Security in Contemporary World, Political Science, Part-A unit-6

1. What is security?
Ans:- Security implies freedom from threats.

2. What are the 4 components of traditional notion of security?
Ans:- (i) Military threat:– The greatest danger to a country is from military threats. The source of  this danger is another country which by threatening military independence and territorial  integrity. Military action also endangers the lives of ordinary citizens. Ordinary men and women are made targets of war, to break their support of the war.
(ii) Response of the govt. (To surrender):-  (a) To Prevent the other side from attacking by promising to raise the costs of war to an  unacceptable level. (b) To defend itself when war actually breaks out so as to deny the attacking country its objectives and to turn back or defeat the attacking forces altogether.
(iii) Balance of power:– When countries look around them, they see that some countries are  bigger and stronger. This is a clue to who might be a threat in the future. Government very  sensitive to the balance of power between their country and other countries. They do work  hard to maintain a favourable balance of power with other countries. Especially those close  by. Those with whom they have different or with those they have had conflicts in the past. 

 (iv) Alliance building:– An alliance is a coalition of states that coordinate their actions to  deter or defend against military attack. Most alliances are formalized in written treaties and  are based on a fairly clear identification of who constitutes the threat. Counties from  alliances to increase their effective power relative to another country or alliance. Alliances  are based on national interests and can change when national interests change. For  example, the US backed the Islamic militants in Afghanistan against the soviet union in the  1980’s but later attacked them when Al-Qaeda – a group of Islamic militants led by Osama  bin laden – lounched terrorist strikes against America on 11 September 2001.

3. What are various forms of cooperation on traditional security?
Ans:- (a) Disarmament – Disarmament requires all states to give up certain kinds of weapons.  For example, the 1972 Biological weapons convention (BWC) and the 1992 chemical  weapons convention (CWC) banned the production acceded to the BWC and 181 states  acceded to the CWC. Both conventions included all the great powers.
(b) Arms-control:- Arms control regulates the acquisition or development of weapons. The  Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty in 1972 tried to stop the United Stats and soviet union  from using ballistic missiles as a defensive shield to launch a nuclear attack. Us and soviet  Union signed a number of other arms control treaties including the strategic Arms  limitations Treaty II or salt and the strategic Arms reduction treaty (START). The nuclear  Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) of 1968 was an arms control treaty in the sense that it  regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons : those countries that had tested and  manufactured nuclear weapons before 1967 were allowed to keep their weapons: and those that had not done so were to give up the right to acquire them.
(c) Confidence building – Confidence building is a process in which countries share ideas  and information with their rivals. They tell each other about their military intentions and, up  to a point their military plans. This is a way of demonstrating that they are not planning a  surprise attack. They also tell each other possess, and they may share information on where those forces are deployed. In short, confidence building is a process designed to  ensure that rivals do not go to war through misunderstanding or insperception.

4. What do you understand by Non-Traditional Nations? What are two components of  it?
Ans:- Non- traditional notions of security go beyond military threats to include a wide range of  threats and dangers affecting the conditions of human existence. They begin by questioning  the traditional referent of security.
* Human security- is about the protection of people more than the protection of states.  Human security and state security should be – and often are – the same thing. But secure  states do not automatically mean secure peoples. Protecting citizens from foreign attack  may be a necessary condition for the security of individuals, but it is certainly not a sufficient  one. Indeed, during the last 100 years, more people have been killed by their own  governments than by foreign armies.
  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.
∙ Proponents of the ‘broad’ concept of human security argue that the threat agenda  should include hunger, disease and natural disasters because these kill far more people  than war, genocide and terrorism combined.
∙ Global Security – The idea of global security emerged in the 1990s in response to the  global nature of threats such as global warning, international terrorism, and health  epidemics like AIDs and bird flu and so on, No country can resolve these problems  alone, and in some situations, one country may have to disproportionately bear the  brunt of a global problem such as environmental degradation.
 
5. What are the new sources of threat?
Ans:- Terrorism:– Refers to political violence that targets civilians deliberately and indiscriminately.  International terrorism involves the citizen or territory of more than one country. Terrorist groups  seek to change a political context or condition that they do not like by force or threat to terrorism the public and to use the unhappiness of the public as a weapon against national governments or  other parties in conflict. The classic cases of terrorism involve hijacking planes or planting bombs in trains, cafes, markets  and other crowded places. Since 11 September 2001 when terrorist attacked the world centre in  America other governments and pubic have paid more attention to terrorism.
Global poverty:- Global poverty is another source of insecurity. World population – now it 650 crore- will reach 700-800 crore within 25 years and may eventually level out  at 900 to 1000 crore. Currently, half the world’s population growth occur in just sic  countries – India, china, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Among the world’s poorest countries, population is expected to triple in the next 50 years, whereas  many rich countries will see population shrinkage in that period.  
  This disparity contributes to the gap between the northern and southern countries of the  world.

6. What are the 3 types of rights?
Ans:- First type is political rights such as freedom of speech and assembly
* The second type is economics and social rights.
* The third type is the rights of colonized people or ethnic and indigenous minorities.

7. What are the four components of India’s security strategy?
Ans:- (a) Strengthening its military capabilities:– India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbor  – Pakistan in 1947-48, 1065, 1971 and china in 1962. Since it is surrounded by nuclear-armed countries in the south Asian region, India’s decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1948 was justified by the Indian government in terms of safeguarding national security. India first tasted a nuclear device in 1974.
(b) India’s security strategy:- The second component of India’s security strategy has been to strengthen international norms  and international institutions to protect its security institutions to protect its security interests. India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, supported the cause of Asian solidarity,  decolonization, disarmament and the UN as a forum in which international conflicts could be  settled.
(c) Security challenges within the country:– The third component of Indian security strategy is  geared towards meeting security challenges within the country several militant groups from areas  such as the Nagaland, Mizoram, the Punjab, and Kashmir among other have, from time to time,  sought to break away from India.
(d) Developing India’s Economy:– Finally, 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. The attempt has not quite succeeded; yet  democratic politics allows to exist spaces for articulating the voice of the poor and the deprived  citizens. There is a pressure on the democratically elected governments to combine economic  growth with human development.
(e) 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.  One country’s Success or failure in limiting the spread of these diseases affects infections in other  countries.
    By 2003, an estimated 4 crore people were infected with HIV-AIDS world wide, two-thirds of them  in Africa and half of the rest in south Asia. In North America and the industrialized countries, new drug therapies dramatically lowered the death rate from HIV-AIDS in the late 1990s.

Dr. Ratanlal Brahma, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Post Graduate Teacher (Political Science)
H.N.Seminary Model HS School, Bagribari, Dhubri, Assam
Email : brahmaratan@gmail.com
Whatsapp : 7020477396
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