Jornal de Gestão de Defesa
Acesso livre
ISSN: 2167-0374
ISSN: 2167-0374
Bimbo Ogunbanjo M
Since it took hold in the 1950s, the study of International Security (IS) has been at the heart of international relations studies. This paper emphasizes that it grapples with questions about war and peace, life and death, safety and survival. Traditionally its terrain has focused on concerns about the stability of the state system, the use of force, nuclear proliferation, military strategy, intelligence and the distribution of resources. Its content has expanded over the years. Today it covers a variety of interconnected issues in the world that affect survival. Concerns about climate change, migration, poverty, health, privatization, organized crime and international terrorism are also on the agenda. This paper introduces different ways of conceptualizing security in international relations. It points to the importance of recognizing that security is highly contested and contestable, and emphasizes the Euro - or Western – centric tendencies of security studies. It examines the effect of the end of the Cold War on international security. In particular, it looks at the question of whether international relations, especially in an era of increasing globalization, is likely to be as violent in the future as it has been in the past. This paper, further, looks at disagreements that exist about the causes of war and whether violence is always likely to be with us. It scrutinizes the traditional/classical Realist and more contemporary neo-realist perspectives on international security. It also investigates alternative approaches. And before it ends, it considers the continuing tension between national and international security and suggests that, despite the important changes associated with the processes of globalization, it remains too early to make a definitive judgment about whether a fundamentally different paradigm of international politics is emerging, or whether it is possible for such a transformation to occur.