Chapter 7 – Security in the Contemporary World
Q1. What is security in international politics?
Security means protection of a country’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and citizens from external or internal threats like war, terrorism, cyber-attacks, or economic instability.
Q2. What is traditional security?
Traditional security focuses on military threats from other states and includes defense, deterrence, alliances, and strategies to protect national sovereignty.
Q3. What is non-traditional security?
Non-traditional security includes threats like terrorism, pandemics, climate change, cybercrime, and human trafficking that affect individuals and societies beyond military concerns.
Q4. What is the difference between traditional and non-traditional security?
Traditional deals with military threats and war; non-traditional addresses economic, environmental, health, and human security issues.
Q5. What is human security?
Human security protects individuals from threats like poverty, disease, violence, and disasters. It focuses on well-being and dignity rather than state security alone.
Q6. Who introduced the concept of human security?
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) popularized the term in its 1994 Human Development Report.
Q7. What are the main components of human security?
Economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security are core components of human security.
Q8. What is cooperative security?
It is a strategy where countries work together, build trust, and share information to address common security threats peacefully and prevent conflicts.
Q9. What is global security?
It refers to collective international efforts to address threats that affect multiple countries, such as nuclear weapons, climate change, or pandemics.
Q10. What is the role of the United Nations in security?
The UN promotes peace through diplomacy, sanctions, peacekeeping missions, disarmament, and conflict resolution mechanisms.
Q11. How does disarmament promote security?
Disarmament reduces arms and military capabilities, lowering the risk of war and encouraging peaceful relations among nations.
Q12. What is arms control?
It is the regulation of the production, proliferation, and use of weapons through treaties like NPT, START, and CTBT to prevent arms races.
Q13. What is terrorism?
Terrorism is the use of violence by non-state actors to spread fear and achieve political, religious, or ideological goals.
Q14. How is terrorism a non-traditional threat?
Terrorism affects civilians, destabilizes governments, and spreads globally across borders, requiring global cooperation for detection and prevention.
Q15. What is India’s policy on terrorism?
India follows zero-tolerance, strengthens internal security, uses intelligence coordination, international cooperation, and strategic defense to counter terrorism.
Q16. What is environmental security?
It focuses on protecting the environment from degradation, which can lead to conflict, disaster, or mass displacement due to climate-related issues.
Q17. How does climate change threaten security?
It causes rising sea levels, extreme weather, food and water scarcity, and can trigger conflicts over resources or forced migration.
Q18. What is health security?
Health security ensures people are safe from infectious diseases, pandemics, lack of healthcare access, and biological threats.
Q19. What is economic security?
Economic security ensures stable income, employment, and access to resources for survival, reducing vulnerability to poverty and exploitation.
Q20. How are cyber threats a modern security issue?
Cyber threats target digital infrastructure, data, communication, and can paralyze economies, elections, and defense systems globally.
Q21. What is collective security?
An agreement where all nations cooperate to stop aggression against any one member, as seen in the UN Charter.
Q22. What are the limitations of traditional security?
It overlooks internal unrest, environmental damage, health crises, and economic instability, focusing only on military strength and borders.
Q23. Why is energy security important?
Energy security ensures a stable supply of energy resources, essential for economic growth, military readiness, and avoiding geopolitical tensions.
Q24. What is food security?
It is the availability, access, and affordability of nutritious food for all individuals at all times.
Q25. What is migration security?
It addresses challenges related to refugees, illegal migration, border control, and integration of displaced populations.
Q26. What is strategic security?
It involves military planning, defense systems, and alliances to ensure a nation’s long-term safety and dominance.
Q27. How does water scarcity affect security?
Competition over water resources can lead to conflicts between communities and countries, affecting regional peace and development.
Q28. What is biosecurity?
Biosecurity prevents misuse of biological agents or toxins that could threaten health, agriculture, and ecosystems.
Q29. Why is regional cooperation important for security?
It builds trust, promotes trade, shares intelligence, and helps in joint responses to natural disasters or cross-border threats.
Q30. How can education improve security?
Education raises awareness, reduces extremism, empowers individuals economically, and helps in building a more peaceful and democratic society.