Page 23 - kpiebook66001

1

1. Rationale

The understanding of security has usually been limited to threats against
states and their sovereignty. That understanding is known as traditional security.
However, since the end of the Cold War, the essence of the word security has
changed. It is no longer restricted to matters of traditional state security. Threats to
national security have come include challenges to the survival, dignity, and well-
being of people.1

Non-traditional security, therefore, represents an expansion of the scope of
the term security: from the focus of state centrism to the impact on individuals,
society, and mankind. The mean of security has also moved past exclusive attention
to the use of military force for physical destruction. It can be said that this new
conception of security is in line with the issues of human security and social
security. In 1994 the United Nations Development Program proposed seven
elements of human security: economic security, food security, health security,
environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security.
In short, human security is associated with freedom from fear and freedom from
want.

As such, in the context of our continuously changing world, the new security
refers to both the security of the state and the security of human beings and

1 Mely Caballero-Anthony, 2016, Understanding Non-traditional Security, in Mely Caballero-
Anthon (editor), An introduction to non-traditional security studies: A transnational approach,
Singapore: SAGE Publications.