International Security IR 3001 CRITICAL APPROACHES

CONTEXTS AND VARIETIES OF CRITICAL SECURITY STUDIES Introduction Distinction between Problem-solving theory and Critical Theory 1 Problem-solving takes prevailing social and power relationships and the institutions into which they are organized as the given framework for action 2 Critical Theory calls these into question by concerning itself with their origins and how they might be in the process of changing (Robert Cox) (Robert Cox)

Context 1 Knowledge/Power Nexus: study of the social world is inseparable from the world it studies 2 Traditional Security Studies (TSS) does not merely examine security, but help engender it

Context (Continued) 3 Historical context of the emergence of TSS (Legacy of World Wars, The Cold War) 4 Changing Post Cold War Environment 5 Resurgence of TSS after 9/11

Key Assumptions of TSS 1 TSS privileges the position of the state; threats to the state as the principal referent of security) 2 Exclusive focus on the threat, use and control of military force

ORIGINS 1994 Strategies in Conflict: Critical Approaches to Security Studies Keith Krause and Michael Williams, Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (1997) Key Question: Who or what is to be secured?

Key Elements 1 Threats to human beings originate from a variety of sources, not merely states and military force (The state is not the only object of study) 2 How can security be attained, not only for the state but for individuals, community and humanity

Key Elements (Continued) 3 Need to change the way we study security (multiple ways to study security) 4 West-centric notion of security (Link between security and the modern state)

Major Schools Copenhagen School Welsh School Poststructuralism

Copenhagen School Key Figures Barry Buzan Ole Waever Jaap de Wilde

Copenhagen School (Continued) Key Text Security: a New Framework for Analysis (Stands in opposition to CSS)

Copenhagen School (Continued) Main Elements 1 Sectoral Approach (Five sectors of security: military, environmental, economic, societal, and political) 2 Securitization: security as a speech-act 3 Social production of security

Welsh School Frankfurt School (post-Marxist Critical Theory) Key Figures: Ken Booth and Richard Wyn Jones Key Texts: Booth, Critical Security Studies and Word Politics; Jones, Security, Strategy and Critical Theory

Welsh School (Continued) 1 Denaturalization of the principal objects of security 2 Possibility of change 3. Emancipation

Welsh School (Continued) What is Real Disjuncture between the study of the natural world and the social world Link between Knowledge and Interests. Political Engagement to change the world, not simply understand it