A BIG IDEA
Over the past decade or more many governments, especially western governments, have taken steps to draw together a wide range of different functions, objectives and institutions under the concept of ‘national security’. This trend is driven by two simple ideas. First, countries and their citizens face many different types of security threats, and they all need to be taken seriously and given due attention and priority. Second, government has many different types of policy instruments that can be used to manage this range of security threats, and they can and should all be used in the most cost-effective combination to address the full range of security challenges. From these two ideas naturally springs a third: that governments should view the security threats they face, and the responses they make to them, holistically, and unite them under an overarching National Security Strategy. We might call these three ideas collectively ‘the idea of national security’.
It is no coincidence that this idea emerged in the years after the Cold War. For forty years until 1989, one specific security issue—major war—was seen to have dominated threat perceptions, and one specific policy instrument—conventional armed forces and the intelligence apparatus that supported them—was seen to have dominated national policy priorities. As this era passed, it was natural that
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political leaders, policymakers, analysts and voters would start to shift their attention to new threats and their priorities to new policy approaches and instruments. And sure enough, a host of new security issues swiftly emerged, demanding new policy instruments and new uses for old ones. This was a complex process, but a few general trends clearly emerged over the 1990s. Concern shifted away from traditional inter-state security issues and towards intra-state, trans-state and non-state security threats.