1 CONCEPT OF SECURITY

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1 1 CONCEPT OF SECURITY Muyiwa Bamidele Afolabi Intelligence and Security Studies Programme, Department of Political Science and International Studies Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti. Nigeria 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. functional integrity against forces of change, which they see as hostile while its 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 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 1 2

2 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 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. 3 4

3 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, lifestylerelated 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. 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, 5 6

4 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 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 7 8

5 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. References Abolurin, A. (2010), Security and its Management in Nigeria. Ibadan: John Archers Publishers Abolurin, A. (2011), Para-Military Agencies and the Promotion of Good Governance for National Security in Nigeria in Ade Abolurin [ed] Nigeria's National Security: Issues and Challenges. Ibadan: John Archers Publishers. Adedoyin, A. (2013), An Appraisal of the Multidimensional Nature of Security in the Post-Cold War Africa in African Journal of Stability and Development. Volume 7, No 2 Page Bodunde, D. O., Ola, A. A. & Afolabi, M. B. (2014), Internal Insecurity in Nigeria, The Irony of Multiplicity of Security Outfits and Security Challenges in IMPACT: IJRHAL, Volume 2, Issue 5Page Buzan, B. (1991), New Pattern of Global Security in Twenty-First Century in International Affairs [Royal Institute of International Affairs] pp Hubert, D. (1999), Human Security: Safety for People in a Changing World A Paper presented at a regional conference on The Management of African Security in the 21st Century, NIIA, Lagos June Lippmann, W. (1944). U.S. Foreign Policy. London, Hamish Hamilton Maniruzzaman, T. (1982), The Security of Small States in the World in Canderra Papers on Strategy and Defence, No 25. Ngbale, K. P. (2011), Ethno-Religious Conflict: A Threat to Nigeria's National Security in Ade Abolurin [ed] Nigeria's National Security: Issues and Challenges. Ibadan: John Archers Publishers. Nwolise, O. B. C. (2008), National Security and Sustainable Democracy in Emmanuel O. O. [ed], Challenges of Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria. Ibadan: John Archers Publisher. Obasanjo, O. (1999), Grand Strategy for National Security. Abuja: Federal Ministry of Information, Page 1-3. Ochoche, S. (1997), Electoral violence and National Security in Nigeria in African Peace Review. Vol. 1 No. 1 page 27. Ogaba, O. (2010), Security, Globalization and Climate Change: A Conceptual 9 10

6 Analysis in Osita E. E. & Ogaba O. [ed] Climate Change and Human Security in Nigeria. Lagos: NIIA. Orwa, D. (1984), National Security; An African Perspective, in B. Arlinghaus [ed] African Security Issues: Sovereignty, Stability and Solidarity, Colorado: West View Press. United Nations Development Programme Report, Walt, S. M. (1991), The Renaissance of Security Studies. Mershon International Studies Review, 41; Williams, P. D. (2008), Security Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group 11