Western' security strategies: some lessons learnt for Malaysia

Abstract

The 9/11 tragedy has re-shaped the traditional concept of security in the discipline of international relations. 'Defending justice', 'protecting human rights' and 'guaranteeing political and economic freedom for all people everywhere' are the security labels embodied in the United States National Security Strategy (NSS) to counter 'terrorist' tactics. The European Union too followed the United States' footsteps by adopting the European Security Strategy (ESS) in 2003. It is the interest of the paper to analyze NSS and ESS to examine their implications to the concept of security in Malaysia. The analysis reveals that NSS and ESS differ in length and tone of language. Despite differences, both documents offer some invaluable lessons to be considered when engaging in a Malaysian security discourse.