Öz The sudden demise of Cold War politics ended the possibility of nuclear war to international security. In the absence of macro-level threats to international security, scholars, analysts and policy-makers hastily searched for new threats to fill this gap. In this context issues such as pandemics, violations of human rights and democratisation have become important subjects amongst Western policy makers and analysts of international security studies. However, in the world outside the Western orbit, issues of geopolitics have retained their de facto importance in international security and have grown even stronger in some regions, such as Middle East, South and East Asia. This article examines the role of state based on three key challenges of international security, geopolitics, non-traditional threats, and human rights. It will be argued that in spite of the fact that critical schools of thought, advocating importance of non-state actors to international security, have gained recognition in the post-Cold War era; states remain crucial and responsible actors in international security.