Most important sub-field as it deals with war and peace.
Essentially contested concept
Walter Bryce Gallie (Aristotelian Society 1956)
They are concepts where the proper use of which inevitably
involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the
part of their users and these disputes cannot be settled by
appeal to empirical evidence, linguistic usage or the canons
of logic alone. For e.g. art, democracy, revolution, social
justice.
Traditional security studies
Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 in his Leviathan:
The state: provide security
for their citizens (social
contract theory)
Classical Realism: realists
are realistic and everyone
else is idealistic.
Assumption is man is
driven by power or
domination over others
that can only be
restrained by threat or
force.
Criticisms: parts made
redundant by nuclear
weapons, lacks coherent
definitions, rests on
unproivalble assumptions
about human nature -
superseded by structural
realism.
Walt'z theory of
international politics
(1979)
Concept security
dilemma
developed my
John Herz (1950)
Structural Realism & Security: clear
distinction between the domestic &
international dimensions of politics,
gives primacy to the state - to the total
exclusion of all other political actors, the
anarchical nature of the international
system gives rise to the security
dilemma, there is a disagreement over
how much power is enough - which is
defined by economic & military means
alone.
Defensive Realism: lack of gov. in IR means 'self-help'
strategies are only rational cause of action. States seek
power not because their leaders lust for it but because it
is only way to survive & make them secure. Must seek
power to achieve security but they should not seek too
much. Security dilemma imposes limits on how much
power one should seek.
Offensive Realism: John Mearsheimer
Liberal Internationalism: realists overstate
the problems of human nature, power and
the state. Basic assumption: man is driven by
a lust for survival, which can be achieved via
the establishment & use of international
institutions.
Cont...emerged as a coherent doctrine
in the Enlightenment. Based largely on
the works of Thomas Paine (1791),
Immanuel Kant (1975) & Adam Smith
(1776). Very prominent following WWI;
since it vindicated its claims about the
problem of power politics. Crystallised
under Wilson's 14 points: open
diplomacy, selfdetermination, free
trade, disarmament, peaceful dispute
resolution and the league of Nations. No
answer for the actions of powerful,
dissatisfied states.
Kant's 'perpetual peace' 1795
Democratic Peace Thesis
Morgenthau's Politics
among Nations (1948):
designed to teach
Americans how to
conduct 'power
politics'