SECURITY DILEMMA IN INTERNATIONAL RELATION

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SECURITY DILEMMA

It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you. If you allow it.

 

Security Dilemma came into existence from bi-polarized and atom bomb blessed anarchic world. Insecurity among nation state give more power to Security Dilemma.  The concepts seems to fit particularly well the competition between the United States of America and Soviet Union during cold war.

 

MAIN THINKERS

Security  Dilemma was first described by the British historian Herbert Butterfield in 1949. The term was coined by American Political Scientist John Herz in 1950.

 

SECURITY

Security is in most general sense as freedom from threats, fear and dangers and in International Relation Security means free from "threat to survival" because of world government. So states secure themselves by military, weapons, alliances etc.

 

DILEMMA

Dilemma is a situation in which you have to make a difficult choice between two or more things and these  choices are so difficult that whatever you choose the result would be against your wish.

 

SECURITY DILEMMA

Security Dilemma describe as a situation in which one state increase its defense to achieve security for survival from threat but another state interpreted it as an act of aggression on its side and it leading to armament spiral.

Anarchy in International  Relation make the dilemma worse off than it could be. States usually are concerned about their security from being attacked, subjected and dominated by other states. They want to maintain their  sovereignty. Striving to attain security from attack and maintain sovereignty they acquire more and more power  and another states interpret it as aggression against them. So they feel insecure and compel to prepare for the worst.  Since none can ever feel entirely secure and lead to power accumulation.

The nature of insecurity is not came from biologically or anthropologically or we can say it does not come from human nature purely but the problem is social one. The structure of society or the structure of International Relation is mainly responsible for Security Dilemma.

Now we would move into the causes of Security Dilemma.


How Security Dilemma works


CAUSES OF SECURITY DILEMMA

Everything happened in the world or universe has its cause and effects. So we take a look on causes of Security Dilemma.

ANARCHIC NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

The nature of International System is anarchic. Anarchy doesn't mean chaos or all time war like situation. It means there is absence of  world government or institution which have authority to control the behavior of Nation States. Because of this anarchic situation states always feel insecure and the insecurity give birth to Security Dilemma. States always worried about that another states will attack on them.

 

SELF HELP

Another cause of Security Dilemma is Self Help. We already know that International System has anarchic structure and this structure encourage states to depend on self help. Every nation state know that there is not any other states or organization which can help them. So they increase their security through military, economy and make more alliances for national interest. Every State wants to more secure than another states or revelry states and this situation leads to Security Dilemma.

 

IMPACT OF 1st  and 2nd  WORLD WAR

First world war happened in 1914 and ends in 1918 after 30 years in 1939 second world war starts and ends in 1945. These wars was very destructive. Many human life loses and economy of every state see downfall. Nobody wants another war like this and invention of Nuclear Weapons will make third war worst.  So every state want to become more secure that they will help themselves in wars and this give birth to Security Dilemma.

 

HATRED NATIONALISM

With the rise of Sovereign Nation States there emerged the idea of nationalism in which each state organized into its own state and living peacefully in mutual relations. But after some time this nationalism turned into Hatred Nationalism in which every state want to fulfill its national interest. In this race they always feel insecure with each other. This leads to Security Dilemma.

So these are the causes of Security Dilemma which are mainly responsible for insecurity among states.

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