Why is security an ‘essentially contested’ term?

Why is security an ‘essentially contested’ term?

When we think of security, the immediate thought that comes into our mind is warfare. The major reason that hits us is safety from attack which could be foreign or internal attacks. Different people have different understanding of the term and its application in various life scenarios. However, security encompasses more than that. It controls how people relate with each other within the society, nationwide and internationally. Security is a broad term to define as it entails five major factors to be considered. Security revolves around military, economic, society, political and environmental aspects.

Military security is the major branch of security. It entails self-defense in terms of weaponry and war technology. Economic security involves the financial stability while political focus on the leadership relations. Lastly environmental security is the ability to ensure safety from natural disasters while societal is the most basic form which entails people relations amongst themselves. They are generally three broad division of security; personal, national and international security.

Personal security is the most basic of the three. It is in fact the one that determine all the other two. In short, security starts with an individual person before going internal and external boundaries. For peace to exist in the society, one must be assured of his or her safety in regard to the above discussed five factors (Stevens, D. and Vaughan-Williams, N., 2016, p.153). Individual protection is what gave rise to the need for both national and international security.

National security is also called internal security. It is safety within and among people in a given state. National security is a determinate factor of international security.  Achievement of national security makes it possible for states to relate well with other as there is no tension. However, they are several other factors that affect international security.

International security is also referred as global security.  It is a term that refers or points to the measures taken by nations as well as world organizations like UN, EU among others to maintain mutual safety and survival of people (Smith, 1999,  p.80). The realization of international security requires complex, interlinked human networks as well as their activities within a rapidly changing biosphere (Huysmans, 1998, p.231).  The key focus should be on the human population growth as well as global climatic changes which is the recently fast emerging significant threats of consideration.

The military, economic as well as foreign policies of different sates in the world, intersections of the policies in change as well as in the event of disputes, and the general framework of relations created by the policies set, are all assessed with the aspiration and desire to attain national as well as international security (Gueldry,  Gokcek and Hebron, 2019). Peace and safety is usually linked to the mitigation of threats to cherished ideals (Kolodziej, 1992, p.427). It is unfortunate that the definition is undesirably vague considering the inherent nature of security as a principally contested concept.

In the context of the modern world, security revolves around several key concepts linked to it and is characterized by uncertainty, mass killing, war, genocides, tribal conflicts, terrorism and coercion among others (Collins, 2016). While security is important, historically, people have been known to hate each other. The challenge is even more intensified with the recent generation. It has been reasoned that security is the key threat to itself. This is especially in international relations where every nation has personal interest. The antagonism among nations is evident which a major threat due to competition is over power and economic interests. The result is increased insecurity at national level as well at international environment.

The emergence of unilateralism as well as protectionism together with populism and more so nationalism has posed major challenges to international security (Davies and Riddell, 2017, p.47). Besides, resurgence of strong arm politics, incessant geographical turbulence, increased geo-political competitions as well as conflicts has worsened the situation even more in the modern global security (Dunlop, 2016). The international security is two between west and east responses to peace threats. Both geographical regions have varied history of factors which undermines international security.

The key factor undermining international peace in west is competition for power and economics position (Breen, 2017). West nations have constantly been in the race to take control of economy and international political powers. The result is increased tensions among the power state as they try to be over each other both economically and military strength. Besides, the west countries want to continue being in control of east nations who are working to be stable through eradication of poverty and achievement of growth.

The east nations on the other hand are experiencing internal wars. These have been contributed by tribal wars which have been a major threat to security for quite a long period in the history of the world. The fundamental source of the conflicts in eastern nations is seizure of political powers which has led to antagonism among various communities within the nations (Mogire, 2016). This has resulted to mass killing of people due to organized military coup to overthrow government. This has undermined international security economically as world organizations are forced to offer support to the refugees of such countries. Besides, such nations have been left to lag behind development wise due to constant conflicts which limit economic activities.

Security is a very important issue that needs the support of very humanity for a mutual survival. The state of peace in modern day world is questionable and need to be revisited and worthwhile policies to be taken into account to achieve safety of people.  Differences among nations should be solved and peace ties signed by foreign diplomats to solve the historical conflicts existing between and among various states. Attainment of international peace is dependent on personal and national state of security. The reward for security is economic development and stability of global politics and hence enhanced international relations. A total security can be achieved only in the event of achievements of military, economic, social, environmental and political stability. All the five areas make up the security and must be met for a complete peace to achieve between individuals, within the nation and among states and hence international security.