The International In Security Security In The International

International Relations continues to come under fire for its relative absence of international perspectives. In this exciting new volume, Pinar Bilgin encourages readers to consider both why and how ‘non-core’ geocultural sites allow us to think differently about key aspects of global politics. Seeking to further debates surrounding thinking beyond the 'West/non-West' divide, this book analyzes how scholarship on, and conceptions of, the international outside core contexts are tied up with peripheral actors’ search for security. Accordingly, Bilgin looks at core/periphery dynamics not only in terms of the production of knowledge in the production of IR scholarship, or material threats, but also peripheral actors' conceptions of the international in terms of 'standard of civilization' and their more contemporary guises, which she terms as ‘hierarchy in anarchical society’. The first three chapters provide a critical overview of the limits of ‘our’ theorizing about IR and security, as well as a discussion on the track record of critical approaches to IR and security in addressing those limits. The following three chapters offer one way of addressing the limits of ‘our’ theorizing about IR and security: by inquiring into the international in security, security in the international. Each of these chapters makes a theoretical point and illustrates this further in a spotlight section that further illustrates the point to aid student learning. A genuinely innovative contribution to this rapidly emerging field within IR, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of critical security, international relations theory and Global IR.

International Relations continues to come under fire for its relative absence of international perspectives. In this exciting new volume, Pinar Bilgin encourages readers to consider both why and how ‘non-core’ geocultural sites allow us to think differently about key aspects of global politics. Seeking to further debates surrounding thinking beyond the 'West/non-West' divide, this book analyzes how scholarship on, and conceptions of, the international outside core contexts are tied up with peripheral actors’ search for security. Accordingly, Bilgin looks at core/periphery dynamics not only in terms of the production of knowledge in the production of IR scholarship, or material threats, but also peripheral actors' conceptions of the international in terms of 'standard of civilization' and their more contemporary guises, which she terms as ‘hierarchy in anarchical society’. The first three chapters provide a critical overview of the limits of ‘our’ theorizing about IR and security, as well as a discussion on the track record of critical approaches to IR and security in addressing those limits. The following three chapters offer one way of addressing the limits of ‘our’ theorizing about IR and security: by inquiring into the international in security, security in the international. Each of these chapters makes a theoretical point and illustrates this further in a spotlight section that further illustrates the point to aid student learning. A genuinely innovative contribution to this rapidly emerging field within IR, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of critical security, international relations theory and Global IR.

This volume examines the new, the changing, and the enduring features of international security in the post-Cold War era. In so doing, it examines the extent to which present state structures and institutions have been able to adapt and accommodate themselves to the diversity of security threats.

This book provides a framework for analysing the interplay between securitisation and foreign affairs, reconnecting critical security studies with traditional IR concerns about interstate relations. What happens to foreign policymaking when actors, things or processes are presented as threats? This book explains state behaviour on the basis of a reflexive framework of insecurity politics, and argues that governments act on the knowledge of international danger available in their societies, but that such knowledge is organised by markedly varying ideas of who threatens whom and how. The book develops this argument and illustrates it by means of various European case studies. Moving across European history and space, these case studies show how securitisation has projected evolving and often contested local ideas of the organisation of international insecurity, and how such knowledges of world politics have then conditioned foreign policymaking on their own terms. With its focus on insecurity politics, the book provides new perspectives for the study of international security. Moving the discipline from systemic theorising to a theory of international systematisation, it shows how world politics is, in practice, often conceived in a different way than that assumed by IR theory. By the same token, by depicting national insecurity as a matter of political construction, the book also raises the challenging question of whether certain projections of insecurity may be considered more warranted than others. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, European politics, foreign policy and IR, in general.

This new textbook provides students with a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the subject of security studies, with a strong emphasis on the use of case studies. In addition to presenting the major theoretical perspectives, the book examines a range of important and controversial topics in modern debates, covering both traditional military and non-military security issues, such as proliferation, humanitarian intervention, food security and environmental security. Unlike most standard textbooks, the volume also offers a wide range of case studies – including chapters on the USA, China, the Middle East, Russia, Africa, the Arctic, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America – providing detailed analyses of important global security issues. The 34 chapters contain pedagogical features such as textboxes, summary points and recommended further reading and are divided into five thematic sections: Conceptual and Theoretical Military Security Non-Military Security Institutions and Security Case Studies This textbook will be essential reading for all students of security studies and highly recommended for students of critical security studies, human security, peace and conflict studies, foreign policy and International Relations in general.

International Security Studies (ISS) has changed and diversified in many ways since 1945. This book provides the first intellectual history of the development of the subject in that period. It explains how ISS evolved from an initial concern with the strategic consequences of superpower rivalry and nuclear weapons, to its current diversity in which environmental, economic, human and other securities sit alongside military security, and in which approaches ranging from traditional Realist analysis to Feminism and Post-colonialism are in play. It sets out the driving forces that shaped debates in ISS, shows what makes ISS a single conversation across its diversity, and gives an authoritative account of debates on all the main topics within ISS. This is an unparalleled survey of the literature and institutions of ISS that will be an invaluable guide for all students and scholars of ISS, whether traditionalist, 'new agenda' or critical.

Through an interdisciplinary analytic lens that combines debates emerged in the fields of international relations, political science and sociology, Valeria Bello reveals how transnational dynamics have increased extremism, prejudiced attitudes towards others and international xenophobia. Bello begins her analysis by tracing similarities between Europe today and Europe before World War II to explain why prejudice is a global security threat and why it is arising as a current global concern within International Organizations. In such a light, Bello shows how changes in the International System and the attack on the UN practice of Intercultural Dialogue have become sources of new perceived threats and the reasons for which new exclusionary patterns have arisen. She argues that both those outcomes have been exacerbating the perceived clash of civilizations and the root causes of different fashions of extremisms. Bello concludes by portraying alternative ways to deal with these instabilities through a partnership of the different stakeholders involved, including both state and non-state actors at global, regional, national and local levels. International Migration and International Security provides a unique crosscutting angle from which to analyze the current socio-political crisis connected to the theme of international migration that the world is currently witnessing. Bello expertly shows that different paths for the world are possible and suggest ways to further promote Global Human Security through local, national, regional and global practices of Intercultural Dialogue.

This book explains what ‘small’ states are and explores their current security challenges, in general terms and through specific examples. It reflects the shift from traditional security definitions emphasizing defence and armaments, to new security concerns such as economic, societal and environmental security where institutional cooperation looms larger. These complex issues, linked with traditional power relations and new types of actors, need to be tackled with due regard to democracy and good governance. Key policy challenges for small states are examined and applied in the regional case studies. The book deals mainly with the current experience and recent past of such states but also offers insights for their future policies. Although many of the states covered are European, the study also includes African, Caribbean and Asian small states. Their particular interest and relevance is outlined, as is the connection between their security challenges and their smallness. Policy lessons for other states are then sought. The book is the first in-depth, multi-continent study of security as an aspect of small state governance today. It is novel in placing the security dilemmas of small states in the context of wider ideas on international and institutional change, and in dealing with non-European states and regions.