BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Author: Shahedul Anam Khan

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/BIISSj2010v31n4a1

ABSTRACT

If national security means the fulfilment of certain enabling conditions for the state, and for the people within itto flourish,anddevelopthen good governance is the tool by means of which that can be accomplished. These two phenomena are mutually responsive and complementary. The relationship has been further cemented with the redefinition of the term ‘security’ that has caused us to move away from state centric treatment of the issue to a more people oriented characterisation of the concept where people’s security has assumed centrality in security discourse. Good governance remains a composite construct that demands the fulfilmentof each of the constituent elements in order to qualify the state of governance in any country as ‘good’.Governance predominatesour existence today and it is a catchphrase for the development partners. For the developing countries in particular, everything that is donor driven has to fulfilthe criterion of ‘good governance’. In fact,the idea has reached such a phenomenal proportion that volumes have been written to define the term ‘good governance’.The international financial institutions, the United Nations,and the European Union,have spent considerable effort and time to secure the assurances of the developing countries to understand their formulation and explication of the term ‘good governance’ as well as implementation of such measure as would ensure that those conditions are fulfilledto qualify for aidand that is crux of the issue –doing it well –which is a function of good governance. Thus, this paper endevoursto seek out the value complementarities of two very topical issues –governance and security in the comprehensive sense, and determine whether good governance merits consideration as a factor in formulating national security policy.