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Q 3. What is the difference between traditional and non-traditional security? Which category would the creation and sustenance of alliances belong to?
Ans. Traditional security: External
1.In the traditional conception of security, the greatest danger to a country is from military threats. 2.The source of this danger is another country which by threatening military action endangers the core values of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.3.The security policy is concerned with preventing war, which is called deterrence, and with limiting or ending the war, which is called the defence. 4.Traditional security policy has a third component called the balance of power. 5.A fourth and related component of traditional security policy is alliance building. An alliance is a coalition of states that coordinate their actions to deter or defend against military attack. Most alliances are formalised in written treaties and are based on a fairly clear identification of who constitutes the threat. 6. In traditional security, there is a recognition that cooperation in limiting violence is possible.7.Traditional security also accepts confidence building as a means of avoiding violence. 8. In traditional security, force is both the principal threat to security and the principal means of achieving security.
Non-traditional security:
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. In doing so, they also question the other three elements of security — what is being secured, from what kind of threats and the approach to security. All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals. However, there are differences in precisely what threats individuals should be protected from. Proponents of the ‘narrow’ concept of human security focus on violent threats to individuals or, as former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan puts it, “the protection of communities and individuals from internal violence”. 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. Creation and sustenance of alliances belong to the traditional notion of security.
Q 7. What is Balance of Power? How could a state achieve this? Ans. Traditional security policy has a third component called the balance of power. Balance of power is a balance between bigger and smaller countries by cooperating with each other economically and technologically. A smaller country is always suspicious to break out war from a bigger or powerful country. Hence, they maintain a balance of power to build up one’s military power together with economic and technological power to protect one’s own security. For instance, a neighbouring country may not say it is preparing for an attack. There may be no obvious reason for the attack. However, the fact that this country is very powerful is a sign that at some point in the future it may choose to be aggressive. Therefore, Governments are sensitive to the balance of power between their country in 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 differences, or with those they have had conflicts in the past. A good part of maintaining a balance of power is to build up one’s military power, although economic and technological power are also important since they are the basis for military power.
Q 6. What are the choices available to a state when its security is threatened, according to traditional security perspective?
Ans. Traditional security perspective emphasises on compromises to limit the violence by giving the following three choices to the state if its security is threatened: 1. to surrender when actually confronted by war, but they will not advertise this as the policy of the country. 2. to prevent the other side from attacking by promising to raise the costs of war to an unacceptable level.3 to defend to protect 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. pGovernments may choose to surrender when actually confronted by war, but they will not advertise this as the policy of the country. Hence, the state’s security policy is to prevent a war which is called deterrence and with limiting or heading war called the defence.