Critical Security Studies §

Created Time: August 6, 2021 11:01 AM Database: Evergreen Database Last Edited Time: September 6, 2021 7:00 PM References: Part VIII Tags:#IR-Theory Type: Permanent Notes

• Security studies is a sub-discipline of IR that studies the origin of war and it’s conducts that focuses on threats to a nation’s safety
  • What are considered threats? Is it only the state we need to secure?
    • Not exclusively limited to use of force
    • Pandemics
    • Environmental degrade
    • Terrorism
    • Interstate armed conflicts (is a sub-field of strategic studies itself)
• Modern security theorists rejecting traditional thought of state in war as most important
  • Wideners: Modern theorists who broadened the scope to more non-traditional security
  • No agreement on what security actually is
• What is dividing them?
  • Security is inherently undefinable
  • Security can come from many different theoretical directions
    • Turned into subjective definition based on persons

Copenhagen School §

• Security is about survival (similar to realism)
  • But a threat is only an issue when it threatens the existence of the nation
• Secularization: when an actor claims something is a threat to the existence of the victim thing
  • Normally the actor is a government authority: who is a self-referencing actor of what is a threat
  • Authority must present the threat and be accepted by the reference audience to be a threat
    • To be able to declare a state of emergency, the authority must mobilize force and support for taking drastic actions
  • Does Copenhagen school disagree with this?

Wealth Abilitries School §

• Criticize state-centric nature of security study
  • Called emancipation school because it adds to the traditional idea of security
    • Sovereign state is the main cause of insecurity instead of the source of security
    • More people are killed by their own government than other countries

Paris School §

• Focus on interpretation the language use in the security discourse
  • To find truth about how we feel secure or insecure

Aberystwyth §

• First world is the western world the democracies
• Second world is the eastern bloc, russia, china, vietnam, communism…
• Third World is the neutral non-alligned countries (Banhdong conference, Non-Aligned Movement)
  • Misunderstood as the poor and undeveloped countries

Contribution to IR §

Critical Security Studies is a focus on something other than states and formal actors such as the United Nations. Critical Security Studies has encouraged us to think more seriously about things that affect individuals, particularly from unprivileged groups

• broadened the importance of non-traditional international actors
• its not only states who can cause effects in the international level, non-state actors can and is important too

References §