Technological innovations over the past fifty years have had a profound and varied impact on the security of people worldwide. Infectious diseases, terrorism, environmental degradation, arms proliferation, international crime and drug trafficking - these all fall outside the categories of traditional security threats such as the aggressive activities of other states. They can no longer be considered peripheral concerns. Policy-makers must resist the temptation to force these new problems into familiar categories. Intergovernmental action is only one dimension of the way in which they can be confronted. Globalization has exacerbated and facilitated the spreading of these problems. Today, national security policy must change to reflect the changing nature of the threats to a state's vital interests - through flexible and coordinated responses using the vast array of transnational forces which terrorists, criminals and others have used for their own ends.
Matthew, Richard A. & George E. Shambaugh (1998) Sex, Drugs, and Heavy Metal: Transnational Threats and National Vulnerabilities, Security Dialogue 29 (2): 163–175.
