyberspace
5- Hard Security: that is security base on military
security
 POST Cold WAR
Level of Security Actors
1- security for the individual (Individual Security)
2- Societal Security: Security for the social group, the
community, organized national or ethnic entity
3- National Security: Security for the state or nation
4- Regional Security: Security for the region
 POST Cold WAR
Level of Security Actors
5- International Security: security for the society of
nations , or security for international society, which
mainly consists of all or most of the states in the
world
6- Global Security: spaceship Earth or the planet
 Individual as Victim threats to
security
Individual are subject to threats from practically all
security actors: individuals, society, the state, region,
and from the globe. Life and death threats happens
from person to person and common among family
members or close groups. Society e.g. former
Yugoslavia, Rohingyas of Myanmar
 Individual as Victim threats to
security
Individual can also be a victim of regional or
international society e.g. the Gulf war in 1990-91
where individual Iraq citizens were exposed to
military attack

The global threats: individual became victims of

threats e.g. Natural Catastrophes, Epidemics, outer
space and server pollution
 Society as Victim of Threat to
Security
Society become victim of threats coming from
individual e.g. Terrorist threatening the existence or
identity of the whole society.
A threat from the state e.g. Turkey to the Kurds,
Russia to the Chechens.
Regional to society e.g. EU threats to the identity of
individual
 Society as Victim of Threat to
Security
 International Society can also act as the source of
threat to identity e.g. the principle of the Self–
determination of Peoples. This principle resulted
in a considerable increase in the number of nation
states in Europe and else where.
 Although it resolve the issue of identity for some
states, similarly the multinational, constructed
identities were also challenged
 State as Victim of Threat to Security
In normal circumstance individual does not pose any vital threat
to the state.
Society can constitute a certain threat for the state, especially
where state identities are weak and national identities are strong
e.g. the Eastern European states inside the soviet Union/Empire,
therefore the national society constitutes threat to the states
 State as Victim of Threat to Security

It has occurred in 3 times in the past in Europe: in the East German

1953, In 1956 in Hungary, and in 1968 in Czechoslovakia

The threat relations between states

International community as actor to state threat e.g. collective

security system of the UN, the precondition is that willing and
able states should act on behalf of the international community in
conducting war to save a victim of war e.g. Gulf war, Libya Strike.
 The Region as Victim of Threat to
Security
Individual and societal actors play minor roles in the regional
threat to stability

However, state can pose a threat to regional stability and

coherence. The state that can pose threat involves primary,
major and great powers, including superpowers as due to their
influence on the salient environment, they are to a large degree
able to construct and deconstruct regions and sub-regions, as a
result it will seriously affect the existence or non-existence of
regional organizations
 The Region as Victim of Threat to
Security
Regions will be able to threaten the coherence of the
regions, but not on the scale of great power or
superpower activities

The international society can indirectly have a

threatening impact on regions, primarily due to
weakening or the breakdown of the international
society.
 Conclusion
 With the expansion and new areas of IS and the
age of high tech. security kinds has no limit

 Therefore,our daily engagement and interaction

among nations broader the new areas of IS