In
The Twenty Years' Crisis, E. H. Carr asked: “Will the nation survive as the unit of power?” This essay attempts to answer this question through the analysis of historical development of military technology from the Stone Age to the present Multi-media Age.
The survival of the nation hinges on whether or not the state can function as a security community to secure its citizens, because the state was historically invented as a security commnuity by western thinkers like Hobbes. Although military technology has been developed to strengthen the function of the state as a security community, in reality it has been weakening it, and finally threatens not only the survival of the nation but also of all human beings. Military technology as a means for national security can not meet the needs of the nation as a security commnity to secure citizens. Military technology has advanced too much to be relevant to citizens' security.
Military technology is separated into two categories: weapon systems in a broad sense as hardware, and strategy in general as software. The former is further separated into three levels. The top level of the weapon system consists of weapons such as guns, mines, and warheads that destroy targets directly. On the second level, there are platforms to install and carry weapons such as tanks, ships, aircrafts, and missiles. At the bottom level, there is a so-called infrastructure such as C
3I system, logistics, and military education system. The military technology in each category has advanced so much that no country can function as a security community any longer. The invention of the atomic bomb as an absolute weapon, the appearance of ICBMs as an ultimate platform never to be deterred, and the remarkable advancement of C
3I system as an ideal infrastructure to widen war-capable space from land to the deep sea and the space, all of these advanced military technologies have been deteriorating the function of the state as a security community.
Furthermore, the development of strategy as software also paralyses it. The MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) strategy to deter nuclear attacks as an ultimate strategy can not work well unless nations mutually abandon the function of a security community. In a sense, MAD needs the sacrifice of citizens' security for national security.
Advanced military technology in the multi-media age provides a possibility that non-state actors physically and psychologically can oppose state ones. A non-stateactor like a man can conduct war against a state by most advanced technologies such as portable nuclear weapons, PGMs (Precisely Guided Missiles) and GPS (Global Positioning System). Additionally, RMA (Revolution in Military Affairs) encouraged by the Information Revolution in the multi-media age will change drastically the function of the sate as a security community.
After all, the nation will survive as the unit of power for the time being, but will be less effective than before, and will coexisit with a non-state actor as a new unit of power. Advanced military technology in the multi-media age will open the door to the pluralistic or multi-centric global security community.
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