Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-xh428 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-11T19:13:02.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Security Problematic of the Third World

Review products

Edward E.Azar and Chung-inMoon, eds., National Security in the Third World: The Management of Internal and External Threats. College Park, Md.: Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland, 1988, 308 pp.

NicoleBall, Security and Economy in the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988, 432 pp.

Robert S.Litwak and Samuel F.Wells, Jr., eds., Superpower Competition and Security in the Third World. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1988, 295 pp.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Mohammed Ayoob
Affiliation:
James Madison College, Michigan State University
Get access

Abstract

This article reviews some recently published volumes on the subject of Third World security and, in the light of the analyses presented in these books, attempts to discuss a series of major issues in the field of Third World security studies. These include (1) the applicability of the concept of security as traditionally defined in the Western literature on international relations to Third World contexts; (2) the domestic variables affecting the security of Third World states; (3) the impact of international systemic factors on Third World security; (4) the effect of late-twentieth-century weapons technology on the security of Third World states; and (5) the relationship between the security and developmental concerns of Third World states. The author concludes that while international and technological factors have important effects on the security of Third World states, the major variables determining the degree of security enjoyed by such states at both the intrastate and interstate levels are related to the twin processes of state making and nation building that are at work simultaneously within Third World polities.

Information

Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable