The ‘Homeland Security Moment’ in International Politics: Implications for the Third World

Abstract

This article attempts to understand the emergence of the idea of homeland security in the US in the recent past, the attendant security praxis, and its impact on the Third World security (predicament). It maps the journey of the idea of homeland security—from a US-specific domestic policy framework to a globalizing security framework. It is argued that in the emerging security understanding, the concerns of Third World countries, which were getting some global attention in the past few decades through the concepts like human security and societal security, have been marginalized. By referring to security-related policy changes in other countries, the article explains the US efforts to export this new understanding of security to the Third World and its long-term implications. As the homeland security paradigm and practices make their way into many developing countries, understanding the ‘homeland security moment’ from the perspective of the latter is of crucial significance to gauge their security predicament in the newer context.