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18 September 2008POL 349: Critical Security StudiesDr. Benjamin J. Muller
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Context Relationship between liberty & security
(Hobbes et al.; the political) Historical Context: Realism & the Cold WarThe Contested Concept of Security 6 Schools of Thought
Questions for discussion
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Monroe Doctrine (1823) Truman and use of
atomic bomb on Japan
Truman Doctrine: containment
Spheres of influence inEurope and beyond
Military-industrialcomplex in US
Realist assumptions
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Mutually Assured Destruction(MAD)
Nuclear Proliferation
US-USSR Relations Bipolar World Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) Realist Assumptions
RAND - Rational Choicetheory - Game Theory
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Dtente Non-proliferation regime 1st, 2nd, 3rd World
Non-aligned Movement Vietnam War (???-1975) Proxy Wars
Kashmir
Iran-Iraq
Soviet invasion ofAfghanistan
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Ockhams Razor (14thcentury)
raison detat
Machiavellis Prince Cruel to be kind
Ends justify means
City-state;polis Hobbes Leviathan Treaty of Westphalia (1648)
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Universal/particular
Moral community inside thestate
the good life
Dual moral standard
Political community
Problem of Inside/outside
Are all realists idealists?
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Statism
Self-help
Survival Anarchy
Balance of power
Security dilemma
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Human nature = statenature
Primordial power Sovereignty Territoriality International order
anarchy/human nature
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Structural anarchy oranarchical system
Distribution of poweramong great powers
Great power competition K. Waltz
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Structural anarchy States lack of
international society Narrow agenda for IR World politics is
precisely not politics in
the world Richard Ashley
orrery of errors
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9 Fallacies of Realism (Ken Booth)
1. realism is not realistic: inadequate at describing how the worldworks effective during the Cold War because it had a hand in constructingthat world
2. realism is a misnomer: ideology has appropriated the cloak ofobjectivity and practicality [positivism]
3. realism is static theory: lacks a conception of the future nucleardeterrence for example, has no conception of the future.
4. realisms methodology is unsophisticated: crude positivism common sense unproblematic relationship between fact and value, theobserver and the observed, theory and practice
5.
realism fails the test of practice: high levels of insecurity in theworld are only contributed to further by leaving political, economic, and socialpower where it is (hence the emancipatory aspect of CSS) as a politicalpractice, political realism has helped to construct and perpetuate a worldpolitics that fails to provide security for the vast majority of people in theworld
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6. realisms unspoken assumptions are regressive:prioritization of the victims of politics over the victims oeconomics (consider the asylum/refugee debate well
founded fear) where are the poor? Women? Voiceless
(refugees for example are rendered speechless)
7. realisms agenda is narrow: power maximizing stateinterests and the protection of the statist order problem
solving theory rather than critical theory [R. Cox]
8. realist ethics are hostile to the human interest: thepower politics of place promoted by realism are no longerin the interests of humanity
9. realism is intellectually rigid: intellectual pluralism isunacceptable to realists; George W. Bush with us oragainst us war on terror logic
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Neutral notion of
security is not possible
Political and normativecommitments are
embedded
Steve Smith splits thecontested concept of
security into 6 schools
of thought
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Copenhagen School & Security Constructivist Security Studies
Critical Security Studies Feminist Security Studies Poststructuralist Security Studies Human Security
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Barry Buzan, Ole Wver, etc. Additional sectors of security: ecological;
societal; economic; political Societal security focus on identity rather
than sovereignty Securitization discourse; speech acts
Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT)
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A. Wendt anarchy is what states make of it Intersubjective understanding/meaning
Interaction between culture and strategyCritique: State centric; rationalism; causal rather than
constitutive
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Wider interpretation of security is needed Rethink the political in security studies
Extended security (S. Dalby) Rejection of realism state is also the threat
to security or the site of (in)security Emancipation (critique: normative)
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C. Enloe; V. S. Peterson; A. Tickner Masculine IR/Security; Gender Trouble
Material issues: civilian casualties; rape;refugees; domestic violence Where are women? Personal is Political
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Discourse of Strategic studies answer tohow states organize violence (B. Klein)
Writing Security(D. Campbell) US ForeignPolicy constructs US identity National Deconstruction (D. Campbell)
ethics, subjectivity, sovereignty, violence
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People centered, not state centered (referentobject)
7 areas: economic; food; health;environmental; personal; community;political
Identifies 6 specific threats based on referent
of individual (e.g. Border security) Human needs approach (L. Axworthy) Freedom from want & freedom from fear
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Security as contested concept also
contest: state; community; emancipation;relations between economics & politics;public/private; domestic/international;inside /outside; action/resistance
Extended agenda Securitization and desecuritization
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How does the pursuit of particular sectors of extendedsecurity (economic, environmental, societal, etc.) alterthe subject of security and/or reproduce insecurities?
It has been suggested that the post-11 September 2001world is characterized by a supposedly new form ofasymmetric warfare. To what extent do these critical
approaches deal with this problem of asymmetry? Towhat extent has the war on terror been treated in asimilar fashion to the sectors of extended securitydiscussed by Dalby?