Security Studies Cheat Sheet

The core ideas of Security Studies distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.

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Quick Reference

Securitization

A process by which an issue is framed as an existential threat through speech acts, moving it beyond normal politics and justifying extraordinary measures. Developed by the Copenhagen School, particularly Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap de Wilde.

Balance of Power

A realist concept describing how states form alliances and build military capabilities to prevent any single state from achieving hegemony, thereby maintaining systemic stability in an anarchic international order.

Deterrence

A strategy aimed at discouraging an adversary from taking an unwanted action by threatening credible and severe retaliation. It relies on the adversary's rational calculation that the costs of aggression outweigh the benefits.

Human Security

An approach that shifts the referent object of security from the state to the individual, encompassing freedom from fear and freedom from want. It includes economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political dimensions.

Security Dilemma

A situation in which actions taken by a state to increase its own security, such as building up military forces, inadvertently threaten other states, provoking counter-buildups and reducing overall security for all parties.

Hybrid Warfare

A strategy that blends conventional military operations with irregular tactics, cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, economic coercion, and proxy forces to achieve strategic objectives while maintaining plausible deniability.

Collective Security

A system in which states agree that an attack on one member is an attack on all, committing to a collective response against aggression. It differs from alliances by aiming to include all states rather than balancing against a specific threat.

Non-Proliferation

Efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, to additional states or non-state actors. It encompasses treaties, export controls, inspections, and diplomatic pressure.

Counterinsurgency (COIN)

A comprehensive approach to defeating an insurgency that combines military operations with political, economic, and social programs designed to win the support of the local population and undermine the insurgents' legitimacy.

Critical Infrastructure Protection

The safeguarding of systems and assets deemed essential to national security, economic stability, and public health, including energy grids, water systems, transportation networks, financial systems, and communications infrastructure.

Key Terms at a Glance

Anarchy:The absence of a central governing authority above states in the international system, a foundational assumption in realist security theory.

Arms Control:Bilateral or multilateral agreements to limit, reduce, or regulate the development, production, stockpiling, or deployment of weapons.

Asymmetric Warfare:Conflict between parties of unequal strength in which the weaker side uses unconventional tactics to offset the stronger side's advantages.

Balance of Power:A distribution of power among states such that no single state is dominant, maintained through alliances, arms buildups, and diplomacy.

Collective Security:An arrangement in which states agree to respond collectively to aggression against any member, treating an attack on one as an attack on all.

Compellence:The use of threats or limited force to persuade an adversary to change a course of action already underway, as opposed to deterrence which prevents action.

Constructivism:A theoretical approach arguing that key aspects of international relations are socially constructed through shared ideas, norms, and identities rather than material factors alone.

Counterinsurgency:Military, political, economic, and social actions taken to defeat an insurgency and address its root causes.

Cyber Warfare:State-sponsored or state-directed computer network operations intended to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information systems or critical infrastructure of an adversary.

Deterrence:A strategy of preventing adversary action by maintaining the credible threat of unacceptable retaliation.

Economic Statecraft:The deliberate use of economic instruments such as sanctions, embargoes, and financial pressure to achieve foreign policy and security goals.

Failed State:A state that has lost the ability to maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, enforce laws, or deliver basic public services across its territory.

Human Security:A people-centered approach to security focusing on the protection and empowerment of individuals across economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political dimensions.

Hybrid Warfare:A strategy combining conventional military force, irregular tactics, cyber operations, disinformation, and economic pressure to achieve objectives below the threshold of conventional war.

Intelligence:The collection, analysis, and dissemination of information relevant to national security decision-making, encompassing signals, human, geospatial, and open-source intelligence.

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