When asking: what do humans need to survive? The word ‘security’ will be unmistakably an important answer to that question. When asking: what do states need to survive? The same word is, again, an...Show moreWhen asking: what do humans need to survive? The word ‘security’ will be unmistakably an important answer to that question. When asking: what do states need to survive? The same word is, again, an inherent concept that is interwoven with its survival. But what is security? For humans the answer seems obvious: having a steady source of food and water and not being in physical danger. Yet in recent times even this has been challenged and concepts such as ‘identity’ and ‘freedom of fear’ are debated to be also important in the concept of ‘security’. This already is a complex debate, but when it comes to states, the answer is yet even more complex. Because a state, unlike a human, is not a physical object, but as Anderson famously argued, is an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1983). Then what does security mean for a state? This study aims to contribute to this understanding by deconstructing and critically examining ‘national security’ in a policy case study: Taiwan in Japanese foreign (security) policy documents.Show less
