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Concept of Security

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 Readings In Intelligence & Security Studies
1 functional integrity against forces of change, which they see as hostile while its
CONCEPT OF SECURITY
Muyiwa Bamidele Afolabi
Intelligence and Security Studies Programme,
Department of Political Science and International Studies
Afe Babalola University, Ado – Ekiti. Nigeria.
muyiwaafolabi@rocketmail.com
afolabimb@abuad.edu.ng
+2348166903787
1.0 Introduction
Security is a fragile and significant issue which conveys different meanings to
scholars, analysts, policy makers and organizations across the globe.
Fundamentally, security has to do with the presence of peace, safety, gladness and
the protection of human and physical resources or absence of crisis or threats to
human dignity, all of which facilitate development and progress of any human
society. The concept of security has become a preoccupation for the decades
following the end of the Cold War which could also be referred to as landmark for
diverse school of thought with security studies. Security, as a concept, has diverse
dimensions. It is aptly used in psychology, finance, information access, public safety,
defense and military matters.
The meaning of security is ambiguous fas its scope continues to expand every
day. The elastic nature of the concept of security attracts different meanings and
different views. Security is an important concept that every human person desires
and it has one or two meanings though it defies precise definition. This account for
the position of Barry Buzan (1991) who describes security as an ambiguous and
multidimensional concept in which military factors have attracted misappropriate
attention. This chapter therefore examines the concept of security taking into
cognizance diverse views of different scholars. It equally covers the notion of
national security, international security and the concept of human security, which is
the basis of all other forms of security.
1.1 What is Security?
Security has to do with the process connected with assuaging any kind of threat to
people and their precious values. This is why Buzan asserts that security is about
freedom from threat and ability of states to maintain independent identity and their
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bottom line is survival (Bodunde, et.al,. 2014). From the foregoing, security is
generally agreed to be about feeling of being safe from harm, fear, anxiety,
oppression, danger, poverty, defence, protection and preservation of core values
and threat to those values.
William (2008) equally submits that security is most commonly associated with
the alleviation of threats to cherish values, especially those threats which threaten
the survival of a particular reference object. In line with the above, Imobighe states
that
Security has to do with freedom from danger or threats to a nation's
ability to protect and develop itself, promote its cherished values and
legitimate interest and enhance the well-being of its people. Thus
internal security could be seen as the freedom from or the absence of
those tendencies, which could undermine internal cohesion, and the
corporate existence of a country and its ability to maintain its vital
institutions for the promotion of its core values and socio-political and
economic objectives, as well as meet the legitimate aspirations of the
people (Ogaba. 2010: 35-36).
It could therefore be inferred that security, be it classical, state-centric and
traditionalist or non-traditionalist, is all about protection of assets including living
and non-living resources against loss or damage.
There are two major Schools of Thought to the concept of security – Traditional
and Non – Traditional. Traditional School of Thought favours the maintenance of the
Cold War conception of security. This school of thought defines security in this sense
to mean safety from danger and from external attack or infiltration. Traditional
security paradigm is a realist construct of security in which the referent object is the
state (Abolurin, 2010). It equates security with peace and prevention of conflict
through military means i.e. deterrence policies, non-offensive defence and the like.
This is why Walt defines security as a study of threat, use, and control of military
force (Walt, 1991). It explores the situations that make use of force more likely, the
ways the use of force affects individuals, states, societies and the specific policies
that states employ in order to prevent or engage in war. This school of thought is
strongly tied to the military and that is why Barry Buzan regards security as
underdeveloped and needed to be rehabilitated. Nwolise opines that the Cold War
period gave the high level domination to the conventional security doctrine to the
extent that security rest on the believe that only a military system can efficiently
deter attack and threat of force (Nwolise, 2008). This also tallies with Ken Booth
 Readings In Intelligence & Security Studies
position when he asserts that:
One of the themes of the new thinking is the idea that security policy
should have political accommodation as a primary and persistent
aim. The negative effect of identifying security almost exclusively
with military was evident throughout the cold war. This approach
can be described as strategic reductionism which is conceiving
security in a technical and mechanistic military way as manifested in
an obsession with military balance and the use of state-of-the-art
technology (Nwolise, 2008: 349).
The second school of thought on the conceptualization of security is non-traditional
school. This school attempts to widen and deepen the definition of security. It
argues that other issues like environment, political, economic and social threats
endangers the lives and properties of individual rather than the concentration on
the survival of the state. It does implies that a predominantly military definition
does not appreciate the fact that the greatest threat to state survival may not be
military but environmental, health, political, social and economic. The
contemporary ideas and opinion about security are all-encompassing as rightly
observes by Sola Ogunsanwo:
Security is more than military security or security from external
attacks. For many inhabitants in the developing countries, security is
conceived as the basic level of the struggle for survival. Therefore, in
order to provide an integrated African Security Assessment, the non
– military dimension of security should be added. Henceforth,
security as a concept should be applied in its broader sense to include
economic security, social security, environmental security, food
security, equality of life security and technological security
(Ochoche, 1997: 27).
However, security in this sense is human emancipation oriented. It means that
people/citizens must be liberated from those challenges, difficulties and constraints
that may prevent them from carrying out what freely they would choose to do which
includes epidemics, poverty, oppression, poor education, crises and so on. Today,
politics, ecological issues, economic and demographic issues which are non-military
tend to pose serious threats to people's security. This gives birth to the concept of
human security which will be discussed subsequently in this chapter.
Barry Buzan gives a theoretical insight to the understanding of the concept of
security and he identifies three levels of analysis which are the individual level,
national level and international level. He is of the opinion that individual security
which other scholars called personal security involves those values people seek to
secure which include life, health, status, freedom and wealth (Buzan, 1991). Some
of the threats which individual person endeavor to secure themselves from is what
is referred to as social security. This captures physical threat, economic threat and
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human rights abuse. Examples of these are pain, injury, death, seizure and
destruction of properties, inaccessibility to work or resources for human
sustenance, injustice, unjust imprisonment and the denial of normal civil liberties as
well as threats to human dignity. The other two levels of Buzan's analysis; national
and international levels of security are discussed as national security and
international security.
1.2 Human Security
The concept of human security emanates from the conventional security studies
which centers on the security of the state. Its focus is individuals and its ultimate end
point is the protection of people from traditional and non-traditional threats.
Centre to this concept is the belief that human security deprivations can undercut
peace and stability within and among states. The Commission on Human Security
(CHS) in one of its work defines human security as:
The ability to protect the vital core of all human lives in such a way
that it enhances human freedoms and human fulfillment. Human
security means protecting fundamental freedoms that are the
essence of life. It means protecting people from serious and
persistent threats and situations. It means using processes that build
on people's strengths and aspirations. It means creating political,
social, environmental, economic, military and cultural systems that
together give people the building blocks of survival, livelihood and
dignity (Adedoyin, 2013: 125).
It is important to state that human security covers every area of human needs. This
is why it serves as the basis of all forms and categories of security. Hubert gives the
importance of the concept when he asserts that:
In essence, human security means safety of people from violent and
non - violent threat. It is a condition of being characterized by
freedom from pervasive threat to people's rights, their ability or
even their lives. It is an alternative way of seeing the world taking
people as its point of reference rather than focusing exclusively on
the security of the territory or government. Like other security
concept - national security, economic security, and food security - it is
all about protection (Hubert, 1999:3).
Since, human security gives primacy to human beings and their complex social and
economic interactions, it derives its convincing quality from the fact that is based on
the global concern and threats to human security are no longer secluded issues. It is
pertinent to state that threat to human security are very easy to manage if
preventive measures are taken at appropriate time before it advances to
devastating state.
 Readings In Intelligence & Security Studies
1.3 The Seven Dimensions of Human Security
Human security is characterized by seven [7] dimensions of security. These are:
i. Economic Security
This type of security requires an assured basic income for individuals mostly
from productive and remunerative work or from a publicly financed safety
net. In this sense, only about a quarter of the world's people are presently
economically secure and the economic security problem may be more
serious in third world countries. Major threats of economic security are
poverty, unemployment, indebtedness, lack of income. It germane to state
that aforementioned threats constitute pertinent factors causing political
tensions and other forms of violence in the developing countries.
ii. Food Security
Food security demands that all people at all times have both physical and
economic access to basic food. Major threats to this include hunger, famines
and the lack of physical and economic access to basic food. Though United
Nations maintain that the overall availability of food is not a problem; rather
the problem often is the poor distribution of food and lack of
money/purchasing power. In the past, food security problems have been
dealt with at both national and global levels. However, their impacts are
limited. According to UN, the key is to tackle the problems relating to access
to assets, work and assured income (related to economic security).
iii. Health Security
This tends to guarantee a minimum protection from diseases and unhealthy
daily life. In less - developed countries, the major causes of death
traditionally were infectious and diseases, Inadequate health care, new and
recurrent diseases including epidemics and pandemics, poor nutrition and
unsafe environment and unsafe lifestyles; whereas in develop countries, the
major killers are diseases of the circulatory system. However, lifestyle-
related chronic diseases are leading killers globally with 80 percent of deaths
from chronic diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In
both developing and industrial countries, threats to health security are
usually greater for poor people in local areas, particularly children. This is as
a result of poor or bad nutrition and inadequate access to health services,
clean water and other basic necessities.
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iv. Environmental Security
The primary goal of this is to protect people from the short and long-term
ravages of nature, man-made threats in nature, and deterioration of the
natural environment. In the third world countries, lack of access to clean
water resources is one of the greatest environmental threats while the major
threats in industrial countries are air pollution and global warming which are
caused by the emission of greenhouse gases. Again, environmental
degradation, natural disasters and resource depletion are general all over
the world.
v. Personal Security
This is all about the protection of individuals and people from physical
violence either from the state or outside the state. It could be from violent
individuals, sub-state actors and from domestic abuse. Hence, the greater
and the common threat to personal security from the state (torture), other
states (war), groups of people (ethnic tension), individuals or gangs (crime),
industrial, workplace or traffic accidents. The security threats and risks on
persons and often families are many and vary from place to place and also
from time to time. These include: theft, armed robbery, burglary, food
poisoning, electrocution, fire outbreak, home accident and host of others.
vi. Community Security
Community security aims to protect people from the loss of traditional
relationships, values and from sectarian and ethnic violence. Traditional
communities, particularly minority ethnic groups are often threatened.
About half of the world's states have experienced some inter-ethnic rivalry.
Threats to community security are usually from the group (oppressive
practices), between groups (ethnic violence), from dominant groups (e.g.
indigenous people's vulnerability). In 1993, the United Nations declared the
Year of Indigenous People to highlight the continuing vulnerability of about
300 million aboriginal people in seventy countries as they face a widening
spiral of violence. In Africa, many nation-states have witnessed ethnic
clashes, land and boundary clashes, and intra - religious and inter - religious
conflict all of which constitute threats.
vii. Political Security
This embraces guarantee and protection of fundamental human rights of
citizenry. It is concerned with whether people live in a society that honours
their basic freedoms. Some of threats attached to these are political or state
repression, including torture, disappearance, human rights violations,
 Readings In Intelligence & Security Studies
detention and imprisonment. The assessment of the Amnesty International
reveals that, political repression, systematic torture, ill treatment, hostage
taken and kidnapping are still being practice in about One Hundred and ten
(110) countries. Human rights violations are frequent during periods of
political unrest and by security agencies in the third world countries (UNDP,
1994).
1.4 National Security
Nations of the world prioritize the safety of its territorial integrity, resources and its
entire citizenry. This informs the belief that national security is the preservation of
independence and sovereignty of a nation state. In reality, every country has a large
number of interests to protect. These interest put together constitute the national
interest which originates from values, good governance and protection of social and
economic well-being of the entire citizenry. Based on this, one may describe
national security as the protection and maintenance of national interest of a state or
nation. This corresponds with Harold Brown's [US Secretary of Defense from 1977 to
1981] perception when he defines national security as the ability to preserve the
nation's physical integrity and territory; to maintain its economic relations with the
rest of the world on reasonable terms; to preserve it nature, institutions and
governance from disruption from outside and to control its borders (Abolurin, 2011,
Adedoyin, 2013).
Hence, national security has no universally accepted definition but there are
two schools of thought to it - the old school [Traditional Security Paradigm] and the
new school [Contemporary perspective]. The old school which is also referred to as
the realist school views national security from militarist angle with emphasis on
military response and management of threat. Lippmann asserts that a nation is
secured when it does not have to resort to war or threat of war to preserve its
legitimate interest (Lippmann, 1944). Corroborating this view, Maniruzzaman sees
national security as the protection and preservation of the minimum core values of
any nation's political independence and territorial integrity (Maniruzzaman, 1982).
Orwa also defines national security as comprising the protection of the national
interest, including national values, political and economic ways of life against
internal threat and challenges (Orwa, 1984). In line with the above view, Mandel
defines national security as the pursuit of psychological and physical safety which is
largely the responsibility of the national governments, to prevent direct threats
primarily from abroad endangering the survival of these regimes, their citizenry or
their ways of life (Ngbale, 2011). Examples of old school writers are Hans
Morgenthan, Laswell, Walter Lippman and host of others.
The new school has moved national security beyond military realm to include
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non-military factors. It maintains that old school conception of security cannot
capture modern day security threats like hunger, unemployment, poverty,
environmental humiliation and so on. This informed McNamara when he cautions
that;
Any society that seeks to attain adequate military security against
the background of acute paucity of food, population explosion, low
level of production, low per capital income, low technological
development, inadequate and insufficient public utilities and
chronic problem of unemployment has a false sense of security
(Nwolise, 2008: 350, Abolurin, 2011: 186).
This showcases the significance of contemporary thinking about national security
and this informed the thinking of Nwolise when he postulates that:
A country may have the best armed forces in terms of training and
equipment, the most efficient police force, the most efficient custom
men, the most active secret agents and best quality prisons, but yet
be the most insecure nation in the world as a result of defence and
security problems within bad governments, alienated and suffering
masses, ignorance, hunger, unemployment or even activities foreign
residents or companies (Abolurin, 2011; 184).
Also, Obasanjo conceives national security as the aggregate of the security interest
of all individuals, communities, ethnic groups and the entire political entity
(Obasanjo, 1999:1-3). Also, Lynn and Miller describe it as the politics and policies
governed by a less narrow definition of security which is concerned not only with
military threats but with other problems that threaten directly to degrade the
quality of life of a national community (Ngbale, 2011: 220). The Reviewed Draft
National Defence Policy (RDNDP) conceptualizes national security as:
All-encompassing condition in which citizens can live in freedom,
peace and safety; participate fully in the process of governance,
enjoy the protection of fundamental human rights; have access to
resources and necessities of life and inhabit in environment which is
conducive to their health and well-being (RDNDP, 2002:1)
To Professor Charles Maier of Harvard University, national security is the capacity to
control those domestic and foreign conditions that the public opinion of a given
society believe are necessary for it to enjoy its own self-determination or autonomy
prosperity and well-being (Maier in Nwaogu, 2013). From the foregoing, national
security can be seen as the totality of a nation's effort to protect and preserve the
state, its institutions, lives and property and the well-being of its entire citizenry. In
sum, the thought on modern security indicates that the concept goes beyond the
defence of the territory but also recognizes the various components and institutions
of state that have much responsibility in ensuring security of a state since no country
will allow itself to suffer internal or external risk. It is obvious that national security is
 Readings In Intelligence & Security Studies
not the sole responsibility of the armed forces alone but also the citizenry, Customs,
Prison, Immigration, Police, Civil Defence and other private internal security
organizations.
1.5 International Security
International security is described as the efforts and measures taken by nations,
regional and international organizations to ensure mutual survival and safety
through the use of diplomacy and military actions. According to Ogaba (2010), the
concept of security at the international level is built on the basis of state - centric
conception of security. International security is therefore synonymous with a global
political circumstance which defining attribute is the distribution of power in the
international system.
International security is thus the national security or state security in global
arena. Buzan (2000) views the study of international security as more than a study of
threat but also a study of which threats can be tolerated and which demands
immediate action. He perceives the concept of security as not either power or peace
but something in between. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Report of 1994 defines international security as freedom from fear and freedom
from want. The report perceives that security can only be assured from two points
of views. First, is the safety of the vulnerable people and groups in numerous part of
the world from violent conflicts caused by interstate and intrastate crises and war.
The second view is the safety of the people from poverty, hunger, unemployment
and other kinds of social, economic and political deprivations. International security
can also be called global security and some dimensions which include; human,
environmental, national, transnational, and transcultural security.
However, the concept of international security actor has been protracted from
individuals, groups, nations, governmental and non-governmental organizations.
International organizations like United Nations and other continental cum sub –
regional organizations are working assiduously to promote and maintain world
peace as it constitutes the cogent objective of these organizations.
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