Security and freedom: A complex alliance

Abstract

The concepts of security and freedom have long had an antagonistic relationship in the political sphere. Since Plato wrote his Republic, authors such as Machiavelli, Hobbes and subsequent contractarians have understood that some limitations on individual freedom were necessary for the sake of collective security. This paradigm has since been inherited by different thinkers and is key in most political theory proposals. Following this path, Todorov has analyzed the current geostrategic situation as a result of the milestone of the Iraq War of 2003, in order to shed light on strategies that should be pursued to achieve international security of the contemporary new world order. However, his approach follows the conceptual framework of previous authors, which therefore prevents him from integrating the freedom required by contemporary Western democracies with international security. In this article, we intend to provide an alternative perspective, addressing the problem from a multidimensional conceptualization of security and freedom.