ABSTRACT
The way different countries view the world, their place in it, and patterns of threat and opportunity is in part the result of unique factors that help shape the national worldview. These same characteristics also affect a country’s general orientations toward fundamental aspects of the domestic political scene discussed elsewhere in the text. Historical experience and geographical accident inform attitudes on, among other things, national security. For some countries, the experience has been harsh. It is, for instance, impossible for the citizens of any country on the northern European plain not to have some historically based fear of a possible invasion of their territory from one direction or another and to view matters of national security threats very seriously as a result. At the other end of the spectrum, a country like Japan that successfully isolated itself physically from the rest of the world for hundreds of years has an equally distinctive worldview and perception of what constitutes security.
