Introduction to Security Studies Essay PDF

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WHICH TYPE OF SECURITY IS MORE IMPORTANT AND WHY?...

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INTRODUCTION TO SECURITY STUDIES WHICH TYPE OF SECURITY IS MORE IMPORTANT AND WHY?

Security is the state of being free from danger or threat. Critical security studies are an academic discipline within security studies, which rejects mainstream approaches to security. The types of security, which are involved, are economic security, military security, political security, environmental security and societal security. In this essay, I will be speaking about how economic security is vital and how it contrasts from other security types as being more significant. In the post-Cold War dimension, there has been a substantial discussion on what truly establishes ‘security’, with the question of who or what is to be secured (the referent of security) as well as the foundations of insecurity (Tickner, 1995; Baldwin, 1997; Buzan et al, 1998). Throughout the Cold War period, security was an overpowering worry of the nation's authority, as well as it’s regional honesty and it’s political independence. However, from the time of the late 1980s, Sheehan said the main attention of security studies as a restraint has been broadened and deepened. It has departed from purely military concerns and has had to comprise of economic, societal, political and environmental issues, concentrating on people rather than theorising a state-centric insight in security studies (2005). “Critical security studies are the “broadening”, “deepening”, “extending”, and “focusing” of security studies” (Wyn Jones, 1999). Broadening refers to a notion of security studies that includes a variety of issues beyond military force under the heading of security. Deepening indicates a hypothetical attitude to security that links our understanding of security to profoundly rooted suppositions about the type of political life more commonly. “The deepening of theoretical approaches relates to the idea that the state is not the only referent object of security” (Peoples and Vaughan-Williams, 2010:4). Economic security is the plight of having a balanced income or other resources to sustain morals of living now and in the predictable future. It includes likely constant solvency, probability of the potential cash flow of a person or other financial entity, such as a country employment security or occupation. A security is a financial mechanism that signifies a proprietorship position in a publicly traded establishment.

“While international trade is one way to achieve a nation’s economic prosperity, national security is one objective for which a nation shall seek in the presence of external threat, actual or potential” (Sohn, K and Yeo, T.D 2005). International trade helps to advance national security. Regardless of whether they have been driven by financial or political goals, provincial trade treaties can boost national security because it broadens the level of commerce amid neighbouring nations and, in doing so, escalates awareness amid the populations of the neighbouring nations and declines the amount of misunderstandings. “Economic activity that takes place outside government-sanctioned channels is known as the black market” (Investopedia, 2017). Black market transactions usually happen confidentially, so that contributors can prevent government expense regulators or taxes. The black market is a place where greatly dominant substances or produces like stimulants and weapons are unlawfully trafficked. Black markets can take a huge effect on the financial economy, as they are markets where financial action is not logged and taxes are not funded. The biggest black market occurs for currencies in states with firm currency exchange controls. Whilst most clients might ignore the black market because they deliberate it to be corrupt, there might be infrequent occasions where they have no choice, but to turn to this essential business. The financial crisis of 2007-08 is considered by many business analysts to have been the poorest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Banks began to comprehend the fact that they had lost major sums of money through the US mortgage defaults. The hierarchy of bank losses began to escalate and it became more problematic for banks to acquire money on money markets. This motivated banks to cut down allowance and mortgages. Developing countries were impacted heavily by the financial and economic crisis, although the impact was slightly delayed. Every country had different challenges to dominate. The closer the developing countries are interlinked with the world economy, the denser the effects. “The crisis was diffused principally by trade and financial flows, driving masses of people back to poverty” (Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2008). The global Depression of 1929 was an economic event of unparalleled scopes. There had been no decline of it’s length before, and there has been none ever since. “It stands as a unique failure of the industrial economy” (Temin, 2000). It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. It was also the largest economic collapse in America in 1929. Half of the banks failed which led to a global recession that originated from the United States. This was because false speculation led to high stock prices. In- the month following October 1929, the Dow Jones stock market fell 41 points in one week, which led to panic selling. This had a domino effect, as millions of Americans were fearful that banks would fail in withdrawing great sums of money within a short

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amount of time. As a result of this, by 1933, 25,000 banks had collapsed. “As banks had no money to lend, this led to a lack of available credit, which resulted in a decrease of investment, and it worsened the economic conditions” (greatdepressioncauses.com, 2017). America had provided huge sums of money to European countries. When the stock market collapsed, they abruptly remembered those loans. This had an overwhelming influence on the European economy. The effects of the Great Depression were very substantial. Up to 1.3 million people went into unemployment, which led to more limitation on the government. The industrial production dropped by 45% between 1929 and 1932. While many people went famished, the number of noted deaths from malnourishment during the Depression was 110, although many other diseases and deaths were possibly linked to a deficiency of nutrition. The Great Depression is not the main reason for having a communal security system; the reason is the issue of economic security in an up-to-date developed society. “The Depression was the triggering event that finally persuaded Americans to adopt a social insurance system” (Dewit, 2010). The Great Depression showed the catastrophic events upon people. People were less secure and had financial difficulties, as most people fell into unemployment. This led people to suffer a lot and it is something which military security cannot handle. “Military security is defined as the ability of a nation to defend itself. An example of military security is the ability of the United States to defend itself against attacks from other countries” (yourdictionary.com, 2017). An example of this security being used in the UK can be the military intervention against ISIL. Military security has its strengths and weaknesses. It protects the states and citizens within it. However, the weakness that comes from it is that it may also endanger innocent people’s lives. An example of military security institutions can be the Army, Global Security Stewarding Limited, Royal Navy and the Military Intelligence Company. Within military security, the threat which is imposing them can be eliminated. An example can be a terrorist organisation such as ISIS. Pomerleau says that the terrorist organisation, ISIS, gained strength in the coming years to resurge in 2009. Many political leaders around the world, as well as citizens of the United States find Obama responsible for ISIS’s rise, due to the US not leaving a remaining strength that might have suppressed any setbacks (2015). The Great Depression was not anticipated therefore, it is something that is uncontrollable. The effects of it however, were brutal. Unemployment rose from 3.2% to 24.9% in the span of 10 years. Almost 15 million people were out of work. Military security is important because it protects the nation. There are organisations such as the MI6 who are known globally. China and Russia impose more of an interest like Syria. They support Syria, whereas the Western states don’t. However, they don’t require strong military action against them because they can be defeated by sanctions and trade wars. The military is important because it gives a sense of security within the population. Post-Cold war, military security had become less critical because

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the Soviet Union had disintegrated. Furthermore, we also have political security. This is how the country is being run and how policies affect individuals. Political security is the resistance in contradiction of any method of political domination. “This was intended to establish an agenda that would protect people against states that continued to practice political repression, systematic torture, ill treatment and disappearance.” (Hassan, 2015). Political security is important, because if a country has a leader which is very narrow minded or extreme left or right wing, it may mean that he may only represent a small population, and therefore his views and policies may not be compatible for the rest of the country. However, it is important to consider that most countries are democratic and that a leader elected will have to represent most the population. Economic security is more critical than political security because, if a country has a weak political system, it could be replaced easily, however, in a worse economic situation, it is hard to reverse the situation. As a result of this, the effects are more negative on the population. Environmental security impacts humanity and it’s establishments and associations. “To the extent humankind neglects to maintain the globe’s lifesupporting eco-systems generating water, food, medicine, and clean air, current and future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe instances of environmentally induced changes” (Envirosecurity, 2015). Environment security is also important as countries, such as Bangladesh, have felt the effects of rising water levels and this has destroyed parts of the country. Environmental security is important because it affects everyone on a global scale and aspects such as climate change and rising water levels are not considered as much as other securities such as political and economic security. Environmental issues are on a worldwide scale, and therefore the effects are more long term. As a result, economic security is more important because it’s effects are felt more directly and with more impact than environmental issues. To conclude, the reason why economic security holds vital importance has been thoroughly discussed within this essay. Economic security is important because the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis shows that the effects of the economic collapse were very deep. Therefore, it meant that it led to a huge amount of difficulties. For example, people lost their life savings, governments collapsed, and it meant that people were uncertain if they would have a job and who would provide for their family. Linking this to the Maslow hierarchy of needs, Maslow (1987) stated that the basic need which every human wanted was water, bread and shelter. This was the most important thing for human nature and the economy collapsed, people were worried that they couldn’t have the basic needs. However, it is important to not overlook other needs which are also of a vital importance. Military security is important as military helps keep a nation safe and protects its

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citizens. This type of security also holds importance because, there are a lot of external threats such as ISIS and Russia. However, these threats can be contained quite easily. But an economic threat is very hard to contain as its effects are unimaginable. Furthermore, political security is also very important. This is because having a strong political system will ensure that the country is run in a smooth and efficient way. This would mean that there would be a stronger economic security as there is less likely to be corruption. If there is a weak political system, then that means the government can’t really control the military, because unelected generals may or may not consult the public when it comes to military decisions. However, economic security outweighs all the other types of securities as economic security is related to the military as money plays a vital role in every security. BIBLIOGRAPHY Wikipedia. 2017. Economic security - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_security. [Accessed 07 April 2017]. Richard Wyn Jones, 1999. Security, Strategy, and Critical Theory (Critical Security Studies). Edition. Lynne Rienner Pub. Sheehan, M.J., 2005. International security: an analytical survey (pp. 65-79). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. Brown, Wilson B. and Jan S. Hogendorn, 1994, International Economics: Theory and Context, New York: Addison-Wesley. Sohn, K. and Yeo, T.D., 2005, December. Does the International Trade Help to enhance National Security. In International Conference on Korea and the World Economy Seattle (p. 1). Investopedia. 2017. Black Swan. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackswan.asp. [Accessed 08 April 2017]. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2008. "Is the 2007 US Sub-prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International Historical Comparison," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2) The Great Depression. 2017. Causes of The Great Depression | Great Depression Facts Effects. [ONLINE] Available at: http://thegreatdepressioncauses.com/causes/. [Accessed 08 April 2017]. BBC News. 2017. BBC - GCSE Bitesize: Effects of the Depression. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/walldepressionrev3.shtml. [Accessed 08 April 2017]. Ahearne, A., Kydland, F. and Wynne, M.A., 2006. Ireland's great depression. Economic and Social Review, 37(2), p.301.

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The Development of Social Security in America. 2017. The Development of Social Security in America. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p1.html. [Accessed 09 April 2017]. Military security dictionary definition | military security defined. 2017. Military security dictionary definition | military security defined. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.yourdictionary.com/military-security. [Accessed 09 April 2017]. Hassan, O, 2015. Political Security: From the 1990s to the Arab Spring. 1st ed. p.86. Envirosecurity. 2015. What is Environmental Security?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.envirosecurity.org/activities/What_is_Environmental_Security.pdf. [Accessed 22 April 2017]. Pomerleau, M, 2015. Can the US really destroy terrorist groups like ISIS?. Can the US really destroy terrorist groups like ISIS?, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://thehill.com/blogs/punditsblog/defense/251112-can-the-us-really-destroy-terrorist-groups-like-isis [Accessed 22 April 2017]. Huitt, W., 2004. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Educational psychology interactive. Simons, J.A., Irwin, D.B. and Drinnien, B.A., 1987. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Retrieved October, 9(2009), p.222.

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