National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military attack, national security is widely understood to include also non-military dimensions, such as the security from terrorism, minimization of crime, economic security, energy security, environmental security, food security, and cyber-security. Similarly, national security risks include, in addition to the actions of other nation states, action by violent non-state actors, by narcotic cartels, organized crime, by multinational corporations, and also the effects of natural disasters. Governments rely on a range of measures, including political, economic, and military power, as well as diplomacy, to safeguard the security of a nation state. They may also act to build the conditions of security regionally and internationally by reducing transnational causes of insecurity, such as climate change, economic inequality, political exclusion, and nuclear proliferation. The concept of national security remains ambiguous, having evolved from simpler definitions which emphasised freedom from military threat and from political coercion. Among the many definitions proposed to date are the following, which show how the concept has evolved to encompass non-military concerns: "A nation has security when it does not have to sacrifice its legitimate interests to avoid war, and is able, if challenged, to maintain them by war." (Walter Lippmann, 1943). "The distinctive meaning of national security means freedom from foreign dictation." (Harold Lasswell, 1950) "National security objectively means the absence of threats to acquired values and subjectively, the absence of fear that such values will be attacked." (Arnold Wolfers, 1960) "National security then is the ability to preserve the nation's physical integrity and territory; to maintain its economic relations with the rest of the world on reasonable terms; to preserve its nature, institution, and governance from disruption from outside; and to control its borders.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (31)
MSE-101(a): Materials:from chemistry to properties
Ce cours permet l'acquisition des notions essentielles relatives à la structure de la matière, aux équilibres et à la réactivité chimique en liaison avec les propriétés mécaniques, thermiques, électri
EE-552: Media security
This course provides attendees with theoretical and practical issues in media security. In addition to lectures by the professor, the course includes laboratory sessions, a mini-project, and a mid-ter
ME-251: Thermodynamics and energetics I
The course introduces the basic concepts of thermodynamics and heat transfer, and thermodynamic properties of matter and their calculation. The students will master the concepts of heat, mass, and mom
Show more
Related lectures (273)
Redox Reactions: Half-Reactions, Potentials, and Applications
Explores redox reactions, electrode potentials, and their practical uses in electrochemistry.
Advanced Counting: Combinatorial Proofs
Delves into advanced counting methods, combinatorial proofs, recurrence relations, and the Generalized Pigeonhole Principle.
Advanced Counting: Logic and Structures
Explores advanced counting techniques such as the pigeonhole principle and combinatorial proofs.
Show more
Related publications (145)

When Your AI Becomes a Target: AI Security Incidents and Best Practices

Alexandre Massoud Alahi, Kathrin Grosse

In contrast to vast academic efforts to study AI security, few real-world reports of AI security incidents exist. Released incidents prevent a thorough investigation of the attackers' motives, as crucial information about the company and AI application is ...
AAAI Press2024

PRO-Face C: Privacy-Preserving Recognition of Obfuscated Face via Feature Compensation

Touradj Ebrahimi, Lin Yuan, Xiao Pu, Yao Zhang, Hongbo Li

The advancement of face recognition technology has delivered substantial societal advantages. However, it has also raised global privacy concerns due to the ubiquitous collection and potential misuse of individuals' facial data. This presents a notable par ...
Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

Challenging the Assumptions: Rethinking Privacy, Bias, and Security in Machine Learning

Bogdan Kulynych

Predictive models based on machine learning (ML) offer a compelling promise: bringing clarity and structure to complex natural and social environments. However, the use of ML poses substantial risks related to the privacy of their training data as well as ...
EPFL2023
Show more
Related concepts (29)
Industrial espionage
Industrial espionage, economic espionage, corporate spying, or corporate espionage is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security. While political espionage is conducted or orchestrated by governments and is international in scope, industrial or corporate espionage is more often national and occurs between companies or corporations. Economic or industrial espionage takes place in two main forms. In short, the purpose of espionage is to gather knowledge about one or more organizations.
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.
Homeland security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to the "national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur." According to an official work published by the Congressional Research Service in 2013, the "Homeland security" term's definition has varied over time.
Show more
Related MOOCs (1)
Humanitarian Action in the Digital Age
The first MOOC about responsible use of technology for humanitarians. Learn about technology and identify risks and opportunities when designing digital solutions.

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.