ABSTRACT
Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the discourse on national security has been enlarged to include non-traditional elements such as transnational environmental degradation, illegal migration, organised crime, and the spread of infectious diseases across international borders. Broadly speaking, the ‘traditional’ concept of security is associated with challenges to the national interest posed by the potential use, or threat of use, of armed force by another state or by a non-state entity. In the closing years of the Cold War, as the perceived military threat from the Soviet Union rapidly receded, many American and European scholars advocated focusing greater attention on new non-military threats to vital national interests. The concept of ‘non-traditional security’ found an increasing number of adherents and a very diverse range of new issues came to be included within the scope of security studies.
