Notion of Security and Traditional Security
New Path of Security-Human Security
Human Security and ASEAN
Ideas of Security
There is no agreement on the concept of security. Notwithstanding the wide range of studies of security published over the last sixty years, no single generally accepted definition of security has been produced. Traditionalists in the field of security studies regarded the concept of security in exclusively military and state-centered terms, equating security with military issues and the use of force. This notion of security was intimately linked to the realist approach of international relations. The focus on military threats and the use of force “complemented ideas of power and interest and the rather tough-minded approach to foreign policy which seemed appropriate for the Cold War years” (Garnett: 1996.p.12). An example of a traditional definition of security, stressing the centrality of war, is given by Bellany (1981: 102): “Security [...] is a relative freedom from war, coupled with a relatively high expectation that defeat will not be a consequence of any war that should occur.” Similarly neo-Realist Stephen Walt has defined security studies “ the study of the threat, use, and control of the military force” which is frequently cited as a reflection of the overall position (Walt: 1991. p. 212). Walt emphasizes that military power is the central focus of the field, yet he concedes that “military power is not the only source of national security, and military threats are not the only dangers that states face” (Walt: 1991. p. 212). From traditionalist point of view, security has been used narrowly in terms of the survival of the state.
Traditionalist argues that international society is best described as a condition of international anarchy, since there is no central authority to protect states from one another. States act as independent, sovereign political units that focus on their own survival (or expansion). For that reason, the objective of national security is survival of the nation-state rather than the guarantee of international security (Haftendorn, 1991: 8). Realists are not prepared to engage in long-term accommodation or cooperation. In this view, world politics is a ‘jungle’ characterized by a ‘state of war’, not a single continuous war or constant wars but the constant possibility of war among all states. For that reason, state is constantly seeking relative gains and its behavior is therefore continuously determined to facilitate self-preservation by the actual ‘balance of power’ between political powers.
The first signs of a trend towards the expansion of the notion of security can be traced back to the late 1960s, when World Bank President, Robert McNamara suggested that security implied the freedom of a state to develop and improve its position in the future. Then, others scholars are gradually rethinking the ideas of traditional security. From the 1980s onwards, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, scholars of international relations increasingly began to emphasize the need for a broader understanding of security. They argued that it is misleading to confine security analysis to traditional military threats to the territorial integrity of states (Garnett, 1996 cited in notion of security 2007:p.17). They criticized the intense narrowing of the field of security studies imposed by the military and nuclear obsessions of the Cold War. They argued that these traditional threats have not disappeared, but that other, non-military sources of threat now seemed more pressing.