Part VIII: Critical Security Studies §

Reading 1: Introduction

• Critical 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)

Reading 1: Chapter 6

• 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
• both Copenhagen and Wealth Schools are part of the post-positivist movemnet

Copenhagen School §

Named after peace institute

• 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?
• Desecularization: issues should be moved out of ???

Wealth Abilitries School §

• Has roots in Marxism
• Influenced by neo-crimsean
• 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
• How to achieve true security?
  • Define security in terms of emancipation
  • All people have drive to seek security

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

References §

• Part_2_-_Theory_of_World_Security.pdf
• Part_1_-_Theory_of_World_Security.pdf
• Chapter_1_-_Security_Studies_an_Introduction.pdf
• Chapter_2_-_The_Evolution_of_International_Security.pdf.pdf
• Chapter_1_-_The_Evolution_of_International_Security.pdf
• Chapter_6_-_Contemporary_Security_Studies.pdf
• Introduction_-_Contemporary_Security_Studies.pdf