Weak states and the emerging taxonomy of security in world politics

The dominant approaches to the study of developing countries posit that their basic problem is (under)development. Using independent variables such as culture, colonialism, imperialism, international system structure, ideology and class, many scholars have articulated plausible explanations which have reinforced (under)development as the dependent variable.¹ This approach was hardly challenged until the mid-1980s when some studies began to point to security as a critical, neglected dimension of the Southern problematique.² This article follows in the footsteps of such recent studies by focusing on the implications of the expansion of the notion of security in world politics—or security expansionism—on the weak states of the South.³ The article is divided into three parts. The first examines the traditional notion of security. The second examines the major elements of security expansionism under the following categories: economic security; demographic security; ecological or environmental security; and democratic security. The concluding section summarizes the argument and assesses the significance for North-South relations.