National Security in the Third World

For nations of the Third World, national security poses serious dilemmas. Unlike Western nations, less developed countries must balance the complex and often contradictory requirements of socioeconomic and political development with problems of internal stability and the requirements of national defense. For these countries, a concept of national security that focuses primarily on the international threat system and its overt manifestations of wars and violence, ignoring domestic well-being, is inadequate on theoretical and pragmatic grounds. This book addresses the security problems of Third World states, arguing for new ways to define and measure national security so that the concept may be appropriately applied to the needs of developing countries. In addition, the author argues that the "tranquility" of a state, a concept traditionally linked with national security, cannot necessarily be associated with quality of life as measured by conventional means. Dr. AI-Mashat constructs a tranquility index for ninety-five developing nations and tests its relationship with the physical quality-of-life index to demonstrate this point. Attempts to improve quality of life, he suggests, may in many countries lead to a reduction in security unless simultaneous attempts are made to democratize the regime.