New security thinking: defence and societal transformation in South Africa

Abstract

New security thinking, with its specific focus on human security, is different from earlier perspectives, which focused primarily on state security. In South Africa, state security is no longer threatened by conventional threats. With new challenges such as global poverty, unemployment and economic decline, the needs of people are addressed as much as those of the state or military strategy. An expansive approach to the concept of human security has been infused in all domestic policies. Human security includes the satisfaction of the basic needs of life, and encompasses the creation of the
social, political, economic, military, environmental and cultural conditions necessary for survival, human rights and good governance.