National Security

Abstract

States are therefore compelled by the very circumstances in which they find themselves to show a concern for their security and are generally prepared to allocate scarce resources to obtain it. The very general, vague and ambiguous quality of the term is itself a reflection of the diverse forms of behaviour that are encompassed by the idea of ‘national security’. The difference between France’s and Britain’s evaluation of the German threat in the inter-war period illustrates well what constitutes a genuine discrepancy between objective assessments and subjective perceptions of a state’s national security. National security can therefore no longer refer only to the preservation of the independence and the territorial integrity of the nation-state. It must now also relate to the protection of a state’s citizens, their distinctive institutions and values, and to the external environment within which each state must operate.