Rethinking Security in the Twenty First Century: A Reader

Debater a Europa 22, 2020

Europe and the world had to face new security paradigms in recent decades, largely due to the social, political and economic changes resulting from globalization, but above all, due to the speed those changes are taking place, which makes it difficult for policies or legislation to keep pace, but above all, for mentalities to adjust. We propose a reflection on some of the themes susceptible of presenting relevant Security risks in the 21st century, such as the conjunction of factors like demographics / climatic changes / migrations, or the impact of (tele)communications on democratic decision-making processes and on the health and well-being of the population. A Europa e o mundo viram-se forçados a enfrentar um novo paradigma de Segurança nas últimas décadas, em grande parte por força das alterações sociais, políticas e económicas decor-rentes da globalização, mas sobretudo, pela velocidade com que estas mudanças se registam, que dificultam a evolução das políticas ou da legislação, mas sobretudo, o ajuste das mentalidades. Propomos uma reflexão sobre alguns dos temas susceptíveis de produzir riscos para a Segurança no século XXI, nomeadamente a conjugação de fatores como alterações demográficas / climáticas / migrações, ou o impacto das (tele)comunicações nos processos de decisão democrá-tica e na saúde e bem-estar da população.

It has become commonplace to accept that security is a ‘contested concept’. How contested, however, seems to be what is at stake for critical approaches to security. With the US Congress poised to ask for a National Intelligence Estimate on the security impacts of human-induced climate change; with terrorism, people movements and disease the focus of national security policy; and with various conceptualisations of human security informing national policy and new global norms, we are well into the ‘broadening and deepening’ phase once seen as revolutionary. At the same time, state-centric discourses of security remain very powerful, and global patterns of insecurity, violence and conflict are getting more destructive and uncontrollable. In this light, this paper surveys some of the key insights and approaches in the broad area of critical security studies, especially the securitisation theme of the Copenhagen School and the emancipatory agenda of the Welsh School. It assesses their value and their limitations, and puts forward an argument for the value of a deeper line of critique that puts security’s ontological claims into question. Without breaking with the ideal of emancipation, this is also to question security’s status as a end, and to reveal it as a form of power which may conceal other agendas and produce insecurity. This line of critique is of use not only for rethinking state responses to military threats, secessionism, terrorism and people movements; it has value for retaining critical perspective in a time of such apparent innovation.

2020

This essay discusses the evolution of the modern conception of security and argues that there is a need for its expansion in order to tackle the rising non-traditional threats. Traditionally, the realist paradigm of national security has dominated the academic debate, while promoting a military and state-centric approach to “doing security”. Despite emergence of non-military and non-state security threats, the paradigm of national security is still figuring at the center of the modern state. However, the proliferation of nontraditional threats combined with the states’ inability to address them have troubled the academia and policymakers. This perception has been further reinforced by the latest Covid-19 pandemic, which demonstrated not only the limitations of national security, but also the dangerous consequences of this new type of threat. As climate change effects become more tangible and destructive, it becomes evident that the coronavirus outbreak is another indication that the...

2021

Since it took hold in the 1950s, the study of International Security (IS) has been at the heart of international relations studies. This paper emphasizes that it grapples with questions about war and peace, life and death, safety and survival. Traditionally its terrain has focused on concerns about the stability of the state system, the use of force, nuclear proliferation, military strategy, intelligence and the distribution of resources. Its content has expanded over the years. Today it covers a variety of interconnected issues in the world that affect survival. Concerns about climate change, migration, poverty, health, privatization, organized crime and international terrorism are also on the agenda. This paper introduces different ways of conceptualizing security in international relations. It points to the importance of recognizing that security is highly contested and contestable, and emphasizes the Euro - or Western – centric tendencies of security studies. It examines the eff...

2014

The basic thrust of this paper is to examine the debates and expositions on the scope of security studies in the Post-Cold War era. The complexities of a rapidly globalizing world, attendant security threats and technological sophistication have made discussions on security studies quite polemical. The paper interrogated the liberal and realistic perspectives, highlighting the non-universality of the components of security and the attainment of peace as the focus of security studies. The need for interdependence was identified, while noting that a restrictive scope of security studies ensures that the field has defined focus and fosters analytical coherence. The evolution of human security studies as a distinct field of enquiry offers the necessary bulwark against undue broadening of this field. The fluidity of discourse on the themes of this paper and the theoretical anchor on democratic peace theory underline the significance of this paper and contribution to scholarship in this e...

International Studies Review, 2003

e-International Relations, 2022

In 2007, Ken Booth published his seminal work Theory of World Security. The book was the culmination of decades of research in the field of critical security studies. In this book, Booth makes the case for a new approach to security that emphasizes cosmopolitan democracy, cosmopolitan states, and cooperative approaches to global issues. Booth described his approach as a new form of realism – emancipatory realism – that addresses the impending and interlocking crises of nuclear holocaust, environmental chaos, global inequality, and the revival of great power conflict. Since the book’s publication, these crises have been compounded and added to by others: populist rage, resurgent authoritarianism/fascism, post-truth politics, a global pandemic, and others. What sources of wisdom can be found in Booth’s work? This essay revisits Theory of World Security, tests its assumptions, explores lingering issues, and builds off the book’s core ideas. The essay finds that world security can best make progress by embracing its local roots and adopting the language and concepts of entrepreneurship.