The idea of security in the context of the international political order is undergoing marked change; many of these changes, however, are negative in nature.
Traditional security means ensuring the protection of territorial sovereignty integrity and the protection of the lives and livelihood of citizens. The traditional idea of security is the outcome of what the late political scientist Joseph Nye calls ‘hard power’—a combination of military, economic and diplomatic power which is wielded to enhance the martial power profile of a state.
The idea of traditional security originated with the emergence of the modern state system following the peace of Westphalia in the 17th century. Since then, the changing tides of history contributed to the emergence of newer nation-states.
As time passed, the nature of technology evolved, contributing to the corresponding changes in the politics and economies of societies and institutions globally. All these changes contributed to the emergence of the age of globalization in the 1990s and popularized the idea of non-traditional security.
Non-traditional security (NTS) is concerned with the idea of ‘human security.’ It lays emphasis on the fulfillment of basic human needs and aspirations that can enable individuals to live a dignified life. The outcome of this dimension of security was the Human Development Index (HDI).
Having given a broad overview of the changing dimensions of security, it becomes essential to present a critique of how the actions of West contributed to undermining many of the dimensions of non-traditional security for a large section of the global populace.
Immigration
Human history is a history of immigration. It is how humans evolved and shaped the interconnected world we belong to. The age of globalization was supposed to usher in a world where physical entities like borders would become increasingly less significant. However, the West found the post-Cold War period a geopolitical opportunity to indulge in military saber-rattling.
That saber rattling found its manifestation in the idea of liberal interventionism. This idea derives its sustenance from the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History idea. The idea states that history as found through the evolution of governmental structures ended with liberal democracy modeled on the West as the pinnacle. His idea was accepted literally by many Western leaders with the concomitant result that in the name of spreading Western style liberal democracy, they found it convenient to use the idea as a pretext to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign states and overthrow any regime that was not ‘democratic’ in the liberal sense of the term or, for that matter, disliked by the West.
This eventually led to Western interventions in countries like Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya among others, on the premise of “protecting human rights” and “eradicating global terrorism.” But what happened was that it left behind devastated countries.
Such devastation contributed to the deterioration of living conditions there, sparking refugee crises, resulting in populations desperate to leave their home countries and migrate elsewhere. This exodus has been the cause of new social, economic, and political problems in the West, such as the migrant crisis of 2015. The situation has become all the more alarming because by 2025, the UNHCR reports that 117 million people continue to be displaced, a large portion of which in the ‘failed states.’
This proves that the Western powers are the architects of their own miseries.
Terrorism
The botched up intervention attempts in the name of liberalism left behind failed states. According to the realist school of international relations, emergence of a power vacuum in a state is never allowed to persist, and actors, both internal and external, rush in to fill the vacuum. Unfortunately, this power vacuum contributed to the emergence of terror groups like ISIS* in the Middle East and Al-Qaeda* in Afghanistan.
Among these groups, ISIS* was the most dreaded. From 2014 to 2016, it captured a huge swath of territory in the Middle East, spanning Iraq and Syria and committed untold atrocities against the civilian population, minorities, and foreigners.
It was only due to the concerted efforts of all domestic and foreign actors that resulted in the terror group’s empire being wiped out. Among the foreign actors, Russia played a major role in dismantling the terror group’s terror machinery.
Nevertheless, ISIS’s* diabolical machinery and beliefs continue to remain strong. This is all the more evident from the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack and the Bondi beach shooting in Australia recently.
Climate Change
Apart from the issues mentioned above, climate change is another potent non-traditional security threat. Here also the West has been responsible for wrecking the fragile ecology of the Earth. Historically, the U.S. and the EU are two of the largest emitters of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) in the world. Not only are their overall GHG emissions high, but their per capita emission intensity is also much higher in comparison to countries of the Global South. In fact, the U.S. has historically contributed more than 25% of global Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG); by contrast, the entire continent of Africa contributed less than 3%.
But the sheer audacity of the Western bloc in asking the Global South to phase out hydrocarbon based energy sources that continue to form the backbone of their industrial and commercial operations is baffling. The fact that the world no longer works in accordance with the West’s geo-economic dictates was evident from the assertive stand of the developing countries in the COP30 in Belem, Brazil.
Hence, there is little doubt that the lion’s share of responsibility for repairing the climate rests on the Euro-Atlantic shoulders. Transfer of climate adaptation technology and provision of climate finance must be made available to the developing world by them.
In conclusion, it must be noted that the idea of security is no longer limited to security of nation-states, it now has transitioned to human security. But given the fact that the West has been instrumental in undermining the human security of a large section of the global population, they must take concrete steps to ameliorate their sufferings.
*terrorist organizations banned in the Russian Federation
Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India
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