Week8: Critical Security Studies James Fitzgerald School of Law and Government Dublin City University

What is Critical Security Studies? Critical/’New’ Security Studies is an umbrella term for a range of approaches which seek to challenge the orthodoxy of ‘traditional’ security studies through nuanced critique and a shift in the referent object of security” What do we mean by ‘critical’ What do we mean by ‘traditional’? What is the ‘referent object of security’?

‘Traditional Security Studies’ Begins, flows out of and ends with the State Nobody ever lives, nobody ever dies, there are states, and they are what is Derived as a sub-field of International Relations Aberystwyth 1919 Inter-war period Problem-solving orthodoxy Realism as dominant theory of IR Hegemony of Realism upheld throughout Cold War

‘Traditional Security Studies’ Core commitments of Realism States Self-help Survival Security Studies develops out of this orthodoxy in 1950s and 1960s The ‘Golden Age’ of Security Studies Direct interaction between policy and academia Derives primarily from US; also the UK

A Challenge to Traditional Security Studies The seemingly intractable nature of the Cold War sustains Realist orthodoxy of Security Studies Structural/Neo-Realism Increased levels of parsimony and the dominance of ‘scientific’ explanations of social phenomena Distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics The challenge of Barry Buzan People, States and Fear (1984)

The End of the Cold War and the ‘birth’ of Critical Security Studies The orthodoxy of Realist notions of security are thrown into crisis Neither traditional IR or Security Studies approaches could adequately explain the collapse of the bi-polar order Opens up a new space for alternative voices and ‘new’ conceptions of security Broadening Deepening

Broadening the Security Agenda The concept of Security moves beyond purely military issues Barry Buzan: People, States and Fear (1984, 1991). Security agenda broadened: 1. Military 2. Political 3. Economic 4. Societal 5. Environmental

The Copenhagen School and Securitization Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI) Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, Jaap de Wilde, Lene Hansen (?) Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1997) By securitzing new notions of security: They shift from the realm of low politics to ‘high politics’ for States Aim is to mobilise State action to rectify ‘new’ problems of a broadened security agenda

Copenhagen School and Securitization Theory Advantages: Broadens the security agenda beyond focus on military sector Entails a sense of importance and immediacy and (attempts to) elicit corrective action Criticisms: States remain the primary actors Anarchical structure of the International System maintained as ‘natural’ The potentially damaging lens of securitization

Deepening ‘Security’: Critical Security Studies Critical Security Studies (Welsh School) Ken Booth, Richard Wyn Jones Intellectual lineage to Frankfurt School Critical Theory (Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas etc.) Seeks to deepen the concept of security below the level of the state Humans are the referent object of security Explicitly normative commitment to an improvement of the human condition

Deepening ‘Security’: Critical Security Studies 1. Critique of problem-solving orthodoxy in ‘Traditional’ Security Studies Theory is always for someone and for some purpose (Cox, 1981) 2. Human Security Shared reference point of security for all humanity Supports the logic of emancipation and of cosmopolitan progress (progression of Enlightenment thought)

Deepening ‘Security’: Critical Security Studies Advantages: Provides a strong challenge to the orthodoxy of the State as the referent object of ‘Security’ Provides a shared reference point for humanity and a blueprint for cosmopolitan progress Has had genuine influence on policy agenda UN Development Reports Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Human Security Commission:Human Security Now (2003) Further potential to positively affect millions of lives

Deepening ‘Security’: Critical Security Studies Criticisms: Realist Critique: Makes the concept of security too encompassing Dilutes the important task of analysing military threats and inter-state conflict Other Critiques: CS: Focus on deepening bypasses the inherent capacity of the powerful state to affect positive change ‘Poststructuralism’/’Postmodernism’: Agrees with challenge to the State but fundamentally disagrees with notion of ‘emancipation’, ‘progress’ and Enlightenment philosophy

Exploding Security: Poststructuralism and the Paris School What is ‘Poststructuralism’/’Postmodernism’? Perhaps the most ‘critical’ of all the critical approaches Prioritisation of discourse in how we conceive of ‘reality’ There are no ‘facts’, only interpretations ‘Roots’ in structuralism (de Saussure, Althusser) and its subsequent critique (Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard etc.) Its programme is one of critique (like Critical Theory), but unlike Critical Theory, it rejects the notion of emancipation and general meta-narratives

What is Postmodernism?: ‘Incredulity towards metanarratives’ (Lyotard, 1984)

An Example of Modernist Architecture

An Example of Postmodernist Architecture

Truth: There is no spoon… A young child, bending spoons, spoke to Neo: "Do not try to bend the spoon--that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth."Neospoontruth Neo asked him, "What truth?" The child answered, "That there is no spoon." there is no spoon. Neo meditated on this. "There is no spoon." The child continued: "Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends--it is only yourself." In other words, it is our perception of reality that determines what we see, not reality itself!

19 The Matrix MorpheusMorpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. MorpheusMorpheus: Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about? …It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. NeoNeo: What truth? MorpheusMorpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind. MorpheusMorpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. MorpheusMorpheus: You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

A Postmodern view of ‘Reality’

Exploding Security Studies: The Paris School Most directly associated with scholarship emanated out of Paris Institute of Political Studies (Science Po) but encompasses a wide- range of scholars Didier Bigo, Emmanuel Pierre Guittet, Jef Huysmans, Claudia Aradau, Mick Dillon Concern with the ‘everyday practices’ of security (e.g. Surveillance, border control etc.) How ‘security’ and ‘identities’ are performed

Exploding Security Studies: The Paris School Advantages: Offers an alternative conception of security not offered by any other approach Seeks to unearth the subversive power relations at the heart of security practices Provides a constant source of critique Criticisms: Dilutes the concept of security much too far beyond the state Does not provide an ‘solutions’ on how to progress ‘Dangerous’ or bad ‘scholarship’: The ‘Dark Side’

Conclusions ‘Security’ is an essentially contested concept (W.B. Gallie, 1956) Ortodox conceptions of security can be challenged and have been challenged through a range of critical approaches Critical Security Studies provides a framework for this challenge Copenhagen School (Broadening) Critical Security Studies (Deepening)

‘Poststructuralist’ Security Studies (Exploding)