BEYOND THE WESTPHALIAN VEIL: The Inadequacy of State-Centric Approaches in Understanding Contemporary International Security

Abstract

For centuries, the architecture of international security studies has rested upon the Westphalian bedrock of state-centrism. Realist and neorealist frameworks historically posited the sovereign state as both the primary actor and the ultimate referent object of security, treating the international system as an anarchic arena defined by a zero-sum pursuit of material power. Applying realist and Liberal theories and the qualitative methods of data collection based on content analysis, the study argues that contemporary security architecture faces unprecedented transformations. The proliferation of transnational threats ranging from asymmetric cyber warfare and global health pandemics to climate-induced migrations and decentralized terrorist networks demonstrates that traditional state-centric models are no longer analytically sufficient. This article examines the theoretical blind spots of statism, evaluates the shift toward multi-actor frameworks. Based on the foregoing, this article recommended for a re-conceptualized security paradigm that incorporates human agency and complex interdependence.