Abstract
This article seeks to indicate Vietnam’s response to an evolving security environment. The concept of security is a weakly developed one. National security has traditionally been viewed from either of two perspectives. The Power (Realist) approach and the Peace (Idealist) approach. The former view, whose votaries include Morgenthau and others, is a derivative of the power at the command of a state. The latter view assumes security to be a derivative of durable peace. These are two extreme views but the concept of security takes the middle path and combines the virtues of the Power and Peace approaches to national security.