Foundations of Defence and National Security
This section covers Foundations of Defence and National Security: the vocabulary and logic the paper uses to separate defence from wider security, and to classify threats and responses. The PSEB domain list is not published, so this map is provisional and should be checked against your board syllabus.
Core distinctions
- Defence is the organised military measures a state takes against armed threats. National security is broader: it includes economic, political, social, environmental, cyber and informational dimensions.
- National interest is the end; instruments of national power (diplomatic, informational, military, economic - often shortened to DIME) are the means.
- Deterrence seeks to stop an action before it occurs by making the cost exceed the gain. Defence seeks to defeat an attack once it is launched.
- Threats are commonly grouped as external (conventional military, border incursions), internal/sub-conventional (terrorism, insurgency, left-wing extremism), and hybrid (cyber, disinformation, proxies, grey-zone coercion).
- Strategic autonomy means retaining freedom of decision; it is not isolationism.
Worked example
A neighbouring state's troops cross the Line of Control for a short raid; a district reports an armed separatist cell; a defence supplier suffers a phishing breach. Classification: the raid is an external military threat; the separatist cell is primarily an internal security threat, possibly with external support; the phishing breach is a cyber/hybrid threat. The lead response differs: military, police-led internal security with central assistance, and cyber-security agencies. Calling all three defence problems is the error the examiner is testing.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating defence and national security as synonyms.
- Defining deterrence as winning a war.
- Assuming the armed forces lead every internal security task; the police are the primary agency, with armed forces in aid to civil authority.
- Confusing strategic autonomy with neutrality or alliance membership.