How Technology Has Transformed the Concept of Security - Part 1

Whether international security is achievable in today’s world or not is possibly one of the most important and profound questions that many people from international politics deal with, according to John Baylis. However, in order to answer this important question of achievability, some aspects of security should be clarified, such as what does the concept of security refer to and how has this definition changed and broadened over time. So I am gonna be mostly focusing on technology’s role in this journey of the notion of security and examine it based on two different time periods. Using the Cold War as a turning point, I will try to answer the question of how the notion of security was before the Cold War and how it has changed and broadened during the post-Cold War era.

Until the Cold War era, the traditional notion of security was mostly referring to the military, in the sense that interstate conflicts or problems in the international arena were considered a concern of military security. A nation-state taking military action in the face of a threat was a common occurrence; as we can tell from the two world wars, physical war was always a possibility. Thus, to achieve national security in the international arena, states were focusing on both defense and offense simultaneously. Having a good defense against an enemy was unachievable unless a strong army was available to strike back in case of an emergency.

However, during the Cold War and in the post-Cold War era, it has been seen that developing technologies have changed the military aspect of the traditional definition of security and have affected the type of weapons used as well as their power, effects, and other characteristics. In addition, the definition of security itself has broadened, the developments in technology, in general, have caused the emergence of new non-military areas within security. For example, the economy, politics, or biochemical developments of a country were added to the areas that needed to be secured.

These technological changes also affected military security, especially during the Cold War and in the post-Cold War era. With the development of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear bombs, the actions that have been taken in the international arena by nation-states in case of a security issue have changed drastically. States are still focusing on defense and offense at the same time, yet the intentions behind these actions are different now. Since mutual destruction and a counterattack with highly technological weapons are high possibilities, the means of attack in military actions have been transformed into means of deterrence after and during the Cold War era.

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