An Introduction to National Security - Defining National Security

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the term national security is used in the United States to describe both the concept and philosophy of protecting and defending the nation and as well as the specific programs and actions undertaken to achieve this important goal. The concept of national security has been defined in different ways throughout the years. However, most definitions of national security center not only on building and supporting the capacity to safeguard U.S. citizens but also on maintaining public confidence in the government's ability to defend against threats to national values, integrity, and property. In 1962 Arnold Wolfers wrote in Discord and Collaboration (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press) that "Security, in an objective sense, measures the absence of threats to acquired values, in a subjective sense, the absence of fear that such values will be attacked." More than three decades later, Sam Sarkesian observed in U.S. National Security: Policy Makers, Processes, and Politics (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers, 2nd ed., 1995) that "National security is the confidence held by the great majority of the nation's people that the nation has the military capability and effective policy to prevent its adversaries from effectively using force in preventing the nation's pursuit of its national interests."

In 2002 President George W. Bush described the philosophical underpinning of the U.S. national security strategy as efforts aimed at protecting the fundamental values of freedom and human dignity.

The U.S. national security strategy will be based on a distinctly American internationalism that reflects the union of our values and our national interests. The aim of this strategy is to help make the world not just safer but better. Our goals on the path to progress are clear: political and economic freedom, peaceful relations with other states, and respect for human dignity. — President George W. Bush, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, 2002