International Security: Military Security

• International Security focuses on military security during Spring 2024/2025

Military Security Defined

• Military security is the capacity of a nation-state to defend itself or deter military aggression.
• It also involves the power of a nation-state to enforce its policies through military force.

Importance of Military Security

• Military matters remain critical.
• A state and its society can achieve security across political, economic, societal, and environmental dimensions, but those achievements can be undone by military failure, according to Buzan in 1991.

Historical Evolution of the Military

• Armed Forces have been essential for group security for millennia.
• Administrative and political entities like city-states, kingdoms, empires, and nation-states have generally needed a military to protect their territory, resources, and citizens.
• Armed guards were typical around walled cities or castles in the Eurasian landmass.
• Weaponry sophistication has increased over time with technological advancements and shifting threats.
• Examples of weaponry include spears, bows and arrows, horses, catapults, cannons, handheld artillery, tanks, submarines, and fighter jets.

Branches of the Military

• Army:
  • Most countries have an army.
  • Its purpose is to invade, defend, maintain order, and consolidate territory.
  • It's the most historically significant armed force.
• Navy:
  • Most "great power" nations have one, as do many large, non-landlocked nations.
  • Historically important in spreading imperialism.
  • The Royal Navy was key to the success of the British Empire.
  • Naval strength can offset a lack of territorial mass.
  • Affords the ability to project power beyond the immediate vicinity.
  • This is according to Alfred Mahan
• China's "String of Pearls":
  • Encompasses Gwadar Port in Pakistan, Djibouti, Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, and Kyaukpyu Port in Myanmar.
• India's "Diamond Necklace":
  • Includes Chabahar Port, Gulf of Mannar, Duqm Port, Assumption Islands, Sabang Port, Camran Port, and Changi Port.
• Airforce:
  • It is the latest major military branch.
  • It is typically used to strike enemy targets, provide aerial support, and help ground troops advance.
  • Played a vital role in both World Wars, especially World War II.
  • Incorporates increasingly sophisticated technology such as dropping bombs and firing missiles, enhanced speed, and better precision.
  • Aiming to remove the human element,
  • Such as drones in the War in Afghanistan.

Rise of Private Military Companies

• Until recently, the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, supposed that wars were fought between states by regular armies.
• The private military and security sector has become quite significant, with services used by both governments and non-governmental bodies.
• The private military and security sector includes large companies in the US or Europe with many employees, alongside numerous smaller companies globally.
• In the early 1990s military intervention in the former Yugoslavia, the U.S. Department of Defense used one private contractor for every 50 soldiers.
• From 2003 onwards, it hired roughly an equal number of private contractors as regular troops according to Krahmann in 2010.
• Main services provided include:
  • Combat: Direct engagement to assist regular troops.
  • Training: Weapons and combat training, tactics, off-road driving, survival skills, field medicine.
  • Support: Logistics, construction, maintenance, and IT services.
  • Security: Protection of infrastructure, including data and computer security.
  • Intelligence: Information gathering and analysis.
  • Reconstruction: Post-conflict activities like mine clearing, rebuilding infrastructure, and restoring essential services.

Methods to achieve Military Security

• Building up military may involve increase investment
• Internal balancing:
  • Investing in intelligence including increased scale and sophistication of military resources and weaponry.
• Balancing [External balancing]:
  • For example, the Concert of Europe maintained the balance of power after the Napoleonic Wars.
  • This is achieved via Alliances or Containment, such as NATO
  • Baghdad Pact (1955) included: UK, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan
• Neutrality:
  • Non-Alignment Movement included: Egypt, India, Yugoslavia
• Disarmament:
  • The United States and the Soviet Union reduced nuclear warheads to de-escalate tensions at the end of the Cold War.
• Removing any justifications for invasions:
  • Surrendering territory, for example, Russia ceding territory to China in 2005 included treating minorities well.
• Economic and political interdependence:
  • A significant US-China trade relationship reduces the likelihood of war between the two.

Types of Military Conflict

• State vs state is the most common historically
• Fighting over territory, resources, ideology etc.
• State vs Group
  • Can occur within or outside a nation.
  • Includes secessionist movements and terrorism (non-territorial).
• State vs Individual
  • Examples of this is the killing of Bin Laden.
  • The Israeli army captured Nazi war criminals.

Military Threat: Real and Perceived

• Disparities exist between the perception and reality of military power:
  • Power can be exaggerated, for example, North Korea prior to missile tests.
  • Power can be understated, for example, Japan and its Self-Defense Force (SDF).
  • Overestimating the power of rival nations, such as US-UK attitudes towards Iraq before the 2003 invasion.
  • Underestimating the power of rival nations, such as the US approach going into the Korean War and Vietnam War.
• Disparities can be deliberate or unintentional.

Is size the deciding matter?

• A larger army and more sophisticated weaponry do not always guarantee a more successful fighting force.
• Theoretically, yes, but there have been surprise outcomes in Zulu victory over the British, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
• Other important factors that decide the outcome are:
  • terrain/conditions
  • experience and skill of military personnel
  • Loyalty or bravery of troops
  • Military Strategy such as the use of the Spanish Armada
  • Political will/popularity of war shown by both sides
  • Susceptibility to international pressure.