Traditional Notions: Internal

The Focus on Internal Security

You might wonder: if a country is torn apart by violence within its own borders, how can it possibly defend itself against an outside enemy? Internal peace and order are the foundation of any society's security. Yet, for decades after the Second World War, the most powerful countries acted as if internal security was a settled matter. Why?

The answer lies in context. For the United States and the Soviet Union, and for most powerful Western European nations, the period after 1945 was one of unusual internal stability. No serious threat from groups or communities living within their borders seemed to exist. These countries could therefore focus almost entirely on the threat they saw coming from outside — namely, each other, during the Cold War.

This does not mean internal security was unimportant. It means that for a specific set of powerful states, in a specific historical moment, it was not the most pressing concern. For most other countries, especially the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa, internal security was — and remains — a life-or-death issue.

External Threats That Dominated the Cold War

For the powerful countries, the primary external threats were:

• Military attack from the opposing Cold War alliance. The US-led Western alliance feared the Soviet-led Communist alliance, and vice versa.
• Violence in their colonies. European powers like France (fighting in Vietnam in the 1950s) and Britain (fighting in Kenya in the 1950s and early 1960s) faced armed resistance from colonised peoples seeking independence.

As colonies became free from the late 1940s onwards, many of these newly independent countries joined one of the Cold War alliances. This brought its own set of external dangers:

• The Cold War could turn into a "hot war," dragging them into hostilities.
• They could face attack from neighbours who had joined the opposite side.
• They could be targeted by the superpowers themselves or by any of their allies.

Additionally, some newly independent countries feared that their former colonial rulers might try to reimpose control through an imperial war. They had to prepare to defend themselves against this possibility.

The Distinct Security Challenges of New States

The security challenges facing the newly independent countries of Asia and Africa were different from those in Europe in two fundamental ways:

1. External threat from neighbours. These countries faced the prospect of military conflict with neighbouring states, often over borders, territories, or control of populations. Many came to fear their neighbours even more than they feared the superpowers or former colonial powers.
2. Internal threat from within. They had to worry about armed conflict inside their own borders.

Internal Threats: The Dominant Form of Conflict

For the new states, internal wars — also called civil wars — posed a serious challenge. The main internal threat came from separatist movements that wanted to break away and form independent countries. …