Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics
Abstract
This article addresses the question of how appropriate the conceptof national Security is to the countries of the Third World. Itcompares the conditions of national Security in the Third World withthose in the West, and argues that the nature of the differencesmakes the concept much more problematic in relation to the ThirdWorld states than for the states of the West.Security here is defined largely in socioplitical and military terms.The economic dimension of the subject is ignored on ground of lackof space, and because in many respects it does not run parallel to themilitary and political dimensions of security. Buzan in this article after painting the changing face of nationalSecurity in the west, tells us about this different dimension ofSecurity in Third World. At first he speaks of term Third World. Hebelives that this term in an indicator that we can expect to find veryconsiderable contrast.This article will focus on some of the difficulties of applyingNational Security to the countries of the Third World. Doing soinvolves a necessity for gross generalization, for the Third Worldencompasses a great variety of states. Nevertheless, the broadcontrasts between the Third World and the West as groups of statesare sufficiently robust to support a general comparison. Busanconcentrates on two areas of contrast that are central to theapplication national Security.
Barry Buzan, "People, States and Fear: TheNational Security Problem in the Third World", in: National Security in the Third World, EdwardAzar and Chung-in Moon (Editors), Edward Elgar,1988, pp. 14-44.
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