Chapter 4: International Security

What is Security?

Security is the quality or state of being secure, with freedom from danger, fear or anxiety. There are many faces of security and as Breslin and Christou point out security has many elements, such as economic security, food, security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security.

Some see the Cold War, the standoff between the Eastern bloc states such as the Soviet Union and satellite states, and the Western bloc such as the United States and its allies as a security measure. The Cold War was a series of event that demonstrated how nations engaged with and against each other to secure the country and the safety of its citizens.

The “War on Terror” is a global effort to secure the safety of global citizens against terrorism. It included the United States, the United Kingdom, and their allies joined to defeat Al-Qaeda. However, critics of the “War on Terror” claim that the term was used to advance aggression.

Security and safety concerns are coming to dominate the public life of many nations in recent years, as terrorism has come to affect the welfare of an increasing number of residents. Among other results: to keep all people safe, nofly lists, increased scrutiny at checkpoints, and increased demands by government agents to see passports at border crossings signal a heightened perception of the need to maintain safety everywhere.

International Security

International security means the endeavor of states to ensure security for their citizens. Before 1945, sovereign countries would act on their own behalf to defend their values and security regardless of what others might have thought. The United Nations was formed to prevent war and to consider when the use of force is permissible, or when peaceful attempts to make change appropriate. There have been continuing attempts among the members of the United Nations to clarify the proper use of force.

International security measures are the actions and strategies that countries, states, and alliances take to make the world safe for all. International security is an opportunity to build peace through global cooperation and to protect all from harm and terror.

International organizations strive, in part, to maintain security by helping countries balance the need of economic security and military power. The United Nations organization was created in October of 1945 to prevent future wars. The Charter it adopted called for the states to cooperate when dealing with threats posed against its members by outside aggression. Today, over 190 countries that are a part of this inter-governmental organization formed to maintain peace and security around the world.

The United Nations drafted in its Charter and subsequently policies regarding the use of force between nations.

Use of force means when aggression, war, and other types of force are utilized, forming alliances and adopting overarching documents that include language which will secure the international system and protect global citizenry. It is lawful only under two circumstances:

1. Through an alliance of countries which join to maintain international peace, and
2. Based on the right of individuals, states or a collection of states to respond in an act of selfdefence.

One question of the ‘use of force’ in preventing war or attack has long been debated in international law. The United Nations prohibits pre-emptive self-defense or anticipatory self-defence. In other words, according to the United Nations language, nations and alliances should not attack others to prevent an attack that has not yet occurred.

Though pre-emptive and anticipatory self-defense is prohibited, international scholars frequently cite the 1837 “Caroline Affair” as a counter argument about preemptive self-defense.

NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an alliance which was formed in 1949 by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The agreement was that an attack on any of the member countries would be considered an attack on all the countries. All members agreed to defend the others; however military reaction was not required. Other supports or reactions, such as embargos or sanctions, could meet the terms of the treaty.

An alliance’s mission, unlike a general international organization, then, is one of “Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno” (One for all, all for one).

The mission of NATO had been to improve transatlantic relations by tying the United States to Europe to deter the Soviet/ Russian aggression and to secure European security through taming German power. However, in response to West Germany’s joining NATO in 1955, the Soviet Union created its own alliance (with Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania), which was called the Warsaw Pact.

Over the years, the Warsaw Pact became ineffective. In 1990, East Germany left the Warsaw Pact to reunite with West Germany, forming a unified Germany. Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland all withdrew. In 1991, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, thereby finally eroding the Warsaw Pact.

Human Security

Human security means security form threats that challenge survival (such as disease, catastrophes, terrorism, and poverty).

The United Nations also has as a goal “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” According to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the United Nations is concerned with human security and with the rights of individuals to live peacefully without aggression, harms or inequities.

In our modern era, the human security approach to international security stresses the good for all people. The system of security requires support from multiple teams, governments and organizations, in a collaborative approach to maintain security. However, the Syrian Civil War Has caused more than 10 million people to leave their country but only a few countries have accepted them as refugees.

One response to threats to security is evidenced when people or governments buy alarm systems, security devices, and video surveillance machinery to monitor our surroundings and detect incoming threats.

Environmental Security: Natural Disasters

Environmental security is the need to protect humans from natural disasters and extreme weather events (such as tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods) that threaten human life.

The globe may be concerned about nuclear proliferation and the use of biochemical weapons, but natural disasters have killed more people than wars have. Human security, another aspect of international security, includes measures to keep the state and community safe and considers all threats. When one considers the increasing rate of natural disasters, with the death, damage, and number of displaced, it becomes clear that natural disasters across the globe pose a major security threat.

Decentralized Threats

In both the World War I and World War II, states fought against states: there were central governments with military forces. However, the wars of late include those of decentralized aggression. The soldiers come from multiple countries; often live within the borders of the country they are attacking, or are fighting for conviction, having been converted to aggressive action through propaganda and social media. Different terror cells, whether from foreign or domestic origin, do not have states, centralized leaderships or governments to attack.

The nature of war has changed. Now, decentralized threats are killing large numbers of innocents. us, a new threat to security are non-state based threats: ISIL, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity involves protecting technology, data, and information from malicious use or corruption arising from the use of computers and the Internet.

The Internet provides almost endless information and connectivity to users, but it also provides a great many options for malicious behavior that will attack someone right in the home. Attacks on individuals and society include hacking bank accounts, hospitals, revenge, pornography, identify theft and even hacking the computer systems of cars to create accidents.

According to Interpol, cybercrime is “a fast- growing area of crime. More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual, cause serious harm and pose very real threats to victims worldwide.”

Cybercrime affects people on an individual level but cyber-espionage can affect military applications, national banking systems, currency, and governments.

The Internet has become a global society. is has real consequences for us in the physical world. Documents, currency, and security are all threatened by attacks, and threats of attacks, on human security, nationally and internationally. Some of these cyber- attacks include hacking governments and large industries.

The most recent big attack occurred on May 12, 2017. A new ransomware virus -- “Wannacry” -- attacked over 75,000 organizations, including hospitals and governments, locking computer files and demanding payment in the cyber currency bitcoin to release the files.

Ransomware is “a type of malware that prevents or limits users from accessing their system, either by locking the system›s screen or by locking the files of the users until ransom is paid.

Cybercrime is a trend on the rise for the past few years. Ponemon Institute calculated that major companies face two cyber-attacks per week.

Today the threats to security on the international level are much more complex, and addressing them is far more complex than implied in the more traditional declaration of war.