Essay Example on Security was defined in different ways in the Cold War, Post Cold War

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The foreign relations of states military economic interests and the crossings of the nature of these interests in changeable and or competitive international environment and the nature of relations which they cause are all assayed in terms of pursuits and ambitions to achieve national or international security The changing nature of the world s dynamics emerged different security s definitions Security was defined in different ways in the cold war post cold war and after the September events The large explanations of what is security or what security should be is quite large to the extent to be described by some as a toxic for security studies Narrow interpretations asserts that security focus more on the use of threat military control force that is to say the conditions that make the use of force more likely the ways that the use of force affects individuals states and societies and the specific policies that states adopt in order to prepare for prevent or engage in war Walt 1991 212 On the other hand Buzan 1986 and Smith 2005 claim that the concept of security is contested in a way its meaning is seen as still not definable and intrinsically debated To critically assess that the concept it contested this essay will incorporate two theoretical approaches in the process of demonstrating that security is a contested concept in an international relations changing environment where a stagnant definition in unlike to be achieved in accordance to some groups understanding of security and due to the emergence of new threats such as terrorism climate change sectarian conflicts in a addition to the varying nature of the world events

The essay allocates three sections to elaborate on the argument In the first section I demonstrate why there is a debate between the two approaches over the meaning of security with the aim to demonstrate how important security s disputation akin to the equation formed of who should be secured what should be secured when and how lasswel 1936 The second section uses the mentioned two approaches to demonstrate that a definite and general definition is far to be achieved due to the permanent issues with stagnantly defining security The third section engages with the contrasts from those who suppose that the concept of security should not be contested to which my argument contradicts Security has usually regarded to be good thing The head of states and international powers often use it to defend and legitimize their policy choices and actions But one of the features of the concept of security is its broadness it has been famous that the term security covers a range of goals so wide that highly divergent policies can be interpreted as policies of security Nyman 2016 821 1 Security becomes a predominant referent object in the international politics arena generating a momentous literature arguing what makes the concept of security as an essentially contested concept Baldwin 1997 Gallie 1956 McSweeney 1999 84 Before I proceed to the three sections that construct this essay it is very important to define what is meant by essentially contested concept in doing so this essays adopts Gallie s 1956 definition that not only stands on a continuous dispute amongst different parties to claim which justification to be the true but also because its meaning is inherently an issue of dispute Ruben 2010 The debate over security as an essentially contested concept emerged a consensus that the concept exists without achieving an agreement upon the meaning because of its multiple meanings

Moreover the concept in the field of security studies can be understood as a number of political problems with a profoundly unsettling implications Krause Williams 1997 In this essay I will display that there is no occurred over what the definition of security should be while supporting that essential problems related to defining security in a definite term still exist Security is still a debatable concept Ahead proving how security is contested it is worthy to present the main reason why groups in academia want to contest the meaning of security In doing so this group argue that security is a particular type of politics applicable to a wide range of issues Buzan Waever Widle 1998 V McDonald claimed that security is positioned the realm of high politics and indeed is the raison d être for states as main actors 2012 18 In this sense he argued that a successful definition of the issue as a security issue would enable in particular terms of assigning a level of priority and importance to it or in terms of enabling particular logics of response In the same regard Buzan has also admitted the potential danger of politics upon security in which the word security is used as a powerful political tool in claiming attention for priority items in the competition for government attention 1991 370 As a result the danger keeping security under the domination of the military tendency answers why it incites respective groups who want to widen the security agenda believing that security is how lasswell 1936 described who gets what when and how In this regard the process of understanding security requires studying approaches like the ones this essay incorporates For instance according to McDonnald 2012 who stands with the group regarding security as an essentially contested concept he regards that a theoretical approach to security such realism can turn into a dominant to the extent that it becomes established and institutionalised as the accepted basis for interpreting the world and acting on behalf of a particular group McDonald p 5 Moreover according to Booth realism is a phrase uspured from Kant to a theory of the powerful by the powerful for the powerful Opposite to structural realism Welsh School is definitely perspective with a timeline to dare the supremacy of traditional security studies to Booth 1991 McDonald 2012



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