Chapter 11 - National Security

Question 1

Definition of National Security

Answer 1

Survival of the state - not the best for everyone in the nation necessarily.

Question 2

We should move away from…

Answer 2

Essentializing national security

It is always changing and different people have different interests.

Question 3

National Security is about protecting the _____, _____, and ______ of the state.

Answer 3

Sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the state.

Question 4

New notions of security include ____, ____, _____ security.

Answer 4

Health, economic, and environmental security.

Question 5

Issues with the referent object (the state) of national security.

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Human Security

Answer 6

Individuals as referent objects, and the state as an external threat.

Question 7

R2P

Answer 7

Recognizes states as greater threats

Absolute sovereignty to conditional

Question 8

R2P is necessary when…

Answer 8

States are unwilling or unable to protect its citizens. At this point other states have the obligation to interfere.

Question 9

Thickest Form of Human Security

Answer 9

Amartya Sen’s human security.
Includes no poverty, meaningful life, job, and house.
Would need vastly complex web of means to achieve this.

Question 10

The Subjectivity of Threat

Answer 10

Security is subjective

Environmental security, organized crime, terrorism, all of these are different threats for different people

Question 11

Realism and National Security

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Security Studies Definition

Answer 12

The study of the nature, causes, effects, and prevention of war.

Question 13

The concept of national security rose to prominence during…

Answer 13

the Cold War!

The conflict created a national security binary which informed how people understood the world.

Question 14

The concept of human security rose to prominence during…

Answer 14

the early 1990s.

This placed the individual at the centre of security strategies.

Question 15

3 Ways the Nuclear Revolution changed conflict

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Necessity for proper Deterrence

Answer 16

The credible threat to punish another state if it undertakes certain unacceptable actions such as attacking one’s own state

Question 17

3-Step Process to Determine a State’s Grand Strategy

Answer 17

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

Question 18

The Evolution of Canada’s Grand Strategy

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

America’s Grand Strategy

Answer 19

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

Question 20

In the American context, realists advocate for a policy of ________.

Answer 20

Offshore balancing (instead of purely internal gain of relative power) to maintain relative power in an emerging multipolar world.