Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World Class 12 Political Science Notes
Class 12 Political Science Notes Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World is given here which will provide a quick glimpse of the chapter and improve the learning experience. NCERT Solutions for Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World that will be quite helpful in making learning process and effortless and more effective. These NCERT Notes are useful keeping the functional aspect in mind to enable students to pick up language skills.
Chapter 7 Security in the Contemporary World Class 12 Political Science Notes
What is Security?
• Security implies freedom from threats. Security relates only to extremely dangerous threats that could so endanger core values that those values would be damaged beyond repair if we did not do something to deal with the situation.
Traditional Notions: External
• The greatest danger to a country is from military threats. The source of this danger is another country which by threatening military action endangers the core values of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
• In response to the threat of war, there are three choices with the government, to surrender; to prevent
the other side from attacking by promising to raise the costs of war to an unacceptable level; and to defend itself.
• Security policy is concerned with preventing war, which is called deterrence, and with limiting or ending war, which is called defence.
• Balance of power means there should be balance between bigger and smaller countries.
• Alliance building means a coalition of states that coordinate their actions to deter or defend against military attack.
• In the traditional view of security, most threats to a country’s security come from outside its borders because the international system is a rather brutal arena in which there is no central authority capable of controlling behaviour.
• Within a country, the threat of violence is regulated by an acknowledged central authority - the government.
Traditional Notions: Internal
• Traditional security concern itself with internal security. After the Second World War, internal security was more or less assured to the powerful countries on the Earth.
• Most of the European countries faced no serious threats from groups or communities living within those borders. Hence these countries gave importance to external security.
• The security challenges facing the newly-independent countries of Asia and Africa were different from the challenges Europe in two ways.
→ The new countries faced the prospect of military conflict with neighbouring countries.
→ They had to worry about internal military conflict.
• Internally, the new states worried about threats from separatist movements which wanted to form independent countries.
Traditional Security and Cooperation
• In traditional security, there is a recognition that cooperation in limiting violence is possible. These limits relate both to the ends and the means of war.
• Traditional views of security also mean disarmament, arms control, and confidence building.
• US and Soviet Union signed a number of other arms control treaties including the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II or SALT II and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 was an arms control treaty that regulated the acquisition of nuclear weapons.
• Traditional security also accepts confidence building as a means of avoiding violence. Confidence building is a process in which countries share ideas and information with their rivals.
• In traditional security, force is both the principal threat to security and the principal means of achieving security.
Non-Traditional Notions
• Non-traditional notions security go beyond military threats to include a wide range of threats and dangers affecting the conditions of human existence.
• Non-traditional security focuses on human and global security.
• Human security is about the protection of people more than the protection of states. All proponents of human security agree that its primary goal is the protection of individuals.
• Proponents of the ‘narrow concept’ of human security focus on violent threats to individuals while proponents of the ‘broad concept’ of human security argue that the threat agenda should include hunger, disease and natural disaster.
New Sources of Threats
• Terrorism refers to political violence that targets civilians deliberately and indiscriminately. International terrorism involves the citizens or territory of more than one country.
• The classic cases of terrorism involve hijacking planes or planting bombs in trains, cafes, markets and other crowded places.
• Human rights have come to be classified into three types:
→ The first type is political rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.
→ The second type is economic and social rights.
→ The third type is the rights of colonised people or ethnic and indigenous minorities.
• Global poverty is another source of insecurity. High per capita income and low population growth make rich states or rich social groups get richer, whereas low incomes and high population growth reinforce each other to make poor states and poor groups get poorer.
• Health epidemics such as HIV-AIDS, bird flu, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have rapidly spread across countries through migration, business, tourism and military operations.
Cooperative Security
• Dealing with many of non-traditional threats to security require cooperation rather than military confrontation.
• Cooperation may be bilateral, regional, continental, or global which would all depend on the nature of the threat and the willingness and ability of countries to respond.
India's Security Strategy
• India has faced both traditional and non-traditional threats to its security. Its security strategy depends upon four broad components:
• The first component was strengthening its military capabilities because India has been involved in conflicts with its neighbours - Pakistan in 1947–48, 1965, 1971 and 1999; and China in 1962.
• The second component of India’s security strategy has been to strengthen international norms and international institutions to protect its security interests.
• The third component of Indian security strategy is geared towards meeting security challenges within the country.
• Fourth, there has been an attempt in India to develop its economy in a way that the vast mass of citizens are lifted out of poverty and misery and huge economic inequalities are not allowed to exist which has not quite succeeded.