Civilizational security

The idea of civilization can be conceived or interpreted in a number of different ways. This in turn has led to civilizational security being conceptualized in a range of different ways from a range of different perspectives. Generally speaking, the explicit concept of civilizational security is relatively new, really only surfacing following the rise of interest in the clash of civilizations thesis following the end of the Cold War. Throughout history, it is unlikely that many people have actually thought in terms of civilizational identity, civilizational loyalty, or civilizational belonging. As such, civilizational security is not something that one often personally contemplates. Instead, humans have been more likely or more inclined to think in terms of personal security, including physical, emotional, economic, or some other aspect of our individual security needs. When we come to think in terms of the security of a collective, we are more likely to think first about family, or the various other communities or smaller social collectives to which we belong. Included among these are collectives such as our workplace and colleagues, ethnic and religious affiliations, and other such social groups. The largest, most obvious, and most widely discussed socio-political collective in terms of security, is the collective security of the citizens of the nation to which we belong – that is, traditional state security. Rarely do humans think first of themselves as members of this or that civilization; our daily circumstances simply do not promote such thinking, we tend to move in far smaller circles and operate on a much lower level of affiliation. Furthermore, it would be a rare circumstance in which people have thought of their own personal security in relation to or as being immediately dependent on the security of the civilization (or civilizations) to which they might belong. And it is probably even rarer that we think of our own security and that of friends and loved ones in terms of the security of big Civilization. That said, given the range of new and emerging threats and dangers that are facing all of the inhabitants of Earth and the ecosystems of which we are a part, thinking and strategizing in terms of Civilizational security has become a necessity