Followers

Tuesday 1 May 2012


Security


The word security means the quality or state of being secure.  It therefore implies freedom from danger, fear or anxiety. Security can be understood on many different levels such as individual, group, regional, national or global. If we understand security on these five levels we can understand the way security agreements are made and executed.

Individual Security


Individual security implies protection from physical and psychological harm. If an individual feels fear or anxiety due to one reason or the other, this threatens his sense of security, his sense of safety. The UN Declaration of Human Rights mentions that all peoples are entitled to the ‘security of the person.’ This is easier said than done. How do we ensure individual security? Usually, individual security is protected by the laws of the nation and includes punishment of crimes, such as murder, theft, and coercion. Individual security also implies the attainment of basic needs such as food, home and job. Many people see individual security as achieving a high standard of living.
                                                          
Group Security

Just as an individual wants to feel secure, so does a group. However a group goes further—it wants to secure itself from discrimination. An individual can be mistreated due to his religious, ethnic or national background, but when this happens to an entire group it acquires the meaning of discrimination. Discrimination can become more obvious if an entire group is discriminated on the basis of some affiliation or identity. A group can easily organize itself and mobilize its members to fight any kind of discrimination. Therefore group security implies safety to its identity as a group.. If we wish to ensure the security of a group we must make laws that do not discriminate either in letter or in spirit.

Regional Security

Regional security involves a region that can be either a part of a nation or a sub-continent—such as the Kashmir region or the Asian region. Regional security implies security of the region in terms of its economic interests and rights. Regional groups might want to protect their regional resources by preventing mass immigration or migration. The might wish to maintain a certain standard of living by upgrading group security to a regional security.

National Security


The most important and contentious aspect of security is on the national level. The nation state invariably sees itself as the sole protector of individual, group and regional securities. By providing agricultural subsidies or imposing tariffs on manufactured good a nation attempts to protect a region or a group from becoming unstable. 

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