Changing conceptions of security in Central America

Pettiford, Lloyd Leslie (1994) Changing conceptions of security in Central America. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

This thesis re-evaluates the concept of security within the field of International Relations by the use of a case study. In common political usage, security has come to be clearly associated with the ability of a state to deter military external threats to its own borders and/or repel actual attacks by another power or powers. The Central American region has been used here to re-focus on this concept. The area was chosen as a suitable case study because of the relative absence of obvious external threats, the fact that one of its states has no army and because of its membership of the Third World.

Analysis of the region shows that the serious problems of the region cannot be adequately addressed within the framework offered by traditional security analyses. The evidence further suggests that these problems have been dealt with better in non-militarised Costa Rica. The thesis concludes by arguing not for the abandonment of traditional definitions of security but a recognition of their limitations and the need for a more Structuralist outlook in certain contexts.

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