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CHAPTER 1
Non-Traditional Concept of National Security: A Traditional View
Nalini Kant Jha
The concept of national security has increasingly come under scrutiny in recent decades from scholars and practitioners alike. It is argued that since the traditional notion of national security put a premium on the security of State and its boundaries, it ignored security of human beings residing within the boundaries of a State. Hence, traditional view of security is regarded as too narrow and militarist view of security. Accordingly, contemporary debate about national security often focuses on transformation of the concept of national security from a narrow prism of territorial security to a wider canvas of human security. It is now argued that while scholars during the Cold War perceived the State as an actor in international politics with a distinct territorial base and sovereign authority without giving much attention to the peoples residing within a State; the end of the Cold War over a decade ago heralded a seminal change about the concept of national security.
II
Several factors contributed to the shift in notion of national security. Firstly, the decline in the possibility of global wars, at least among major powers, led to a greater sense of security among the major powers. Secondly, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and communal tensions, which were dormant and overlaid with Cold War rivalries and the earlier colonial dominance over the Third World, got a fillip by the 'decompression' effect of the end of the Cold War. Thirdly, several newer sources of threat to national security such as population explosion, unplanned urbanisation, disparities in economic opportunities; proliferation of small arms, drug trade, international terrorism and money laundering; migration pressures, environment degradation and cyber crimes surfaced after the Cold War. Finally, the shrinking of the globe and explosion of knowledge due to the revolution in information technology and globalisation of economy weakened the boundaries of State and its sovereignty; "ignited identity as a source of conflict" and enhanced sub-State groups and their operations.
Since the traditional concept of security did not address these new dimensions of security, it is further argued; the need of widening the concept of security was felt after the Cold War. Consequently, many scholars began to move away from the State-centric Realist notion of international relations to Liberal view of international relations that stresses on imperatives and possibility of international and regional cooperation. A unilateralist notion of security must give way, in this view, to cooperative security. As threat to national security can come not only from other state (s), but also from non-state actors and natural calamities, a much wider notion of security, which broadens the nature and sources of threat and which is may called composite or comprehensive security, got currency after the Cold War.
Certain critiques of the classical Western notion of security went further to suggest that security cannot be restricted to the well-being of the State, but it must aim at protection and well-being of individuals and citizens residing in a State. This concept of security, which is centred above all on the sanctity of the individual, is known as human security. The concept of human security or the security of the individual and humane governance, therefore, gained wide currency, as poverty and deprivation enlarged the problem of human security in the developing world. Accordingly, growing attention is now paid, it is asserted, to human dimensions of security. While the list of threats to human security is long, most can be considered under seven major categories, namely, economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. Group identity, security, and recognition are singled out as basic human needs particularly in post-colonial Asia and Africa. It is therefore argued that the shift from the 'national security' to 'human security' paradigm is of historic importance.
III
While the above-discussed transformation of the concept of national security may indeed be revolutionary in the West, as far as India is concerned, the primary strategic objective of security policy has had been, and will remain, the socio-economic development of its people. This has its roots in ancient political tradition, where the ruler's primary duty (Dharma) was perceived to be the prosperity and happiness of his people. As pointed out by leading expert on Indian culture, kings were expected to nourish their subjects as a father nourishes his offspring.
This is how Srimadbhagvatam describes the rule of king Ram: "Jugop pitravad Ramo manire pitra ch tam" (King Ram used to protect his subjects like a father and they too treated him as their father). According to the Valmiki Ramayan, common people declared during King Ram's rule that the territory beyond Ram's kingdom will be a forest, but if he would reside in a forest that too would be converted into a sovereign nation. This popular faith in King Ram emanated his scrupulous observance of his promise given to people at the time of his coronation, namely, that he would not at all hesitate in scarifying his affection, kindness and personal pleasures including his most beloved wife, Janaki. Not surprisingly, the ancient Indian literature describes Ramrajya (the rule of Lord Ram) as full of happiness, where no women became widow, no one got incurable disease or snake bite. There was no question of any theft, robbery or untimely death. Every one followed principles of dharm (righteousness) and lived happily. Poet Kalidas, similarly, describes in his Raghuvansam how King Dilip protected and cared his subjects like a father.
While above-mentioned description of ancient Indian kingdoms may be exaggerated or many may regard this merely an imagination of poets, these descriptions, however, suggest that foundations of political order or State lie, according to Indian theorists, in people's consent obtained by a king through ensuring their welfare. This is how the Mahabharat describes the origin of State and bases of political obligation thus, "Harassed by those who have force, the helpless and the hurt have only the king as their refuge, and their protector." "When the king wipes the tears of the poor, the dispossessed and the old, and creates thereby happiness among the people, that behaviour is called the king's dharma!' The Mahabharat thus prescribes that by its very justification, the State, if is to be itself and not something else, must be an instrument for the protection of people, for protection from violence. And since caring is the essence of protection, the State in all its acts must be caring, as only in a caring nation-State wishes expressed in the Yujurveda can be realized.
Commenting on the stress on human security in ancient Indian literature, the famous scholar in this field Professor Kane, observers: "These provisions for the old, the blind, the widows, orphans and helpless persons and for the relief of unemployed Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras strike one as rather modern in tone.
It was this philosophy and practice of human welfare that influenced modern Indian political thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and others to stood for a people-centred organization of society, economics and politics. The Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in Part IV of the Indian Constitution that prescribes popular welfare as prime duty of the Indian State reflects this traditional thinking in India. Though it is not mandatory for the Indian State to implement these Directives, successive Governments have taken several steps to realize these popular welfare goals of the Constitution. Indian Judiciary too have joined in implementing this vision of the founding fathers of our Constitution by enlarging, through judicial interpretations, the meaning and ambit of fundamental rights of freedom, life and liberty guaranteed to the people by Art19 and 21 of the Constitution.
One may of course, argue that both ancient and modern Indian political thinkers failed to theorize and explicitly describe popular welfare as an essential pre-condition for national security; systematic and elaborate efforts to define national security in terms of human security have been made only in recent years. What, however, cannot be denied that Indian thinkers and leaders have been fully aware with the significance of people oriented policy as an essential requirement for stability and security of a nation and State.
IV
As the saying goes, "better late than never," it is of course a welcome development that Western scholars too of late now recognize the linkage between development and national security. National security as a concept in the has thus travelled far and wide from the earlier Western notion of physical preservation of a State to a multi-dimensional concern involving military, economic, ecological, ethnic, and political aspects of a nation-State's life. As such, security now subsumes the whole of development in it. The multidimensional approach to security, however, sacrifices precision for inclusiveness, as all threats to human well-being may be regarded as threat to security. Anything and everything 'bad' may be treated as security concern. Squeezing of too many concerns in to security and thereby broadening the concept too much thus involves the risk of blurring distinctions between security and development and security and international relations in general. Neo-realist security analyst therefore argue that lumping together such a disparate set of threats causes the term security to lose all theoretical utility.
Secondly, the concept of human security is attacked also from the policy perspectives. It is argued that by positioning so many different forms of violence there is little hope of framing a coherent response. It is also argued, especially by Realist scholars that inclusion of many and varied aspects of everyday life in to security umbrella may enable the ruling elite and particularly the military rulers in the Third World States to broaden their negative and corrupting influence in the society. Indeed, this has happened to some extent not only in Central America, but also in South Asian States such as Pakistan and Bangladesh.
It is also suspected that the current stress on human security by the Western scholars emanate from their prejudiced view that while the security of Sate though arms race and other military means is the responsibility of the developed nations, security of human beings is the prime responsibility of poor and developing countries. This allegation gets sustenance from the fact the one the one hand the major world powers are not willing to dismantle their weapons of mass destructions and claims right to interfere in any part of the world in pursuance of their military security agenda, they preach, on the other hand, patience, peace and development to Third World countries.
The re-conceptualising of security thus appears to be a double-edged sword in addressing problems of the Third World. In order to rescue this concept from being diluted into nothingness, we need to focus on security policy in relations to crisis. Short of that it is more accurate to assess welfare gains and losses rather than increased security and insecurity. In other words, instead of over-stretching the concept of security to include fundamental concerns of human welfare, it might be enough to recognise the limitations of traditional paradigm in terms of when and where it should be applied. Security policy can then be posited as crisis prevention and crisis management, both with regard to institutional capacity and material capability. Viewed thus the concept of security must be distinguished from the concept of development even while recognising the linkages between the two. It must be recognised that while the latter is a broader concept, which means a process of widening the range of people's choices, the former means that people can exercise these choices safely and freely and that they can be relatively confident that the opportunities they have today are not totally lost tomorrow.
Moreover, even while recognising the need of including these considerations under security concern, the question remains how to maintain conditions under which sustainable development can take place. It is in this context that the security of nation States assumes significance. For, the post-Cold War experience shows the dissolution of States may worsen the cause of human security and development rather than help it. Viewed thus, it may not be difficult to identify the three sets of sources of insecurity, both national and regional, in the Third World in general and South Asia in particular. They are, (i) the adverse implications of global milieu such as unfavourable policies of great powers, conflicts and interventions, economic pressure, technological barriers, informational and ideological penetrations and cultural distortions; (ii) unfavourable regional strategic environment in which nations live. This include, inter-State conflicts and wars on account of boundary disputes, ideological incompatibilities, and economic clash of interests, etc. The erosion of some influence in or some control of the region to the exclusion of others is also viewed as threat to national security; and (iii) internal turmoil and disruption arising from struggle for national liberation, underdevelopment, ethnic, religious and social conflicts; wars of political succession and movements for political transformations, rights and shares in power. While domestic threat to the established regime may be essentially internal, it may also be linked with recognisable external adversaries. The increasing fear of domestic sociopolitical destabilisation has also brought to the fore the threat to national security emanating from challenges to the core national values the country may have chosen consensually.
V
Needless to say, it may be theoretically absurd and practically misleading to work out a universally applicable matrix to explain security situations in the Third World. Academics depending upon their ideological persuasions, theoretical preconceptions and unspecified biases, have often oscillated between one or sources of threats for identifying the dominant cause of insecurity in the Third World. The reality, however, seems to lie in the fact that all of these sources of threats are inter-meshed in to each other and, therefore, mutually linked and reinforcing. Most of the security crises in the Third World are a curious mix of threats coming from all the three sources. The proportions of each of the components may, of course, vary from one crisis or country to another.
CHAPTER 2
Changing Dimensions of National Security: The Human Perspective
Navniit Gandhi
Introduction
The world is witnessing 'change' as never before. Of all the concepts and ideas undergoing a paradigm shift, the notion of 'security' assumes paramount significance in contemporary times. Globally, there is a clamour for acquiring a 'secure' status in as comprehensive a sense as can be possible. Countries, civil society, and the individual at large scramble for realising the cherished goals of peace, security and sustenance.
Threat perceptions have also changed, moving on from the mere defence of territory to identifying other areas of conflict within nations that can explode into threats to national security. The idea of comprehensive security (moving beyond the strategic connotations) has begun to be widely accepted and the importance of deterring existing threats and preventing new threats is being duly recognized.
The concept of National Security needs to be redefined. The gamut of its operations has undergone a paradigm shift. The context against which the policy makers seek to establish national security is undergoing tumultuous changes. The inalienable relationship between national security and human security needs to be recognised and accepted. The former is incomplete without and narrower an objective without the latter.
The concept of human security made its appearance on the world scene in the mid-1990s, a time when new paradigms were being sought to explain the international system and a growing theoretical and practical debate was under way on the traditional concepts of security that drove countries' actions for much of the last century. Academics, certain international organizations and even some states, particularly Canada and Japan, promoted human security as a concept that would provide a better grasp of the new security challenges from the perspective of individuals or citizens.
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Excerpted from "Maritime Security of India: The Coastal Security Challenges and Policy Options"
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