ABSTRACT
Understanding global security necessitates ridding oneself of the preconceptions rooted in the traditional and still dominant political culture that the security under consideration must be that of states, as determined by states. In an age when people’s fates were inextricably linked to that of their governments, and the only significant cross-border interactions were military, diplomatic and economic exchanges between governments, this preconception was largely appropriate. This age, however, has now passed into history and the assumption that an individual’s life is solely determined by their government is anachronistic. People in the twentieth century were dependent on their governments like no time before and like they will never be again. The diplomatic manoeuvrings of elected or self-appointed leaders did much to dictate the fate of a large proportion of the world’s population in the age of total war. Many millions died, many millions of others were saved by their governments from death at the hands of other governments. Many of those same people were more directly still at the mercy of their governments, who could determine whether or not to murder them in order to enhance their own security.
