International security

Many lands want to stay safe.

Groups of countries work together. They make rules to help everyone. They use armies to stay safe too.

Some people study how to keep peace. They look at many big things. This includes food and clean air.

They also look at how we trade. This helps countries stay close. Being close can help stop wars.

Working together makes the world better. It helps all people live well.

International security is about how countries stay safe.

Groups like the United Nations help nations work together. They use treaties, which are formal agreements, to keep peace. Some people use military action to protect their lands.

For a long time, people focused on military power. This is called traditional security. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were the two main powers. They tried to keep a balance of power. This meant no single nation could rule everyone else.

Today, the idea of security is much bigger. It is not just about war or armies. It also includes food, energy, and science. We must also think about climate change and diseases. These things can make the world unsafe for people.

Some thinkers believe in realism. They think nations always act to gain more power. Other thinkers believe in liberalism. They think that trading and working together makes the world more peaceful. They believe that being close helps stop fights.

International security is a big idea about how the world stays safe. It involves steps taken by countries and groups like the United Nations or the European Union. These groups work to make sure everyone can survive and live without fear. They use many different tools to do this work. Some tools include military action to protect lands. Other tools include diplomatic agreements called treaties or conventions. These are formal promises between nations to follow certain rules.

How security works can change depending on who you ask. Some people focus only on military power and protecting borders. This is often called the traditional approach to security. Other people look at much wider issues that affect our survival. This includes things like having enough food and energy. It also includes science, technology, and trade between nations. Even things like climate change and infectious diseases are part of security now. These issues are all connected to how safe we feel.

People have studied these ideas for a long time. After World War II ended, a new subject called security studies began. It started as its own field of study. Later, it became a part of international relations. Since the 1950s, studying security has been very important. Researchers look at many areas like peace studies and strategic studies. They try to understand why wars happen and how to prevent them. This helps us learn from the past to build a better future.

Many thinkers have shared different views on how nations act. Realism is a very old and common theory. Famous writers like Sun Tzu and Thucydides wrote about these ideas long ago. Realists believe the world is a place where nations struggle for power. They think countries act to protect themselves because there is no world government to rule them. In the 1960s, Kenneth Waltz created neorealism to explain this better. He studied how the whole system of states affects how they interact.

Other thinkers follow a different path called liberalism. This idea became popular after World War I. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant wrote about how nations could find lasting peace. One part of this is economic liberalism. This theory says that when countries trade and depend on each other, they are more peaceful. Eric Gartzke wrote that economic freedom can be very effective at creating peace. By working together through trade, nations might choose to cooperate instead of fight. This shows how many different ways exist to think about safety.

International security refers to the measures taken by states and international organizations to ensure mutual survival. These organizations include groups like the United Nations and the European Union. To maintain safety, actors use military actions and diplomatic agreements. These agreements often take the form of treaties or conventions. International security is essentially national security viewed on a global scale. Because the safety of one nation affects others, these concepts are always linked.

The study of this subject emerged as a distinct academic field after World War II. This field is known as security studies. Initially, it functioned as an independent area of research. Over time, it was absorbed into the broader field of international relations. Since the 1950s, security studies has remained a central part of studying how the world works. It encompasses several specialized areas, including strategic studies and peace studies.

In the past, the definition of security was quite narrow. The traditional approach focused almost exclusively on military concerns and state power. This paradigm viewed the nation-state as the primary object of security. During the Cold War, this approach reached its peak. For nearly fifty years, major world powers relied on a balance of power to maintain stability. This system relied on the absolute sovereignty of nation-states and the military build-up between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Today, the scope of international security has expanded significantly. It now covers many interconnected issues that affect human survival. Beyond conventional military power, it includes economic strength and energy supplies. It also addresses ethnic, religious, and ideological conflicts. Modern security studies look at science, technology, and food supplies. Furthermore, it includes threats like infectious diseases, climate change, and environmental degradation. It even considers the activities of non-state actors, such as NGOs or local governments.

Different thinkers have proposed various ways to define security. Walter Lippmann suggested that security is a country's ability to protect its core values. This means a state should not have to sacrifice its values to avoid war. Conversely, David Baldwin argued that pursuing security might require sacrificing certain values. Richard Ullman suggested that security can be defined as a decrease in vulnerability. Arnold Wolfers viewed security as a normative term. This means nations use the concept to decide if an action is rational or moral.

One major theoretical framework is realism. Realism is the foundation of contemporary security studies. It draws from ancient thinkers like Sun Tzu and Thucydides, as well as modern writers like Hobbes and Machiavelli. Realists believe the international system is characterized by anarchy. In this context, anarchy means there is no central power to regulate how states interact. Classical realism suggests that bad outcomes often happen because the people making foreign policy are sometimes bad. Neorealism, developed by Kenneth Waltz in the 1960s, focuses on how the structure of the state system affects interactions.

Another major theory is liberalism, which became prominent after World War I. Liberalism includes ideas from philosophers like Immanuel Kant. Kant's concept of "Perpetual Peace" is a starting point for modern liberal thought. A key branch is economic liberalism. This theory assumes that economic openness and interdependence make countries more peaceful. Eric Gartzke noted that economic freedom might be 50 times more effective than democracy in creating peace. This suggests that trade and economic connections can act as a tool for global stability.