Chapter 14 Self-test questions

. During the 20th century, how has the focus of security studies changed regarding military security?

Security studies has always favoured a wide range of subjects when considering the field of security. Different types of security, most notably of human security and economic security, have enjoyed a great deal of attention in traditional security studies, alongside military security. After the Cold War this approach was broadened to include other types of security such as environmental and personal security.

Military security has emerged since the Cold War as the dominant sector within security analysis; both scholars and practitioners recognize the paramount importance of pursuing military security, based on the idea that military capabilities pose the greatest threat to human and state survival.

Prior to the Cold War the focus of security studies lay in the military sector, although environmental security was rapidly emerging as a serious threat to security, forcing analysts to reconsider the state-centric frameworks they had previously employed.

During the Cold War most security analysts agreed that military security should be the focus of security studies; as a result, there was not much discussion about what security entailed, other than the military sector. Following this period security studies has been broadened to include the wider range of sectors that we see today, including environmental and political security.

. Describe the relationship between the military security domain and social constructivism.

Social constructivists rely on cultural factors as being central to analysis. Scholars of security have therefore argued that it is impossible to study military security through a social constructivist lens.

It is possible to study military security through non-realist analytical lenses, and to adopt a social constructivist approach that regards cultural and social factors as being important focuses of study. This has led to claims that broader approaches to military endeavours should be adopted, including the proposed employment of social and development specialists in conflict situations.

Social constructivism is based on philosophical ideas that directly contradict the foundations of military-centred theory. The tendency is for social constructivists to dismiss military endeavours as clumsy and as being detrimental to human security.

In order to study military security, analysts must adopt a realist lens. However, this can later be combined with other approaches, including social constructivism, in order to consider the security of different referent objects such as the environment or human security.

. Why do realists argue that it makes sense for governments to prioritize military security above all else?

Military security challenges are of a distinctive and immediately threatening character.

Military security is necessary to pursue other forms of security.

The destruction caused by war frustrates the pursuit of other goals and destroys historical achievements.

All of the above

. How does the social constructivist approach account for the process of militarization?

Social constructivists assert that the process follows a popular recognition of empirically definable threats; when it is recognized that an issue poses a real and valid threat, it warrants militarization.

In their uniform advocacy of human security and adoption of a human-centric approach to security studies, social constructivists regard militarization as a process that is detrimental to achieving wider security goals and actively encourage the demilitarization of the security system.

By regarding security as a socially constructed concept, constructivists assert that militarization is the result of governmental decisions based on shared values and cultural norms that underpin their conception of what constitutes a security risk. Accordingly, different governments will identify different threats and react in different ways.

Social constructivists tend to focus on the population rather than military as an area for study, thus regarding the process of militarization largely in terms of its impact on human security.

. Which of the following statements best describes the orientation of military security within the traditional conception of security studies?

Strategic studies is the central concern of military studies. Military studies is also a subset of international relations.

Military security is a central concern within international relations and dominates the scholarship. Within international relations, strategic studies forms a subset of academic interest, within which security studies features occasionally.

Military security is the central concern of strategic studies; and strategic studies is a subset of security studies. Military security is also one of the central concerns of security studies, and security studies is a subset of international relations.

Strategic studies is best conceptualized as a subset of international relations, and within strategic studies, military security is one of the dominant concerns. Security studies is a subset of strategic studies.
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. What is meant by the term 'security dilemma' and how does it impact on the international security environment?

The security dilemma can be utilized as a force for stabilizing the international environment, placing all states at equal risk of military attack and discouraging a counter-productive accumulation of military force; the impact of security dilemmas is largely restricted to the realm of military security, although this can have far-reaching effects.

The security dilemma arises out of the anarchic international system that is conceptualized by realists. Within this environment, states are obliged to seek security through their own military efforts; this is perceived as threatening to other states and so triggers an arms race spiral. The security dilemma has implications for security sectors other than the military, particularly the political and societal security sectors.

The term 'security dilemma' refers to the state of constant insecurity that is inherent to the traditional realist paradigm of international security. Security dilemmas will have most notable effects on human and societal security, typically outweighing the initial implications on traditional security domains such as the political and military sphere.

Security dilemmas have implications for other realms of security beside the military domain, although their effect on societal security is limited. The term primarily refers to the ways in which states conceptualize their own military capabilities with regard to those around them.

. Which of the following does not characterize the epistemology of traditional security studies?

Traditional security studies regards the search for empirically testable 'truths' to be detrimental to the pursuit of a practical analytical framework with which to study security, largely due to a recognition in the field that security was not limited to a narrow or easily defined set of 'real' principles.

Knowledge was regarded as subjective and doubts were cast on whether any empirically testable 'truths' or realities could be defined for certain.

Traditional security studies adopts a positivist approach, based in scientific objectivism that pursues the definition of specific 'truths' that can be empirically tested and validated.

Traditional security studies adopts a subjective approach to knowledge, based on the notion that what constitutes as a 'truth' or as a 'value' cannot be easily distinguished from one another.

. What is the relationship between war, military security, and security studies?

War is best regarded as a social aberration, and is the result of catastrophic failure in social cohesion.

War is best regarded as a rational instrument of political policy; it is a continuation of politics by other means.

War is state of anarchy in which state actors must draw upon exceptional (military) means in order to ensure the protection of their interests.

War is a state of mass conflict which is inflicted upon state actors as a result of their failure to effectively control the behaviour of their population.

. Which of the following reasons might influence a state's decision to join an alliance such as NATO?

More powerful states may also create alliances in order to extend their protective umbrella over weaker friendly states.

States may seek to join an alliance if they believe that their own resources are inadequate to maintain their sovereignty and security.

An alliance can become attractive to states when a potential hegemonic power threatens the other states in that system.

All of the above

. Which of the following statements does NOT characterize arms control as a strategic policy?

Arms control is an example of cooperative security, designed to address the problems associated with the security dilemma.

Policies of arms control and disarmament were pursued during the Cold War in an attempt to achieve security.

After its successful application during the Cold War, arms control has retained its momentum and applicability in the contemporary security environment.

Arms control is a strategic policy which focuses on the problems produced by specific weapon systems and relationships.

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