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Non-traditional National Security

Nation-state system, however safer than the system prevailing pre-Treaty of
Westphalia, is a vulnerable system in the realist world of today. The threats
nowadays are becoming more global, transcending boundaries and in losing
clarity of combatant and noncombatant becoming more dangerous. National
security was given a definition by Berkowitz and Bock in 1965:
National security can be most fruitfully defined as the ability of a nation to
protect its internal values from external threats.
For the globalised 21st century world the definition holds only partially true.
With the advent of avant-garde technology, states are as vulnerable to a
predator inside as they are to one outside. Implosion has become a more bitter
reality than explosion. Thus a more comprehensive definition is pursued. Taylor
in 1967 says:
Most Americans have been accustomed to regard national security as
something having to do with the military defense of the country against a
military enemy, To remove past ambiguities and recognize the widened
spectrum of threats to our security, we should recognize that adequate
protection in the future must embrace all important valuables, tangible or
otherwise, in the form of assets, national interests, or sources of future
strength. An adequate national security policy must provide ample protection
for the foregoing classes of valuables, wherever found, from dangers military and
non-military, foreign and domestic, utilizing for the purpose all appropriate forms
of national power.
The definition gives us two broad classes of security; traditional or military
and non-traditional or non-military. The classes have a porous demarcation
however. Military threat can be generated from a non-traditional security issue
and a nontraditional threat becomes a natural consequence of a military security
issue. For our purpose we will attempt at keeping them apart.
Non-traditional security comprises generally of all human security issues that
have no external military force as a precedent. This tells how broad and almost
boundary less the issues of nontraditional security are. Additionally as it is
national security under discussion, national aspects are a part of it as well. Thus
nontraditional security is the security of a nations values and its people, from
threats originating from any source but the military. Modern threats are multifold
and essentially ecological and economic in nature.
The first aspect of nontraditional security is the national aspect, a nations
values , interest and purpose. National integrity is the foremost issue that has to
be discussed. The strength of a nation is in unity and singularity as the old fable
clearly shows. If a nation is weak, suffering from lack of unity and solidarity or
national feeling, it becomes vulnerable to external dangers. The national
integrity is therefore a very important issue of national security yet is
nontraditional in essence.

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The threats to national integrity come mainly from nationalist parties,
autonomist or separatist groups within a nation. The groups that work to
undermine the state through projecting a different symbol of unity or
nationalism, work from within, are the greatest internal and nontraditional threat
to a nation. These groups can be working under another countrys banner, as
RAW or MOSSAD do or they can have their own agenda for a separate state, or it
can be both. Baluchistan is threatened to be consumed by this nontraditional
security threat. Baluchistan Liberation Front and its armed wing have been
chipping off at the nations solidarity for a long time now. Pakistan army says
India and Iran back them, BLF says they want a separate identity for the Baluchi
people.
A very similar instance was seen in December 1991, when following a very
similar dissatisfaction and unrest, discontentment at the prevailing national
system, the national integrity of USSR fell apart into fifteen separate states. The
people were unhappy, they wanted a different set of national identity and
purpose than was provided under the Soviet Union, so they revolted. An
implosion created the present Russia and Central Asian states.
This leads to the subsequent notions of national values, national purpose and
national interest. National purpose is defined for every nation in its conception.
The security of a nations purpose is an integral part of its security policy. When
that national purpose is threatened, from within by its people as is most
frequently the case, it takes the shape of a dangerous menace that may result in
the breaking apart of the nation in turn.
In Pakistans case, the purpose was defined when it was named Islamic
Republic of Pakistan. The purpose though is open to interpretation, either a
general pursuit or an earnest one. General Ayub Khan followed the first path,
attempted a Kemalian approach and named Pakistan a Republic. People were
enraged; the edict had to be revoked. In Zias case the opposite was witnessed.
He endorsed the religion and implemented laws of Shariah as he saw fit. People
were enraged; the man unseated. What purpose Pakistan has is a mild religious
outlook, whenever exaggerated or understated problems flare up, threatening to
engulf the whole country. This is how national purpose becomes a security issue
of the nontraditional sort.
National interest is the next important set of values of a nation that must be
protected and yet is not always linked with military support. Nations employ soft
power in lieu of hard power nowadays to secure national interest. But even the
wars fought are always in quest of its security. This serves as a prime example of
the inextricability of the two aspects of national security. Afghanistan is a point of
interest for both Pakistan and India; Pakistan trained an army to secure the
countrys governance where India made the country its satellite state by making
it rich through investment and trade. In 1979 to 1988 Pakistan trained
mujahedeen to fight off Russia in Afghanistan. According to Ahmed Rashid,
between 1994 and 1999, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistanis
trained and fought in Afghanistan"

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Keeping the Taliban regime in power after USSR was thrown out. India has
already invested US$10.8 billion in Afghanistan as of 2012. More projects, such
as setting up Iron ore mines, a 6 MPTA steel plant, roads, an 800MW power plant,
a Hydro-electric power plant, and transmission lines etc. are envisaged.
Chahbahar is being invested in by India as well as a hub for transit goods
transportation. Thus, according to Gallup poll of 2010, 75% Afghans prefer Indias
leadership over that of U.S or China. The comparison shows that national interest
is often secured through traditional military strategy or through nontraditional
soft power.
Hermanns definition of security proves national interest to be an important
consideration in a nations security policy.
Security concerns not only the protection of values previously acquired but
also expectations about the future and the value outcomes to be experienced at
a later time. Thus security concerns not only the avoidance of loss, but also the
prevention of blocked gain.
U.S interest in Israel is of a latter sort of security issue. It cannot bear to lose a
strategic partner in the Gulf, keeping a check on the Middle Eastern oil powers.
So America supports Israel by becoming a powerful weight in its lobby.
The national values; integrity, purpose and interest, are threatened in the
technology driven globalised world of today by constructivism most potently.
Media, print and electronic or social, builds and forms perceptions, paradigms
and prejudices. The rampant islamophobia and the mistrust of Islamic clerics is
a paradigm built in the last decade. The perception though is strengthened by no
counter- narrative as is often complained. Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations and
the Remaking of World Order is a prime example of paradigm building. Pakistan
army knows the bleak state of affairs with India owing to border intrusions and
apparently justified personnel killings. Yet when media portrays India, it projects
a faade, friendly and benign. This Janus is more threatening as it provides cover
to malicious activities RAW might have a hand in. This undermines the trust
people put in their armed forces, destabilizing the only centre of gravity the
country is left with.
Our next area of nontraditional security issues is concerned with people.
Human security is considered an undeniably important aspect of a nations
security policy. The United Nations Development Program 1994 Human
Development Report was the first that seven areas were put forward in which
threats had to be minimized and fought. These seven areas sought to prove that
the danger posed by war was matched by the danger posed by global warming
or environmental degradation. That future wars will be fought in a desperate
attempt to reclaim resources as ordinary as water and food.

Economic Security
The first area of human security is economic security. It requires an assured
basic income for individuals, usually from production and remunerative work, or
as a last resort, from a publicly financed safety net. The state must provide this
security to the citizens. In this sense, only about a quarter of the worlds people

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are presently economically secure. Economic security is a nontraditional security
issue most dominant in developing countries, however not negligible in the
developed world.
The symptoms of economic insecurity are seen, among some other areas, in
the rising disparity between rich and poor, the ascending unemployment curve
and the growth crisis. The persistent and expanding poverty is a common
denominator of economic insecurity in Jorge Nefs view. To prove his point he
presents a table:
Global income distribution, 196091.
Year
1960
1970
1980
1989
1991

Share of global income going to

Richest 20%

Poorest 20%

70.2
73.9
76.3
82.7
85.0

2.3
2.3
1.7
1.4
1.4

Ratio of richest to poorest

30:1
32:1
45:1
59:1
61:1

Source: UNDP 1992, p. 34; 1994, p. 35.

Pressure of the Elite

Spenders in Railway Halls shows the devastating picture of economically
oppressed:
There is no consolation, no, none
In the curving beauty of that line
Traced on our graphs through history, where the oppressor
Starves and deprives the poor.
The reason behind the increasing disparity is that the richest of that global
elite also controls 80% of world trade, 95% of all loans, 80% of all domestic
savings, 80.5% of world investments. This is made further stark by the fact that
international trade has increased global interdependence and the weak
economies such as of Southeast Asia are more vulnerable to a downturn in the
controlling economies such as the U.S. Huge dependence on imports in Pakistan
is a factor that can tilt very badly if world economy suffers. In 2014 imports
during first ten months (Jul 2013- Apr 2014) shows a growth of 1.2% compared
with last year, comparison stands at US$37,105 million against US$36,665
million. The increase can show what fall can also be expected any year owing to

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completely uncontrollable external factors. Also the increase in debt becomes
another symptom of economic insecurity in Pakistan. Public debt stands at Rs
15,534 billion in March 2014 with an increase of Rs 1,168 billion from that of last
year.
Such dependency in economic sector means weaker sovereignty. The U.S
pressures Pakistan to do more in war against terror because Pakistan takes
financial help from U.S, which according to U.S. has reached 31 billion dollars.
Saudi Arabia demanded Pakistani forces in Yemen on its behalf after it provided
Pakistan with an aid of 1.5 billion dollars. The European Union decides whether
death penalty is given or not. In such a situation it is not hard to see that
Pakistani people suffer from economic insecurity.
Energy Security
Energy security constitutes a major part of economic security issue. It
involves assuring uninterrupted supply of energy to support the economic and
commercial activities necessary for sustained economic growth. Most cases show
an increasing imbalance between the demand for energy and its supply from
basic indigenous sources resulting in increased import dependency.
In case of India, 70% of oil is imported and the percentage is to grow. The
World Energy Outlook projects that Indias dependency on oil imports will grow to
91.6% by 2020. The increasing dependency means increasing economic
insecurity. In Pakistan during the year 2013-2014, the total domestic production
of coal remained 2,125 million tons, while 1,712 million tons were imported. The
increase in use of indigenous resources might serve to stabilize economy.

Environmental Security
The second facet to human security is the security of the environment. It
aims to protect people from the short-and long-term ravages of nature, manmade threats in nature, and deterioration of the natural environment. The three
dimensions show how environment affects and is affected by humans. The
ravages of recent natural disasters are horrendous. In Nepal, the Apr 2015
earthquake left 8,800 dead and more than 23,000 injured, with damage of an
approximate 5 billion dollars, about 25% of total GDP. The famine in Tharparker,
Pakistan, slaughtered nearly 650 people till the end of 2014 and the death toll
rises.
The challenges posed by natural disasters are huge and they require a
futuristic policy making outlook. The governments must give shape to
responsible disaster management policies, working to avoid such ravaging
disasters. The earthquake-prone Japan has implemented such policies so to avoid
future destruction. The flood-prone Pakistan yet has to learn from history. In 2013
flood killed more than 80 people, destroying property and crops of immeasurable
value. In 2014nearly 280 people died and the state has yet to finalize concrete
measures.
The man-made disasters and the environmental degradation constitute a
huge part of nontraditional security as proposed by Kaplan. In The Coming

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Anarchy, he calls the environment a national-security issue of the early 21 st
century and says:
The political and strategic impact of surging populations, spreading
disease, deforestation and soil erosion, water depletion, air pollution, and,
possibly, rising sea levels in critical, overcrowded regions like the Nile Delta and
Bangladeshdevelopments that will prompt mass migrations, and in turn, incite
group conflictswill be the core foreign-policy challenge from which others will
ultimately emerge, arousing the public and uniting assorted interests left over
from the Cold War.
In a single line Kaplan has portrayed the looming environmental crises, the
consequent ethnic tussles and the varying political tensions and stances that
might be adopted to counteract the environmental scarcity. Population increase
is an enormous factor in the environmental security issue. In itself, it bears heavy
on economy and resources and also becomes a factor in the deterioration of
environment in rather a short time period. Kaplan juxtaposes the scenarios
ominously evident.
He says that over the next fifty years the world population will soar from 5.5
billion to more than nine billion. The first scenario he presents is that the
National Academy of Sciences has pointed out that 95 percent of the population
increase will be in the poorest regions of the world. Then he puts forward the fact
of environmental scarcity and economic insecurity and proposes a second
threatening scenario. He says that in the world where attempts to rise above
poverty, cultural dysfunction, and ethnic strife will be doomed by lack of water to
drink, soil to till, and space to survive in, the people will have to choose
between totalitarianism as in Iraq, fascist-tending mini-states as in Serb-held
Bosnia, or road-warrior cultures as in Somalia.
The third scenario is of consequence. Kaplan speaks of a soil degradation
map that he came across in Homer-Dixons office. The darker the colour of the
soil the worse the degradation. He points out that West African coast, the Middle
East, the Indian subcontinent, China, and Central America have the darkest
shades, signifying degradation owing to chemicals, winds and water problems.
He quotes Homer-Dixon:
The worst degradation is generally where the population is highest. The
population is generally highest where the soil is the best. So were degrading
earths best soil.
Daniel Deudney is quoted somberly:
Think of a stretch limo in the potholed streets of New York City, where
homeless beggars live. Inside the limo are the air-conditioned post-industrial
regions of North America, Europe, the emerging Pacific Rim, and a few other
isolated places, with their trade summitry and computer-information highways.
Outside is the rest of mankind, going in a completely different direction.

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Kaplans point is the same, in the bifurcated world of the First Man of
Hobbes and the Last Man of Fokoyama, the former will be condemned to a short
and brutal existence and the latter will cope with the help of his technology and
position. Yet the world will not be evenly divided. The Last Man will be in a hugely
disproportionate majority. States of today ought to pay serious heed to the
growing population where the economic security does not grow with it and where
environment cannot keep up in the long run.

Personal Security
Personal security aims to protect people from physical violence, whether
from the state or external states, from violent individuals and sub-state actors,
from domestic abuse, or from predatory adults. This definition gives crime,
drugs, ethnic violence, violent non-state actors and state violence against an
individual or a group as several threats to the human personal security.
Crime and violent one at that is a major disturbing factor for a nations
security. Kaplan quotes a foreign resident of Sierra Leone, The government in
Sierra Leone has no writ after dark. In India the organized crime networks are
supposed to be one of the biggest threats to national security. The Indian
government puts Dawood Ibrahims transnational criminal enterprise at the top
of their crime problem. The network was originally Bombay based though now is
being operated from Pakistan allegedly. The network is involved in everything
from extortion to terrorism. The region also suffers from small arms trafficking
and drug trafficking. The former started as a blow back from the Afghan war and
has now engulfed Pakistan and India at the very least. The violence and
unbending resolution of the insurgencies in Baluchistan and KPK are a result of it.
Drug trafficking has picked up pace in India, the Golden Triangle of MyanmarThailand-Laos being the major route of illicit heroin and opium. The crime
springing from these sources is violent and an inevitable security problem.
In Pakistan, the non-state actors, violent and only coercive ones are one of
the major threats. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is an older foe now being abetted by
ISIS, a menace of another dimension. 2014 was recorded as the bloodiest year in
history owing to these personal and national security threats where combatants
and non combatants are not easily recognized. The 16 December massacre was
the final straw that ultimately brought the nation to a war of survival with an
internal enemy. An officer is quoted by Anatol Lieven saying that how can one
feel elated when one is killing an exact ganger of oneself. Nontraditional security
threat is, therefore not to be taken lightly. The coercive non state actors such as
NGOs are threat to national values of a state whereas violent non state actors
give rise to ethnic xenophobia and hatred among compatriots.

Community Security
Community security aims to protect people from the loss of traditional
relationships and values and from sectarian and ethnic violence. Traditional
communities, particularly minor ethnic groups are often threatened. About half of
the worlds states have experienced inter-state conflicts of ethnic origin. India,

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Pakistan, Bosnia, Sudan and Yemen have been the stage to the most violent and
gruesome ethnic conflicts in recent times.
In Pakistan Hazara community is the most evident example of a community
being hounded and victimized. The Shiite Muslims of Hazara have lost
approximately 13000 lives in this heinous crime wave against them and more
than 15000 have been injured. The community is still being persecuted when on
7 June 2015, 5 Hazaras were gunned down. In India, Gujarat has been the focal
point of many such instances. In 2002, the Muslim minority of Gujarat was
severely attacked by angry Hindu mob. Arundhati Roy talks of the incident:
In 2002 under Modis watch, right wing Hindu mobs went crazy in Gujarat.
They burnt, killed and raped. Between one and two thousand Muslims were
massacred openly on the streets of Gujarat. 100,000 people were driven from
their homes.
Whether it is the Hazaras, the Gujaratis, the Christian community of Gojra or
the Palestinian infants, the communities are the responsibility of the state and
their lives have to be as preciously guarded as are the lives of the majority. When
this does not happen, the communities rightly feel betrayed which incites hatred
in them, of the state and the majority itself. This could lead to the bitterest of
inter-state tussles in history. The Sudan partition clearly shows the consequence
of such laxness on states part. Yemen crisis is yet another crisis born of
community dissatisfaction, however misrepresented and reinterpreted it may
now be.

Health Security
It aims to provide a minimum protection from diseases and unhealthy
lifestyle. Earlier in developing countries major causes of disease were infections
and parasitic diseases, whereas in developed countries, the main diseases were
of the circulatory system. Even though Ebola, dengue and even malaria still
serve as killers in Africa and Asia, yet today lifestyle related chronic diseases are
major killers worldwide, with 80 percent of deaths from chronic diseases.
Pollution is a major cause of modern disease whether it is asthma born of air,
malaria or dengue born of stagnant water or lung cancer born of the smog of
modern cities. In India AIDs has become a source of concern. The stratum of
society contracting this disease has risen dramatically, from 2 persons in 1984 to
5 million people in 2004. According to an analysis by Ruchita Beri, a senior
research officer of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, the
demographic impact of the disease will be monumental. Now one percent of the
adult population is infected. By 2020 an estimated 64% population would be in
economically active age bracket and the average age of an HIV infected person
is between 25-30 years. According to her, a sever epidemic would lead to 140
million new HIV infections, that would lead to the country losing almost 100
million of its workforce. Thus the problem has to be addressed immediately as a
security issue.

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The IMR in Pakistan is 61% and the MMR is 26%, whereas the rate of first rate
deaths and still births is the highest in Pakistan at 40.7%. The abnormally high
death rate shows the lack of facilities provided in the health sector. The state has
not yet fully grasped the heaviness of the burden that lies on its shoulders in the
form of its populations health security. The words with which Sir Richard Francis
Burton described Africa are one of the most honest declarations based on the
situation of health in the continent; he calls it, deadly, a Golgotha, a Jehannum.
In Abidjan, according to Kaplan, out of the approximately 4000 newly diagnosed
tuberculosis patients, 45 percent were also found to be HIV-positive.

Political Security
It is concerned with whether people live in a society that honours their basic
human rights. According to a survey conducted by Amnesty International,
political repression, systematic torture, ill treatment or disappearance was still
practiced in 110 countries. Human rights violations are most frequent during
periods of political unrest. Along with repressing individuals and groups, the
government may try to exercise control over ideas and information.
Political repression is witnessed in Burma where Rohingya Muslims are killed
atrociously and with states assistance, where Muslims have been ostracized,
their nationality stripped only because of their race. In October 2013 at least 70
people were killed and 28 children were hacked to death, the hatred and
massacre only gaining velocity ever since. In Egypt, in 2013, under the cover of
protests against the government, more than 600 people died, in an epidemic of
violence and sexual abuse perpetrated by those who claim to be upholders of
law and order. The secreat government documents leaked and published in 2013
confirm that NSA obtains full copies of everything that is carried along major
domestic fibre optic cable networks.

Food Security
It requires that all people at all times have both physical and economic
access to basic food. At least 800 million people go to bed hungry at night and
160 million chidren are severely malnourished. 1.3 billion people do not have
access to the simple basic necessity of life such as drinking water. The problem
will continue to increase with the increase in world population. Right now with
1.96% growth rate and 5 billion population, according to Helen Reddy, three
quarters of the world population does not have enough to eat. The global
population is estimated to reach 9 billion in 2050 which means that global food
production has to be increased almost 50%.
The availability of food is what could have prevented the loss of valued lives in
Tharparker. The economic insecurity around the globe and food insecurity are
inextricably linked. The state has to take full responsibility for providing its
citizens with a safe supply of steady economic growth that would cater to, at the
very least, their sustenance.

The Aim of Human Security

The main aim of human security is that people would have the right to live
in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair with an equal oppor-

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tunity to enjoy all their rights and fully develop their human potential. The
security of their economic welfare, their breathing air, their health, their food,
their community, their freedom, and their life is what makes people turn sincere
to their nation. The insecurity is what gives rise to problems that are faced
nowadays on global scale. The increasing population spread outwards, mass
migrations and insecurity makes these rising masses turn angry and resentful.
The current clash of civilizations seen, in Huntingtons view, is also contributed in
part to the growing demographic imbalance.
Kaplan also puts population at the top of the nontraditional security
problems. Environmental scarcity will make these rising masses struggle for
resources, this would lead to cultural and racial clash, which would change
geographic face of the world, and would transform how and why wars are fought.
the wars of the world will become need-based even more than ever. The oil wars
will give in to the wars fought for water, as has already been witnessed in the
conflict on Danube among Hungary and Slovakia.

Modern Wars
The wars of today have natural resources as their precedent, the methods
are very modern. Nowadays states can infiltrate other states, can assassinate
leaders they do not want, can turn mass emotion to their whims. The conflicts of
the day are fought by guerrilla warriors, are won by sending insurgents. India
strategically lets out thousands cusecs of water at the time of heavy monsoon,
USA stays out of Syrian and Yemeni war yet interferes on Kuwaits behalf. The 4 th
generation warfare is being waged in the whole world right now. In Syria, militias,
nonstate actors and military forces are battling on the front with who knows how
many hidden powers behind them. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran battle a
proxy war in the guise of Sunni forces and Houthi rebels in Yemen. The
combatants are not distinguishable enough and the innocents suffer even more
than the culprits in the transcending borders of todays wars.

Conclusion
The nontraditional security threats are implosive and non-conventional.
Human security issues grow up, grow out of hand and become traditional military
issues of an internal dimension. The national values of the nation are threatened
from within so to topple the whole structure more properly from inside out. The
neighbour countries suffer from the country ablaze in the shape of immigrants
and in their faade, infiltrators and nonstate actors. The powerful feed on the
weak economically more feasibly than militarily could ever be done. The global
map of a few years in future would be a stark change from what it is today, all
thanks to the nontraditional security threats.

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