The Difficulties of Common Security:On the Need for Value Consensus as a Basis for International Security

International security is substantially common security,which relies heavily on some basic consensus on security conceptions and strategies among nations.But such consensus or value basis has become very ‘thin’ as a result of the formation of the global system along with its cultural diversity since the beginning of the 20th century,the great political,economic and military changes in contemporary world,and above all,the rise of nationalism and mass politics as well as the emergence of superpowers and the conflicts of their ideologies.In strategic culture,there is a difference between confrontational culture and cooperative culture;in security conceptions,national,international or global security is preferred by different peoples or countries;in security strategies,there exist several competing models such as hegemonic stability,balance of power and institutional cooperation,while the primary aims of security remain to be avoiding major wars,maintaining the stability of the system and the survival of its members,along with the new task of promoting global economic justice and meeting the challenge of various non-traditional security issues.In an age of security interdependence,international society must make joint efforts to rebuild the consensus on security in light of the fundamental values of common and cooperative security ideas,and to practice a truly international security strategy so as to break away from the security dilemmas brought about by each country’s dependence on its own national self-helping security strategy.