Security is the condition of being protected against danger or loss. In the general sense, security is a concept similar to safety. The nuance between the two is an added emphasis on being protected from dangers that originate from outside. Individuals or actions that encroach upon the condition of protection are responsible for the breach of security. The word "security" in general usage is synonymous with "safety," but as a technical term "security" means that something not only is secure but that it has been secured.
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy. Measures taken to ensure national security include:
- Using diplomacy to rally allies and isolate threats
- Marshalling economic power to facilitate or compel cooperation
- Maintaining effective armed forces
- Implementing civil defense and emergency preparedness measures (including anti-terrorism legislation)
- Ensuring the resilience and redundancy of critical infrastructure
- Using intelligence services to detect and defeat or avoid threats and espionage, and to protect classified information
- Using counterintelligence services or secret police to protect the nation from internal threats
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