Re-conceptualising National Security : a Framework for Analysis

Abstract

National security is used as a justification for policy decisions, a pretext to erode civil liberties and rights, a rallying call for exceptionalism of the ‘self’ at the exclusion of the ‘other’, and as a validation for war. In the name of national security just about any action is justifiable, any decision rational and any consequence moral. There is a danger in this ambiguity. This research has developed a contemporary, comprehensive and holistic framework of analysis using critical constructivism to re-conceptualise national security and to address the latent ambiguity of the concept. The critical literature review shows a comparison of the assumptions and limitations of traditional and critical security studies conceptualisations of national security. It was through this critical analysis that the researcher was able to determine that traditional security studies offers a limited and constrained conceptualisation of national security, that is necessary but insufficient. In contrast, critical security studies has failed to properly engage with the concept of national security. A reconceptualization of national security needs to draw on the strengths and address the limitations of both approaches, and critical constructivism provides the necessary theoretical infrastructure to do so. The national security quintet has been developed and constructed as a framework of analysis for reconceptualising national security using the five inter-related, mutually constituted and socially constructed concepts of national identity, national values, national interests, national power and national will. Each concept has been highlighted for its severable and collective utility in conceptualising national security, and that together form a powerful tool of analysis. Critical constructivism was chosen as the most appropriate theoretical framework for the quintet, although this does not preclude it from being used by other theoretical approaches. The national security quintet has the potential to re-conceptualise national security in theory and practice.