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Security Studies and the end of the Cold War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
Abstract
The end of the cold war has generated numerous reflections on the nature of the world in its aftermath. The reduced military threat to American security has triggered proposals for expanding the concept of national security to include nonmilitary threats to national well-being. Some go further and call for a fundamental reexamination of the concepts, theories, and assumptions used to analyze security problems. In order to lay the groundwork for such a reexamination, the emergence and evolution of security studies as a subfield of international relations is surveyed, the adequacy of the field for coping with the post—cold war world is assessed, and proposals for the future of security studies are discussed. It is argued that a strong case can be made for reintegration of security studies with the study of international politics and foreign policy.
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References
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3 See especially the contributions by Ronald Steel and Robert Jervis in Hogan; Gaddis; and most of the essays in Allison and Treverton.
4 In order to make the subject manageable, this review article focuses on security studies in the United States. This should not be interpreted as implying that important work was not done in other parts of the world.
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37 E.g., Dunn (fn. 18); Wolfers (fn. 18); Lasswell (fn. 18); and Brodie (fnn. 17, 18). Defense economists, of course, have usually shared this view. Their voices, however, were more salient in security studies during the “golden age” than during the 1980s. See Hitch, Charles J., “National Security Policy as a Field for Economics Research,” World Politics 12 (April 1960CrossRefGoogle Scholar); Hitch, Charles J. and McKean, Roland, The Economics of Defense in the Nuclear Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960CrossRefGoogle Scholar); Schlesinger, James R., The Political Economy of National Security (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1960Google Scholar Walt's (fn. 19) recent review, for example, pays scant attention to the views of defense economists.
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39 For other reviews of the field that emphasize military force as a means rather than security as an end, see Knorr, Klaus, “National Security Studies: Scope and Structure of the Field,” in Trager, Frank N. and Kronenberg, Philip S., eds., National Security and American Society: Theory Process, and Policy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1973Google Scholar); and Nye and Lynn-Jones (fn. 5).
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45 Nye and Lynn-Jones (fn. 5), 24; and Walt (fn. 19), 215, 224.
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47 Brodie (fn. 18).
48 Lasswell (fn. 18), 55, 75.
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53 Ullman (fn. 31); Buzan (fn. 36); Haftendorn (fn. 19); Kolodziej (fn. 29); and Kegley, “Discussion,” in Shultz, Godson, and Greenwood, 73–76.
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