What is sustainable security

As in many parts of the world, the dominant security philosophy in Asia and Australia is the so-called "control paradigm". This philosophy is premised on the assumption that non-security factors can be controlled through military force or through the politics of balance of power and containment. The clearest example of this is the so-called "war on terror", which aims to "stop" terrorism rather than eliminate its causes.

The central assumption of sustainable security is that you can't control all the outcomes of non-security factors, but you must work to address their root causes. In other words, you can't treat the symptoms; you have to treat the root causes through a comprehensive analysis of security threats and preventive responses.