Two basic strategies used to preserve security

Select any two of the four basic strategies used to preserve security. Identify and describe what assumptions are made about the opponent according to each of the two strategies you chose.

Give an example of each of the two strategies in current world politics and speculate on their effectiveness.

Disarmament assumes that arms cause wars, not some disagreement in regards to policy or international relations. It also assumes that all world leaders want peace on the same terms. A country like China rules its people with the threat of force always looming. Disarmament would also leave them unable to regulate its own people in the same manner. If even one nation does not cooperate in the worldwide drive for complete disarmament, the nation that still has the military equipment to wage war could easily conquer one or many of their neighbors.

Defense assumes that there is always some strategy that can be implemented in order to prevent an attack by an individual or a military force. Rights afforded to a nation’s citizens are one example of a hindrance on defense in hopes of national security. Law enforcement cannot simply search all of everyone’s belongings and their person at any time and place, this creates a window of opportunity to secret tools for some nefarious purpose and transport them without worry of interference. Such policies make nations like the U.S. vulnerable to home grown terrorist attacks. One person becomes radicalized by some sort of propaganda and feel it to be their mission to carry out some attack. There will always be some type of attack that can still get through, but defense is one of the best strategies for preserving national security.

Disarmament in the current world politics has been arguably occurring in the Iran nuclear deal. In a trade off to reduce sanctions, the nation will no longer enrich their uranium higher than 3.67%, and they will reduce their uranium stockpile by 98%. While the material wasn’t yet weaponized, the fear of other nations was the potential for such weapons to be developed with the materials lying readily at hand. So reducing the materials to build the weapons in exchange for lifting sanctions was a form of disarmament.

The U.S. has been deploying their latest missile defense system in order to better defend the nation against missile attacks from nations like North Korea who are attempting to develop the technology necessary to launch a missile at the U.S. This may not serve as a deterrent to North Korea to stop developing that technology, but it does help the U.S. to be better prepared to defend itself.