Redefining Security: 2000 and Beyond

The end of post-World War II, East-West ideological rivalry and military confrontation challenges mature and responsible nations to redefine security interests, objectives, and strategies for the 21st century. Coherent security and defense policies must take into account an increasingly interdependent world whose future physical survival might well depend on preventing the proliferation and use of an increasingly lethal array of weapons of mass destruction. Traditional strategic thinking aimed at countering specific threats, including through nuclear deterrence and strategic defense, will appear increasingly anachronistic to a public bent on reaping peace dividends accruing from the end of the Cold War. This paper argues that mature and responsible nations have no logical or rational alternative but to lead the way toward more cooperative notions of security, based on the complementary principles of power control and war prevention. Nations will be secure to the extent they constrain purely unilateral military efforts and cooperate in the pursuit of mutual security within a suitable framework of internationally binding agreements. Fortifying international justice with cooperative international military power, if necessary, is the ultimate goal of cooperative security, and the essence of a rational security paradigm for the 21st century.