This article briefly describes the law as pertained to obligatory military service in Peru between 1823 and 2000. From there the author goes on to describe the recent reforms to obligatory service made by the Peruvian legislature. The author indicates that global changes in attitude toward obligatory service, as well as the changing situation in Peru were factors in the decision to overhaul the laws regarding obligatory service. The article discusses some of the particular changes made by the law, which took effect January 1, 2000, and indicates that, unlike the tendency in other countries, however, the Peruvian reform is not seeking to establish a completely professional military. Instead the new Peruvian model is one of a rotational volunteer service in which enlisted personnel would receive occupational training for their eventual, productive reincorporation into Peruvian society.
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The article discusses the concept of national security and the problems generated by the political tensions between individual security and state security in the contemporary world. Even recognizing that the modern state is simultaneously a source of threats as well as a source of security to individuals, it seems that the very nature of the international system and national societies renders collective security incompatible with individual welfare. This requires us to live as best as we can with the inherent tensions of the concept of national security. To demonstrate that these tensions are real political problems and not just semantics, the article analyses the liberal tendency?based on legal positivism?to legally define situations in which governments could allege reasons of national security, as well as more recent tendencies to substitute the concept of national security with the notion of individual security. In conclusion, I provisionally adopt the perspective of the "theory of security complexes" as an alternative to the authoritarian, liberal and post-modern positions in the analysis of security matters.
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