1st Edition

The Empire of Security and the Safety of the People

Edited By William Bain Copyright 2006
    236 Pages
    by Routledge

    236 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is an accessible new examination of what ‘security’ means today, contextualizing the term amongst other key ideas, such as the nation state, diplomacy, war and autonomy.

    By exploring the many differing conceptions of security, this study clearly explains how the idea of security in world affairs can be understood in relation to other ideas and points of view. It shows how, when standing alone, the word ‘security’ is meaningless, or just an empty term, when divorced from other ideas distinctive to international life. This essential new volume tackles the key questions in the debate:

    • what norms of sovereignty relate to security?
    • does security necessarily follow from the recognition of identity?
    • what sort of obligations in respect of security attach to power?
    • how far can a political arrangement of empire remedy human insecurity?
    • can trusteeship provide security in a world of legally equal sovereign states?
    • is security the guarantor of freedom?    

    This book is an excellent resource for students and scholars of security studies and politics and international relations. 

    1. Introduction

    William Bain

    2. ‘The safety of the people is the supreme law’: Beyond Hobbes But Not as Far as Kant

    Robert Jackson

    3. Reversing Rousseau: The Mediaeval and Modern in Contemporary Wars

    K. J. Holsti

    4. Guardians of the Practitioners’ Virtue: Diplomats at the Warrior’s Den

    Sasson Sofer

    5. Great Powers and International Security

    Cathal Nolan

    6. Security and Self-Determination

    James Mayall

    7. Globalization and Security: Much Ado About Nothing?

    Cornelia Navari

    8. Cultural Diversity and Security after 9/11

    Jennifer Jackson Preece

    9. Intervention: Beyond ‘Dictatorial Interference’

    Sir Adam Roberts

    10. Saving Failed States: Trusteeship as an Arrangement of Security

    William Bain

    Biography

    William Bain is Lecturer in International Relations Theory in the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, UK.