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All 11 Flashcards — The changing nature of threats
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Question
What are non-traditional security threats?
Answer
Dangers that are transnational, non-state or non-military — terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics, climate/environmental breakdown and organised crime — which cross borders and don't fit the state-vs-state model.
Question
Name the main non-traditional threats.
Answer
Terrorism, cyber attacks, pandemics, climate/environmental breakdown, and organised crime.
Question
What is securitization?
Answer
The political move of naming something a 'security' threat to justify emergency or exceptional action.
Question
Why do the new threats break the traditional model?
Answer
They are transnational (ignore borders), often non-state (no capital or army to deter), and non-military (can't be met with force alone), so they demand cooperation and non-military tools.
Question
Why is securitization double-edged?
Answer
It can unlock the urgency, funding and cooperation a real threat needs, but it can also justify emergency powers, surveillance and rights restrictions, or militarise problems best handled otherwise.
Question
Why can't a pandemic be met with military force?
Answer
Because it is a transnational health threat with no army or border to fight — it needs health systems, vaccines, cooperation and resilience, not force.
Question
How do non-traditional threats connect to each other?
Answer
They compound: climate change drives displacement and conflict that terrorism and crime exploit, and pandemics strain states and open space for instability.
Question
What is the case for securitizing climate or pandemics?
Answer
It reflects their true scale, and mobilises the urgency, funding and international cooperation that a slow 'business as usual' response never would.
Question
What is the case for caution about securitization?
Answer
It can justify emergency powers, surveillance and border militarisation, erode rights and scrutiny, and push health or climate into a harmful military framing.
Question
Why is deciding 'what counts as security' political?
Answer
Because naming something a security threat unlocks extraordinary powers, so the label is not a neutral fact but a choice with real consequences for power and rights.
Question
What is a balanced view of securitization?
Answer
It is a useful but double-edged tool — naming genuine, survival-level transnational threats can rightly drive action, but it must be bounded, temporary and accountable.
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