Security and Sovereignty No. 1: What Are We Talking About?

This is the first post in a new series addressing the security and sovereignty of the United States. These words are related but quite different in meaning and nuance. Security is a noun meaning safety, the absence of danger or risk. In the national context, it means vigilance and actions taken by the government to prevent invasion, attack, and the sabotage, spying, and treason that accompany them; the totality of measures taken to keep the nation safe and free from danger. More realistically in today’s world, rather than free from danger; security means to minimize the risks or threats.

Sovereignty is a noun and means a government free from external control or the authority of one country to govern another. An important point is the source of sovereignty. The historical model of a kingdom was that the king ruled by divine right. In a totalitarian state power is gained and then held by force and coercion. In democratic countries, i.e. the US, power derives from the people. There are additional forms and various gradations between the definitions, but for the purposes herein, we will emphasize totalitarian and democratic countries.

One shudders at the thoughts of countries without a history of security: Poland, Israel, and the Low Countries – these have been invaded throughout history and repeatedly have lost their sovereignty. That they stand free today is a tribute to man’s strength and hope. Jordan kicked the Palestinians out of their country and chased them into Lebanon and for more than a quarter of a century Syria held de facto sovereignty over most of Lebanon. In contrast, the United Kingdom has remained a sovereign nation for centuries.

A country can lose its sovereignty in several ways. By conquest, by a division or a ceding as in a small country caught between two powerful neighbors, by appeasing an aggressive neighbor with territory or control, or by allowing migration, or infiltration of peoples from one country into another one until sufficient numbers and power are gained by the infiltrators to demand partitioning or complete control. Thus, we see the link between security and sovereignty. In the ever dangerous world in which we live, sovereignty cannot be maintained without security. Therefore, if sovereignty is the will of the people then they must devise and organize a national strategy for security. Sovereignty requires security from war and conquest, from domination by other countries and partitioning or territorial ceding, security from threats and intimidation, and security from infiltration.

The next posting will examine our current situation of waging a war on terrorism to increase our security from attacks. At the same time, we are allowing threats and intimidation to guide our policies and we are also turning a blind eye to history’s most rapid and successful infiltration of a superpower.