HPAS 2025 GS2 Question 17

HPAS 2025 Mains GS-2 Question 17

Discuss the impact of non-traditional threats on India’s security.

Solution:

Non-traditional security (NTS) threats are challenges to the survival and well-being of peoples and states that arise primarily out of non-military sources. Unlike traditional threats involving interstate wars, NTS threats are often trans-border in nature and require holistic, non-military responses.

1. Major Non-Traditional Threats to India

• Climate Change & Environmental Insecurity: India is highly vulnerable to melting Himalayan glaciers, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events. This leads to internal migration, resource scarcity, and threats to food security.
• Cyber Security: As India digitizes via ‘Digital India,’ it faces threats from state-sponsored cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure (power grids, banking), data theft, and the spread of misinformation/fake news.
• Public Health Emergencies: Pandemics like COVID-19 demonstrated how health crises can paralyze the economy, overwhelm the state machinery, and cause massive social disruption.
• Economic Insecurity: Global supply chain disruptions, energy dependence, and high unemployment rates can lead to internal civil unrest and political instability.
• Resource Scarcity: “Water wars” between states and trans-boundary water issues with neighbors (like China’s dams on the Brahmaputra) pose a threat to regional stability and local livelihoods.

2. Impact on National Security

The impact of NTS threats is multi-dimensional and often acts as a threat multiplier:

• Erosion of State Capacity: Frequent disasters and health crises divert huge financial resources from developmental and defense spending to emergency relief.
• Social Unrest: Displacement due to climate change or economic distress can aggravate ethnic or communal tensions, leading to internal security challenges like radicalization.
• Sovereignty Issues: Cyber-warfare allows adversaries to weaken India from within without firing a single shot, challenging the traditional definition of territorial sovereignty.

“National security is no longer just about protecting borders; it is about protecting the lives, health, and livelihoods of the citizens from invisible and pervasive threats.”

Concise Model Answer (150-Word Limit)

Non-traditional security (NTS) threats represent a shift from military-centric challenges to human-centric ones. For India, these threats have a profound impact on national stability and development.

Key Impacts:

1. Climate Change: Acts as a threat multiplier, causing resource scarcity (water/food) and mass migration, particularly in the Himalayan and coastal regions.
2. Cyber Threats: Targets critical infrastructure and digital economy, undermining national sovereignty through non-kinetic means.
3. Health Security: Pandemics disrupt socio-economic life and strain the national treasury, as evidenced by COVID-19.
4. Resource Competition: Trans-boundary water disputes create regional friction and internal interstate conflicts.

In conclusion, NTS threats require a multi-sectoral response beyond the military. Strengthening cyber defenses, investing in climate resilience, and building a robust public health infrastructure are now as critical to India’s security as traditional border defense.