Security and idententy - Essay Example

Security and identity Introduction Security is an ambiguous term servicing all people and the affairs of a nation. On the other hand, identity is viewed as a source of conflict in a country. Although security is used to refer to protection of the state, it is broadened to include not only military, but also political, economic, societal, and environmental aspects. The end of the Cold War and conflict between superpowers in the world left behind a vacuum, which was then filled with previously neglected and marginalized issues. This led to the new approach in the security studies. As opposed to the traditional approach, which focused on military threats originating from other countries, the new approach involves a broader concept of security and identity. To recognize actors and reference objects of security, levels of analysis such as an international system, international subsystem, unit, subunit, and the individual are introduced as the analysis objects. These sectors denoting specific logic and types of interaction between units are normally used as the major analytical instrument. Military sectors, therefore, relate to power relation in a country, political sector to authority relations, and economic sector to economic relations. In addition, environmental sectors relate to the association between man and nature while societal sector show the relations between social groups. However, all these sectors overlap and affect each other. In real life situation, most security issues involve a combination of several security sectors; they are strictly separated for analytical purposes. In this paper work, I will point out the perception of security and identity in various societal sectors. Societal security and national identity In the modern world, Security is no longer perceived only as military security of the state. Currently, there are different reference objects such as economy, environmental protection, and military relations that have become subjects to the securitization process. In addition, these objects require socially and politically effective linguistic act of denoting issues as security moves such issue away from the perceptions of daily politics, and identifies it as an existential threat that requires and justifies special measures. In the modern society, security does not refer to the state as a government or a territorial entity, but relatively as a collective identity of the nation. This indicates that, security in a society may be compromised by anything that compromises their identity (Panic 30). On the other hand, societal security relates to the capability of a society to preserve its essential characteristics in the face of variable circumstances despite of the potential and actual threats. In this case, security is compromised when a community perceives a threat as a hazard to its identity since identity is defined as a set of ideas and practices that recognize particular individuals as members of a social group (Panic 30). Moreover, nations are imaginary communities and national identities, which are the most important references object of the societal security. National identity, therefore, involves some forms of political community, common institutions and one code of duties and rights for all members of the community. This identity also suggests a definite social space and demarcated territories, which are easily identified by members of the community (Panic 31). This means that community members have a feeling of belonging into this identity. This will, therefore, give a clear definition of a state as a group of people obeying similar rules and institutions within a given territory. According to David Campbell, there are two conceptions of a nation, which includes the civil model and ethics (Campbell 24). These are two predominantly conceptual territories, which need to be protected by the nation. This is due to the fact that nations have to possess compact, well-defined territories. Campbell indicates that territories cannot be just anywhere but must be the historical lands and people’s homelands. These homelands have historical memories and associations of heroes who lived and fought the nation. Territories are, therefore, unique among countries and thus they are essential elements towards collective identity. Historical territories, legal-political communities, legal-political equalities of members of the communities and common civic culture and ideologies are all components of classical Western model of nations, which are important building blocks towards achieving national identity. On the other hand, there are other characteristics such as common, culture, historic memories, myths, economy, duties and rights of all community members that indicate national identity (Panic 31). Threats to national identity There are various interconnected and interweaved elements that suggest exceptional and complexity of the national identity. These complexities are the possible threats to the identity. These threats can be horizontal competition, such as migrations as well as vertical competitions, such as secessions and integrations. However, national identity threats are perceived differently across various countries in the world. European integrations as a major part of state power have for example, been shifted towards the level of European Union. Unfortunately, this union has made nations even more vulnerable since, if the union feels threatened as a result of immigrations, products or foreign ideas, it must demand help from the state (Campbell 27). Currently, states are not able to respond to many demands from the union because it no longer has control over these issues. In Eastern Europe, a lot of conflicts are associated with territorial borders and issues related to minorities. This can be explained by the fact that after the fall of Berlin Wall and formation of new security issues in the Eastern part of Europe, Western Europe decided to speed up integration process in order to ensure unity is maintained. However, many people at the West considered the very idea as integration project through justification of protection of the national identity. They, therefore, began to perceive these integrations as a threat to their national identity. In this case, protection of identity is now seen as security issues (Panic 32). Therefore, societal insecurity exists when different communities identify a threat in their survival as an entire community. In Europe today, community groups are prevailingly national while in other states religious and racial groups are similarly relevant since race and religion are particularly highlighted by specific uniqueness and distinctive dynamics. They are, therefore, defined as separate sectors in a country. However, religious communities, as independent groups, can be termed as objects of societal security since talking about security measures for religious purposes suggests that there are threats, which are not for the community but for the faith. Nevertheless, in religious identity, there exist conflicts that predominantly require societal security. On the other hand, race as an identity is also threatened when minority group is mistreated. In this case, race as a group is threatened, which the society fails to offer the required security (Campbell 32). Criticism of societal security National identity is not taken as an objective fact thus it is studied as implications to conflicts and security. Identity is, therefore, seen as dynamics towards societal security in various nations across the world. On the other hand, the concept of social security is subjective and opposes the objective position of the traditional notion of security. Expansion of security definition and perception of social identity can be politically hazardous since from traditional security perspectives, the state can intervene and promote ideal security for the community (Panic 33). Merging of identity, nationalism and security of the nations has been reviewed from the classic concept of security. In this case, nations have retained some old hypothesis and introduced new ones. This demonstrates that social communities distinct in terms of their identity can become reference objects in events of securitization. This indicates that the values being protected are not at the dominion of state but rather the identity of community (Panic 35). On the contrary, identity is variable and thus cannot be treated as an object, unlike the state and security. However, identity just like other social constructs has become a comparatively constant element. In addition, identity is not a factual situation of a community or a society, but it is a process of contradiction between people and other interest groups in a country (Campbell 35). Conclusion It is clear that security and identity have a deeper meaning rather than protecting the affairs of a country since, after the Cold War that appeared in European countries in early 1940s, there emerged new and complex security models of states and individuals. These new approaches were considerably divergent compared to traditional, narrow concepts since they indicate that something can be a security issue despite having no threat to the state. Different from traditional phenomena, other factors such as migrations and cultural identity challenges can contribute to identity securitization in a country. The identity of social group is the object of societal security concept. Social security is thus something concerning individuals and its nature in the prevailing economy. On the other hand, societal security relates to the collectivity of identities and actions undertaken with the aim of protecting such identities in a country. Works cited Campbell, David. Writing security:United State foreign policy and the politics of identity. New York: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992. Panic, Branka. "Societal security – security and identity." June 2009. 10 October 2012 . Read More