Initially, as a defense against an external military attack, the concept of "state security" was widely understood as protecting and ensuring the economic, energy, environmental, food and cyber security and integrity of the country.
Similarly, national security risks include, in addition to aggression from other countries, violent non-state actors, drug cartels and multinational corporations, as well as the effects of natural disasters.
State security
Governments rely on a number of measures, including political, economic and military power, as well as diplomacy to ensure peace in the country. They can also do everything to create security conditions at the regional and international levels by reducing transnational causes such as climate change, economic inequality, political isolation and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Threats and challenges
Potential threats to Russia's national security include actions by other states (e.g., military operations or cyber attacks), non-state actors (e.g., terrorist attacks), organized crime groups, such as drug cartels, as well as the effects of natural disasters (e.g. floods, earthquakes) . Systemic insecurity factors that may be transnational include climate change, economic inequality and marginalization, political isolation and militarization.
Due to the wide range of risks, state security has several aspects, including economic, energy, physical, environmental, food, border security and cybersecurity. These dimensions are closely correlated with elements of national authority.
Strategy and Views
Increasingly, governments are organizing their policies in this area as part of national security. Since 2017, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States have been among the states that do this.
Although states differ in their approach to this issue, with some beginning to give priority to non-military actions to address systemic factors of insecurity, various forms of coercive power prevail, especially the military. An area of these possibilities has been developed.
Traditionally, military forces, represented mainly by ground or naval forces, still play a leading role in ensuring national security in some countries. In other areas, potential wars now include areas of influence such as air, space, cyberspace, and psychological intimidation.
The military capabilities intended for these areas can be used to ensure state security or, equally, for offensive purposes, for example, to conquer and annex territories and resources.
Military forces
In practice, national security is primarily associated with the management of physical threats and with the military capabilities used for this. This is especially true of the state security of the Russian Federation, because our society is traditionally considered quite conservative and militarized.
That is, national security (especially here) is often understood as the ability of a nation to mobilize armed forces to ensure the protection of its borders and successfully protect against physical threats, including military aggression and attacks by non-state actors such as terrorists.
Most countries, such as South Africa and Sweden, use their armed forces mainly for territorial defense. Others, such as France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are investing in more expensive expeditionary capabilities that allow the military to defend power and support military operations abroad.
Relationship with Politics
Barry Buzan, Ole Wever, Jaap de Wilde and other researchers argue that state security is directly dependent on political. Others, such as Paul Rogers, added that having an international order is also important.
Consequently, political security depends on international law (including laws of war), the effectiveness of world political institutions, as well as diplomacy and negotiations between nations and other security entities. It also depends, among other things, on the effective political participation of disaffected groups and the security of citizens.
Economy
Economic security (EB) in the context of international relations is the ability of a state to maintain and develop a national economy, without which it is impossible to manage other aspects of security.
In larger countries, EB strategies require access to resources and markets in other countries and protection of their own. Developing countries may be less secure than economically developed states due to high rates of unemployment and low-paying jobs. If militarily these processes are regulated by the Ministry of State Security of the Russian Federation and other power structures such as the FSB and the GRU, then economic security directly depends on the policy of the Ministry of Finance.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure security is the protection of facilities, especially critical, such as airports, roads, railways, hospitals, bridges, transport hubs, network communications, media, electricity, dams, power plants, seaports, oil refineries and water system. Protection is primarily aimed at limiting the vulnerability of these structures and systems from sabotage, terrorism and pollution.
Infrastructure Protection Agencies
Many countries have created government agencies to directly protect critical facilities. They act, as a rule, through:
- The Ministry of the Interior, for example, as in Russia.
- Specialized security services to protect infrastructures such as the Federal Security Service in the United States.
- They also include specialized transport police, such as in the UK.
There are also commercial transportation services such as Amtrak Police in the United States. Critical infrastructure is vital to a country's functioning. Accidental or intentional damage can have a serious impact on the economy and social status of citizens. Some of the threats to infrastructure include:
- Terrorism: a person or group is deliberately aimed at destroying infrastructure for political gain. For example, in November 2008 in Mumbai, when the central station and hospital in the city were intentionally seized, or a terrorist attack in Nord-Ost in Russia.
- Revolution: a person or group, such as anti-government, environmental, and others. For example, the seizure of office buildings during the Euromaidan in Ukraine in 2014.
- Sabotage: the intentional infliction of harm by a person or group on an enterprise or strategically important object, as well as non-compliance with decrees adopted by the government.
- Information war: hackers hacking the Internet resources of a private person for personal gain or the country initiating the attacks in order to obtain information and harm the cyber infrastructure of the enemy state. Examples are cyber attacks in Estonia and during the war in South Ossetia in 2008.
- Natural disaster: a hurricane or other natural phenomena that damage critical infrastructure, such as oil and water pipelines, and power grids.
USA
Each country has its own state security service. In the United States, the Bush Administration launched the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) in January 2008. She introduced a differentiated approach, which included identifying existing and emerging threats in cyberspace, searching for and identifying possible vulnerabilities in this structure, as well as detaining people trying to gain access to secure federal information systems.
President Obama made a statement that cyberthreats are one of the most serious national and state security challenges that Americans face as a nation, and that America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber defense.
Russia
It's time to talk about what laws are regulated by the Ministry of State Security of the Russian Federation. In 1997 and 2000, Russia adopted a package of laws under the general name "Concept of National Security", which described Russia's global position, its interests, listed security threats and ways to counter them. In 2009, these documents were replaced by the “National Security Strategy until 2020”. The key body responsible for coordinating policies related to the study of threats to Russia's national security is the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
Value
The category described in this article is strategically important and is still the subject of discussion in our country and beyond. Some argue that the main beneficiary of national security policy should be the state itself, which is obliged to focus its strategy on protecting its own interests in a potentially hostile environment. In this regard, the state is like a living creature driven by a desire for survival, and state security bodies should contribute to this.