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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2009

Barry Buzan
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Ole Wæver
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

Our previous book, Security: A New Framework for Analysis, laid the foundations for thinking about regional security in the context of a wider security agenda and a securitisation approach. It is that thread we pick up here. We sought to bring some clarity to the debate about the ‘new’ security by combining a sectoral approach to the wider security agenda with a constructivist (‘securitisation’) understanding of what separated ‘security’ from routine politics. We solved some specific theoretical problems related to the expanded concept of security and to an ensuing rethinking of the ‘regional’ character of security. We also addressed the tension in the current system between deterritorialising and territorialising processes. Briefly stated, the problem arose because regional security complex theory was developed primarily in relation to the dynamics of the political and military sectors, where, because threats in these sectors travel more easily over short distances than over long ones, distance clearly plays a role in producing regional security complexes. When the concept of security was extended to economic, environmental, and – the part we ourselves have previously contributed most to – identity-related (‘societal’) threats, doubts arose about whether security interdependence in these non-traditional sectors would take a regional form and, if it did, whether it would generate the same region across the sectors, or different regions according to the sector. It was thus necessary to build a conceptual apparatus able both to handle the extended concept of security and to avoid the ‘everything is security’ watering-down of the concept.

Type
Chapter
Information
Regions and Powers
The Structure of International Security
, pp. xvi - xix
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • Preface
  • Barry Buzan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Ole Wæver, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Regions and Powers
  • Online publication: 05 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491252.001
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  • Preface
  • Barry Buzan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Ole Wæver, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Regions and Powers
  • Online publication: 05 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491252.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Barry Buzan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Ole Wæver, University of Copenhagen
  • Book: Regions and Powers
  • Online publication: 05 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511491252.001
Available formats
×