SESSION 7: Ambiguity - A Way to Keep You Guessing...

A little more than forty years ago, Arnold Wolfers wrote a classic essay entitled, ' "National Security" as an Ambiguous Symbol'. Contrary to popular belief, Wolfers did not declare the idea as hollow or hopelessly ambiguous. He was, however, genuinely concerned about the vagueness of national security as the following passage indicates:

It would be an exaggeration to claim that the symbol of national security is nothing but a stimulus to semantic confusion, though closer analysis will show that if used without specifications it leaves room for more confusion than sound political counsel or scientific usage can afford.

The foundation of the contemporary notion of "national security" as a philosophy of maintaining a secure nation state can be traced to the Peace of Westphalia. The idea of a sovereign state, ruled by a sovereign, sprung there. Wolfers, in his essay, refers not only to the notion of national security as a policy objective but also to the means for its pursuit. National security revolves around the realist paradigm, where the policies around the globe are always an attempt by the states to attain maximum power, under a situation of anarchy, where they battle for their own national well-being and interests. We can observe that states then rely on military power to ensure that those interests are achieved and counteract the threats that crop up from the other states. The aim is basically to protect, from an internal viewpoint, national interests.

National security can thus be viewed as one of the focal values of a state. According to Wolfers, this notion has faced two main evolutions. Firstly, all of it tends to be outweighed by the 'mankind interest'. Secondly, he asserts that there is a shift from welfare society to a security belief of national interest. To finish, Wolfers has emphasized the importance of moral aspect in national security. Statesmen may compromise their individual liberty a little in the name of democracy.