International Security - Questions/Answers Assignment Solution

Q1. Which has had the greatest impact on international security: nationalism or imperialism? 

Ans. Globalization has changed the socio-economic and political structures, which has made it necessary to re-analyze security (Adamson, 2016). Nations react to the changes that take place due to globalization in different ways. When the nations do not join hands with the global organizations or cooperate with other nations, then nationalism takes place. These nationalists prioritize domestic businesses and processes so that they can match the globalism in the world. History is full of examples that show how nationalists reacted to the rapid changes taking place in response to social change (Umbrasas, 2017). 

With the increase of worldwide nationalism with respect to politics, security aspects are being scrutinized. This is because the nationalists prefer to promote their own national foreign policies which isolates them from other nations and creates a havoc for competition for overpowering each other. This kind of ideologies have been linked to warfare and violations of human rights in the past justifying their actions by showing power of their ethno cultural groups over others. The nationalists strive to prove their dominance around the globe creating a hostile international environment (Goulet, 2008). The advancement of technology and free flow of information, combined with the competition inside the nationalist states can sometimes go out of control and create havoc as it “undermines the important tension management role the institutions have” (Umbrasas, 2017). Moreover, nationalism can also pose threat to global security through rise of terrorism who can use it as a tool because nationalism stimulates confrontational climate (Goulet, 2008). 

Imperialism, on the other hand, is another way how nations react to the changes occurring around the world. Imperialism takes place when separate nations fuse together, and do not lose their national identity. History shows how the European imperialism could be the reason behind World War 1. Barth (2015) state that the European social groups demanded expansion outside of Europe, as it was considered to be a precondition to gain access to necessary resources. This struggle for expansion created competition and also ignited racism in some aspects. It was used as a propaganda by the idea of civilizing the nations, and promoted not only European technical and military superiority but also cultural superiority. Apart from political imperialism, the economic and financial imperialism also escalated problems by worsening the relations between states during the first wave of globalization between the 1880s and 1914. Commercial opportunities were availed and the national prestige was over looked, firms were mainly concerned with earning money. 

On the other hand, “Imperialism now not only characterized the territorial expanse of formal Western empires, but also the West’s informal economic and military oppression of newly independent countries” (Narayan and Sealey-Huggins, 2017). The quest for expansion in the Western countries placed the Third World Countries in the outer limits as they could not build or develop their own economies and infrastructures while providing resources to the Western countries. Some scholars argue that “the new imperialism still maintains old divides whilst fostering new developments of capitalist expansion and exploitation” while others argue that “neoliberal globalization has superseded both the theoretical and political limits of what we have previously called imperialism” (Narayan and Sealey-Huggins, 2017). Both views, however, pose threats to security to the developing countries as they remain behind in the quest for success. The countries which follow imperialism also face security issues with respect to policy making, as to how the approach is to be adopted and put in to practical use.