National Security: Concepts, Challenges and Threats
National Security: Concepts, Challenges and Threats
This domain asks what security means beyond border defence and how India identifies, prioritises and responds to threats. The exam tests the traditional/non-traditional distinction and the ability to match a threat to the institution and policy that handles it.
Core concepts
- National security is the protection of territorial integrity, sovereignty, citizens, critical infrastructure and core values against internal and external threats.
- Traditional threats include external aggression, nuclear blackmail and border disputes. Non-traditional threats include terrorism, insurgency, cyber attacks, pandemics, energy insecurity, climate stress, organised crime and maritime piracy.
- Comprehensive national power combines military, economic, diplomatic, technological and social capacity; security policy therefore involves ministries beyond defence.
- Internal security is challenged by separatism, Left-wing extremism, communal violence and cross-border infiltration; federal coordination and intelligence-sharing are central.
- Maritime security covers sea lanes, exclusive economic zones, ports and island territories; the Indian Ocean is a strategic space.
Worked example
A scenario describes a cyber attack disabling a power grid in a border state. Reasoning: the target is critical infrastructure, the method is non-kinetic, and the attacker may be state-linked or non-state. It is a non-traditional national security threat because it harms society and economy without military invasion. Response would involve CERT-In, cyber command structures, intelligence agencies and power-sector contingency plans, not only the armed forces.
Traps that cost marks
Do not reduce national security to war. Do not label every protest or crime as an insurgency. Do not assume non-traditional threats are less serious. Do not ignore the state/non-state actor distinction or the federal division of responsibility.