Chapter 11 - National Security Flashcards
Definition of National Security
Survival of the state - not the best for everyone in the nation necessarily.
We should move away from…
Essentializing national security
It is always changing and different people have different interests.
National Security is about protecting the _____, _____, and ______ of the state.
Sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the state.
New notions of security include ____, ____, _____ security.
Health, economic, and environmental security.
Issues with the referent object (the state) of national security.
Who are we really attempting to secure here? And in whose name?
Often it’s the state itself that is the greater threat to citizens than external.
Human Security
Individuals as referent objects, and the state as an external threat.
R2P
Recognizes states as greater threats
Absolute sovereignty to conditional
R2P is necessary when…
States are unwilling or unable to protect its citizens. At this point other states have the obligation to interfere.
Thickest Form of Human Security
Amartya Sen’s human security.
Includes no poverty, meaningful life, job, and house.
Would need vastly complex web of means to achieve this.
The Subjectivity of Threat
Security is subjective
Environmental security, organized crime, terrorism, all of these are different threats for different people
Realism and National Security
Apparently has a theoretical monopoly on national security.
Claim that one must ignore the domestic, they don’t know better and it’s the global that matters.
Three S’s defines national security.
Security Studies Definition
The study of the nature, causes, effects, and prevention of war.
The concept of national security rose to prominence during…
the Cold War!
The conflict created a national security binary which informed how people understood the world.
The concept of human security rose to prominence during…
the early 1990s.
This placed the individual at the centre of security strategies.
3 Ways the Nuclear Revolution changed conflict
MAD
1% doctrine - when the stakes are this high, you can’t risk it.
Rendered obsolete traditional notions of warfare - things change when your foe has a nuke
Necessity for proper Deterrence
The credible threat to punish another state if it undertakes certain unacceptable actions such as attacking one’s own state
3-Step Process to Determine a State’s Grand Strategy
Determine the state’s vital security goals
Identify threats to these goals, internal and external
Ascertain the key political, economic, and military resources that can be employed as FP options realize national security goals
The Evolution of Canada’s Grand Strategy
1867-1914 Isolationism
Post-1945 ‘Good’ international citizen promoting liberal internationalism
- Constrain hubris of the great powers while mitigating harm to the bottom
- Too large to avoid conflict, too small to affect it (so let’s try and make peace)
Harper Era - More realist strategy. We only get involved when it helps our alliances and national security. Unwavering American partner.
America’s Grand Strategy
The following strategies have come and gone at various points:
Neo-isolationism
- restraint
- America should focus on national interest
- Overseas military presence = terrorism at home
Liberal Internationalism
- Expanse America (world peace)
- Multilateral agreements, promoting democracy, human rights, interdependence
Primacy
- preserving hegemony
- military dominance, avoid multipolar structure
- institutions as restraints
- neo-imperialism to make allies
In the American context, realists advocate for a policy of ________.
Offshore balancing (instead of purely internal gain of relative power) to maintain relative power in an emerging multipolar world.
