Can we redefine national security in time?

Abstract

Recent changes in the international situation, particularly the end of the Cold War, are focusing attention on the need to redefine national security to take into account growing threats from a variety of global problems. We should be asking what are the real threats to our security and examining our military and security assumptions. Strategies beyond military readiness should be evolved to prevent and deter conflicts. All countries should have a debate about national security. National security should be redefined in broader terms than the defense of borders. It should provide conditions for the health, education, and well-being of society and for a sustainable economy. The debate needs, however, reliable facts and statistics about how well these conditions have been created around the world. Fortunately, two annual publications contain the information needed for an informed debate on national security issues. They are World Militaly and Social Expenditures 1996, published by World Priorities Inc., Washington, DC, and the SIPRI Yearbook 1996: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The picture emerging from the wealth of statistics--on world military expenditures, global and regional conflicts, military research and development, and global arms production and trade-contained in these volumes is, generally speaking, a bleak one. It becomes clear that the most serious global problems arise from the rapidly growing world population and the widening gap between rich and poor