Defence and Security
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This document discusses various topics related to state security including theories of security, defense, law and order, and limitations of state protection. It outlines Hobbes' argument that the main task of the state is to provide physical security for citizens through a monopoly on force. It also discusses defense against external threats, conflict resolution methods, military spending, crime and punishment, product safety regulations, and challenges like terrorism and international crime. Realism and idealism are presented as competing theories of international relations with realism emphasizing self-interest and power.
Defence and Security
- 1. DEFENCE AND SECURITY The main topics in this chapter are: • The state and security • Defence and national security • Internal law and order • Other forms of protection • The limitations of state security • Theories of security and conflict
- 2. STATE AND SECURITY • In 1651, the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) published a classical defence of the need for security in society. • What was needed was a third party commanding enough power to make sure that each citizen respected the security of everybody else. This is where the state – or the ‘King’ or ‘Leviathan’ as Hobbes preferred to call it – comes in.
- 4. • According to this line of reasoning the state’s main task is to provide physical security for its citizens. • Hobbes’ argument still underpins the case for a state that wields a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in order to protect itself and its citizens.
- 5. DEFENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY • Protecting the state and its citizens from outside aggression is probably the most conventional task of any government. •Conflict Resolution: Conflicts involving states can be classified according to the degree of violence involved.
- 6. • Severe conflicts can not be solved easily by exchanging views and trying to reach agreement. In cases where there is little trust, those involved may use third-party mediation (or conciliation) to try to find common ground – turning to an ‘honest broker’ who can break the deadlock. Conflicting states may bring their case to the Security Council of the UN or to the International Court of justice (ICJ), or to some other authoritative international body.
- 7. • Mediation: Attempt by a third party to reach an agreement between disputing parties on the basis of an investigation of the facts of the dispute. • The use of violence between states is – measured by the number of conflicts – rather limited. • Just Wars: In the international community, violent action is accepted only if (1) force is used in self-defence, or (2) the action is authorised by the Un. Straightforward as these principles may seem, they are highly disputed in any given case. • The self-defence problem is even greater in the case of conflict within a state.
- 8. • Military Expenditure: In spite of the determined attempts to regulate conflicts by peaceful means or to rely on Un action, many states maintain large armies or manufacture large amounts of military equipment. • The ‘top five’ states in the world with the largest defence budgets are; • 1. USA • 2. China • 3. Russia • 4. India • 5. Britain
- 9. • The picture of military spending changes dramatically when we calculate it as a percentage of gross domestic product (or GDP). • Global trading is heavily dominated by US firms. • some argue that high levels of military spending are part of the problem of security in the world, and not the solution. •Prevention: Attempt to hinder or deter delinquent behaviour.
- 11. INTERNAL LAW AND ORDER • Citizens, however, the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness starts at home: they expect government to protect their life and property and to punish those who break the law. • Law enforcement and punishment of offenders are among the traditional tasks of the state the autonomy of the legal system is based on the idea that judges should be independent of the government and final arbiters of the law.
- 12. CRIME, PUNISHMENT AND PREVENTION • The conventional way to deal with crime is to search for offenders, bring them to court and punish them for their behaviour. The most common measure against grave breaches of the law is to send offenders to jail. • Law and order is an expensive business. Prisons are also expensive, but even long sentences do not seem to act as a deterrent so the preferred solution of many politicians to the crime problem does not seem to work.
- 13. OTHER FORM OF PROTECTION •Information •Certification •Permisson •Product Safety
- 14. • Information: Governments try to protect their citizens by requiring the producers of goods and services to inform consumers about what they are buying. • Certification: Governments issue rules not only for the standardisation of products (electric plugs should be the same size and shape) but also for safety standards, and they then certify the products as suitable for public use. • Permission: In many countries, potentially harmful products such as medicine, industrial equipment, chemicals and guns, can be sold only by registered dealers and to people who are licensed to use them by medical prescription, driving licences or gun licences.
- 15. •Product Safety: Product safety is the ability of a product to be safe for intended use, as determined when evaluated against a set of established rules. •The Limitations of State Security: Government ought to provide security. However, government can not provide security everytime. Globalization prensents some obstacles like terrorism, international crime and corruption. •Terrorism: The use of violence against civilian targets to create fear for political aims. What some regard as terrorism is seen as ‘freedom fighting’ by others. Textbook example Taliban or ISIS.
- 16. •International Crime: Organising this business is extremely lucrative, and the chances of arrest are lower because of international legal and policing arrangements. Piracy, drugs, weapon trade, historical materials etc. •Corruption: The use of illegitimate means to influence or control the making of public decisions, or the secret use of public offices or resources for private purposes.
- 17. THEORIES OF SECURITY AND CONFLICT •Idealism: On the one hand, the idealist approaches that dominated before the Second World War saw politics as the struggle between competing ideas and ideologies. The behaviour of states in the international system was guided, so far as possible, by ideals and morality, and by the possibility of peaceful coexistence. •Realism: In international relations, realism refers to the view of politics that emphasises the role of self- interest as a determinant of state policies and hence the importance of power in these relations.
- 18. •Policy Communities: Defence policy and the arms trade are often used as a prime example of the policy communities that operate in some areas of public policy, and policy community theory has had some success in explaining decision making in government. •The military–industrial Complex: It was first defined by Wright Mills. This is an elitist theory. According to Mills, there is an oligarchy (elite administration) in USA and the citizens only can choose weapon firms or elite groups through election.