Security (DP IB Global Politics: HL): Revision Note

Security in global politics

A set of topic areas is presented for the study of global political challenges to facilitate your explorations. These should not be seen as fully discrete or disconnected topics, but rather as overlapping areas of study that can contribute to understanding and addressing global challenges.

You can conduct an in-depth study of two of the topic areas- for example, security and health- or you may choose to explore the interconnections of multiple topic areas based on a selected case study.

• In global politics, security refers to freedom from threat - but what counts as a "threat" and who needs to be protected are both contested questions

  • Traditional approaches to security focused on protecting the state from military attack by other states

  • More recent approaches have expanded this to include the protection of individuals from a much wider range of threats, including poverty, disease and environmental hazards

Why is security a global political challenge?

• Security threats increasingly transcend national borders

  • Terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics and climate change cannot be addressed by any single state acting alone

• The definition of security is contested

  • Traditional realist approaches prioritise military threats to the state

  • Liberal and human security approaches focus on the well-being of individuals

• Securitisation

  • The process by which an issue is framed as a security threat has significant political consequences, often justifying extraordinary measures that would not otherwise be accepted

• Security measures can conflict directly with human rights and civil liberties

  • This tension is one of the central challenges in the topic area

• Non-state actors (terrorist groups, criminal organisations, private military companies) have become increasingly significant security actors, complicating the traditional state-centred picture

Key terms and concepts

Types of security

• Three concentric framings sit at the heart of the topic area. Each defines a different referent object - the thing being secured

State and national security

• Focuses on protecting the state from external military threats

• Associated with realist theories of international relations, which see states as the primary actors in global politics

• Involves military force, alliances, arms control agreements and deterrence

• Referent object: the state

Collective security

• Based on the principle that all member states agree to respond collectively to an act of aggression against any one of them

• The United Nations (UN) system is built on collective security; the UN Security Council has the authority to authorise the use of force

• Regional security organisations such as NATO, the African Union and ASEAN also operate collective security arrangements

• Referent object: states and alliances

Human security

• Emerged from the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report, which argued that security should focus on individuals, not just states

• Identifies seven dimensions of human security: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political security

• Associated with liberal and cosmopolitan theories that prioritise individual rights over state sovereignty

• Referent object: the individual

A useful analytical lens: the securitisation framework

One of the most productive ways to read a security case study is through securitisation theory. It won't be the right lens for every case, but it has analytical traction on a wide range of them - particularly those involving the framing of new threats or the use of emergency powers.

Securitisation theory was developed by the Copenhagen School of Security Studies, particularly Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver. It argues that security is not an objective condition - something becomes a "security issue" when a political actor successfully presents it as an existential threat requiring emergency action.

Key stages of the securitisation process

• A securitising actor (e.g. a government or military leader) identifies a referent object - the thing being threatened (e.g. the state, a population, a way of life)

• The actor frames the issue as an existential threat that cannot be addressed through normal political processes

• The audience accepts this framing and authorises emergency measures - actions that go beyond what would normally be politically acceptable

Why it matters

Securitisation matters in global politics because it can justify measures that restrict rights and freedoms

• After the September 2001 attacks in the USA, terrorism was securitised - justifying military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and the suspension of some civil liberties

• European governments have securitised migration, justifying increased border enforcement and detention

• Climate change is increasingly being securitised, framing environmental degradation as a direct threat to national security

Not all attempts to securitise an issue succeed - the audience must accept the framing for securitisation to take effect. Securitisation can also be reversed through desecuritisation - returning an issue to the realm of normal political debate

Current and recent security challenges

• Security challenges in the contemporary world take many forms and involve a wide range of actors

• They split into traditional state-based threats and non-traditional human-security threats - though the boundary between the two is increasingly blurred.

Traditional / state-based threats

• Interstate conflict - armed conflict between two or more states (e.g. the Russia–Ukraine war)

• Intrastate conflict - armed conflict within a single state, often involving non-state armed groups (e.g. the Syrian civil war)

• Terrorism - political violence against civilians, increasingly transnational in nature

Non-traditional / human security threats

• Cyber attacks - hostile actions in digital space, including attacks on critical infrastructure and political interference

• Climate-related insecurity - competition over water, food and land driven by environmental change

• Health emergencies - pandemics that cross borders and overwhelm state capacity

Actors and stakeholders

• When researching a case study on security, students should identify a range of actors and stakeholders

• Nation-states

  • Maintain military forces

  • Enter into security alliances and arms control agreements

  • Have primary responsibility for the security of their citizens

• The UN Security Council

  • The primary international body responsible for maintaining international peace and security

  • Has the authority to authorise military action under Chapter VII of the UN Charter

• Regional security organisations

  • E.g. NATO, the African Union (AU) and ASEAN, which coordinate collective security responses among member states

• Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

  • E.g. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which monitor security-related human rights violations and document abuses

• Non-state armed groups

  • Terrorist organisations, rebel groups and militias, which are increasingly significant security actors in intrastate conflicts

• Private military companies (PMCs)

  • Private organisations contracted to carry out security operations on behalf of states

• Civilian populations

  • Those most directly affected by security failures

  • Human security frameworks place civilians at the centre of analysis

Example case studies

• The following examples illustrate the kinds of case studies students could develop for this topic area

Links to earlier course content

• The security topic area connects to all four areas of the IB Global Politics course

Links to the other HL topic areas

• A case study on security will frequently connect to other HL topic areas - identifying these links is essential for question 3