Understanding global security - Peter Hough

MILITARY THREATS TO SECURITY FROM STATES
after the end of appalling colonial rule by Belgium and a brief but fruitless display of
Cold War internationalism left behind, perhaps, the world’s first ‘failed state’.
Virulent nationalism has enjoyed something of a revival in Europe since 1990,
prompting the view that the Cold War might actually have kept the lid on a number
of conflicts now free to boil over. ‘[T]he Cold War period might be seen as an
aberration from a story that is now, in some respects being resumed’ (Clark 2001: 24).
The Yugoslav secessionist wars of the 1990s in many ways did appear to be a revival
of the Balkan Wars which preceded the First World War and the civil war, which
occurred alongside the Second World War. Similarly, old scores left unsettled by
their grandparents were taken up by nationalists as ethnic strife re-emerged in
Chechenya, Moldova, Romania and Georgia and between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The more things change the more they stay the same. (See Table 2.3.)
An end to ‘high politics’?
Military threats to security have certainly not gone away in the years since the demise
of East European Communism. However, although it persists in a number of forms,
the Cold War’s ultimate security threat of global nuclear Armageddon has receded
and this has transformed defence policy in many states of the world. Whereas it could
be said to be ‘business as usual’ in much of Asia and Latin America and ‘a change
for the worse’ in much of Africa, military security policies have changed in the states
most affected by the Cold War, those of Europe and North America. In Eastern
Europe the former Communist states have either switched to the winning side or
become preoccupied with new internal threats from secessionists. The western Cold
War allies’ response to the successful avoidance of that war has been to show a far
greater preparedness to get embroiled in new wars essentially of their choosing.
These ‘New World Order Wars’ and lesser military incursions have been prompted
Table 2.3 Indicators of contemporary state military power
(a) Proportion of GDP spent on defence (2000) (%)
Top ranked Selected others Bottom ranked
Eritrea (22.9) Pakistan (4.5) Luxembourg, Kazakhstan,
Angola (21.2) Russia (4) Ireland, El Salvador (0.7)
Saudi Arabia (11.6) USA (3.1) Zambia (0.6)
Oman (9.7) France (2.6) Honduras (0.6)
Jordan (9.5) United Kingdom (2.5) Mexico (0.5)
Ethiopia (9.4) India (2.4) Moldova (0.4)
Kuwait (8.2) China (2.1) Gabon (0.3)
Israel (8 ) Germany (1.5) Mauritius (0.2)
Brunei (7.6) Canada (1.2) Costa Rica (0)
Syria (5.5) Japan (1) Iceland (0)
Source: UNDP (2002).
50