The study of security has been dominated for four decades by a scientific perspective that has been under attack since the end of the Cold War. In this book, Bill McSweeney discusses the inadequacy of this approach and criticizes the most recent attempts to surmount it. Drawing on contemporary trends in sociology, he develops a theory of the international order within which the idea of security takes on a broader range of meaning, inviting a more interpretive approach to understanding the concept and formulating security policy.
Author(s): Bill McSweeney
Series: Cambridge Studies in International Relations
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 255
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Introduction......Page 15
1 The meaning of security......Page 27
Usage and meaning......Page 30
From ‘defence’ to ‘security’......Page 33
Part I Objectivist approaches to international security......Page 37
2 Early stages of development......Page 39
Principal ideas and periods of development......Page 42
The period of political theory......Page 45
The ‘golden age’ of political science......Page 46
Self-images of the ‘golden age’......Page 51
3 Broadening the concept of security......Page 59
Buzan's agenda for ‘international security studies’......Page 66
An overview of the Buzan thesis......Page 67
Individuals and the state......Page 71
The question of values......Page 72
The domestic dimension and the role of sectors......Page 73
The regional dimension......Page 76
The question of agency......Page 79
4 Identity versus the state......Page 82
Society and societal security......Page 83
The problem of identity......Page 86
Identity and moral judgment......Page 87
Part II Theorizing security: the turn to sociology......Page 93
5 A conceptual discussion......Page 95
Security as an ‘essentially contested’ idea......Page 97
Subjects, objects and instruments......Page 98
Natural and social threats......Page 103
Positive and negative security......Page 105
Causality and structure in neorealism......Page 115
The social constructionist approach......Page 118
Sociology and the sociology of knowledge......Page 127
Deconstructing security......Page 130
7 The limits of identity theory......Page 140
An alternative turn to sociology......Page 146
8 Agency and structure in social theory......Page 152
Elements of social action......Page 153
Reflexivity and the monitoring of routine......Page 154
The duality of structure......Page 157
The double hermeneutic......Page 159
The state as actor......Page 163
9 Seeing a different world: a reflexive sociology of security......Page 166
The need for security......Page 168
Security and identity......Page 170
The inner-outer dimensions of identity......Page 172
Identity as structure and action......Page 175
Doing identity......Page 179
The duality of identity and interests......Page 180
A seduction model......Page 184
Part III Practising security......Page 187
10 Doing security by stealth......Page 189
Doing identity and interests......Page 193
The primacy of interests......Page 200
11 Conclusion: Security and moral choice......Page 212
Different worlds, different security......Page 215
Social constructionism and neo-liberal constructivism......Page 217
A reflexive model of social order......Page 222
Reflexivity as seduction......Page 227
Security as moral choice......Page 228
Bibliography......Page 234
Index......Page 252
