International Security Studies: An Introduction

International system, as per realist and liberalist, is anarchic. This anarchic atmosphere demonstrates as the soul of security concern and emphasises the necessary of military adoption to securitize state's both internal and external possession. But often the competition of military preparedness in the form of 'Arms race' facilitated devastating wars. 

International security studies here study the interplaying factors of wars and military campaigns and how ro prevent those. This discourse, Security Studies, has also developed throughout the 20th century, and still continued. However, in this writing, we will provide a brief on International Security Studies (ISS) and its stages of evolutions with relevant instances. 

International Security Studies (ISS) generally refers to the study of the nature, reasons, consequences, and preventive measures of wars or armed conflicts. ISS rotates around wars which are the use of military mights between or among legal entities to acquire some political objectives. 

ISS discusses the nature of wars- civil wars, limited wars, and unlimited wars; identifying the underlying causes of engaging wars; demonstrate the destructive outcomes of wars on various factors to human bengs; and mostly provide some strong outlines and recommendations hiw to prevent such dominant forces. 

International security experts staged the evolution of ISS into five namely:

1. Inter-war period (1919-1939)

2. Post-War period / Beginning of ISS (1945-1955)

3. 2nd post-war period / Golden ages of ISS (1955-1965)

4. 3rd post-war period / Decline of ISS (1965-1980)

5. 4th post-war period /revival of ISS (1980-1990)

Moreover, security experts outlined four important features that is obvious for any beginners in studying of ISS's evolution. They are:

• The question of state centric security narratives;
• Necessity of security definition beyond military narratives;
• The study areas of ISS- domestic or external threats or both of a nation. 
• The nature of threats

Inter-war period: This era renowned as the establishment of ISS as the subdiscipline of International Relations. After a horriic experiences from WWI, major powers introduced ISS with a view to stopping the next one. They signified democracy, international legal institutions, collective security etc. to replace the war prone European culture.

First- post-war period: After another world war, ISS emphasised more on their intellectual capacity building. But they couldn’t deny the military preparedness wholly, only omit the possible nuclear proliferation. But during cold war, bith bloc were on arms races and five countries got their nuclear possession. ISS passively acknowledged of maintaining national security through military mights, but not use them in favor of their political agenda- like wars. 

Second-post-war-period: This period has regarded the golden age of ISS. During this period, ISS contributed a lot in securitizing global system through:

• Non-proliferation Treaty 
• Deterrence Theory
• Minimising tension of Cuban Missile crisis
• START I

3rd post-war- period: When the USA put less concentration on the containment policy against USSR, became more involved in Vietnam, the balancing situation of world politics got worsened. Moreover, arms races between USSR and the USA started again. This age represented the decline of ISS efforts of prevention of war. 

4th post-war-period: During this period, ISS took the same strategy like the 1st post-war period. Put more emphasised over intellectual capacity building and preventive measures against devastating wars. So this period is called the revival period of ISS.

So, ISS has developed throughout the 20th century on diverse political contexts. Alongside, traditional security, non-traditional security threats provides a new chapter in the studies of International Security Studies. The Middle Eastern wars, Ukrainian crisis make the discourse- ISS more significant im understanding international relations and prevention of conflicts.  

By:

Badirujjaman 

JU, Bangladesh