Question

1. How does fighting a war against an ambiguous, non-state foe alter existing relations between countries? What are the keys to transforming military and police forces to meet the challenges of guarding against the threats of today and tomorrow? How must justice systems and international cooperation be reformed to meet these threats? How many civil liberties will citizens give up to increase their feelings of security? What actions carried out by the state on their behalf will they tolerate?

Answer 1

• Fighting a war against an ambiguous, non-state foe negatively affects the relations between the countries. We can take an example of Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis are disturbing the peace of Yemen as well as of Saudi Arabia. They have attacked many cities in Saudi Arabia, which includes the attack on Aramco.
• The Saudi Arabian government named Iran behind the attacks, which is also alleged to be supporting the Houthis. The relation between the two countries have been strained and the tension between them is simply refusing to die down while both leveling allegations on each-other. Since no country is secure from attacks there is a need to transform military and police forces, an adequate defensive structure is crucial to the safety of the countries.
• Moreover, professionalization of the military and the police forces are central to the transformation.  Military and national security structures, operational concepts and equipment, and key business processes of the Defense Department need to be further strengthened.
• Regarding justice systems and international cooperation both have failed miserably to the expectations of the common people. In these spheres we need to have a drastic reconstruction. The justice systems need to be fair and speedy without any compromise.
• The rights of the people of every country are to be protected and respected. The voices of those who are alienated are to be listened and the genuine demands be met. The countries need to cooperate on everything without being selfish from poverty to security while there should no abuse of power in and outside.
• Although people will be reluctant on giving up their civil liberties but there are trade offs which they need to understand. Since security is for the common people, thereby citizens will give up many liberties for the cause to be achieved.
• If the actions carried out by the state are legitimate and they are not arbitrary, people are going to tolerate them.