PLEASE NOTE this is a 2013 reading list—the precise content may change in future years.
Term 1, Week 2
WEEK 2: SECURITY: THE CONCEPT
Study Questions:

Can security be defined?

What is the dominant or traditional understanding of security in IR?

Why is the debate about the meaning of security important?

Is security debate a Western, Euro-centric enterprise?
Essential Reading
Williams, P., ‘Security Studies: An Introduction’, in Williams (ed), Security Studies (Routledge, 2008).
Smith, S., ‘The contested concept of security’ in Booth (ed.), Critical Security Studies (Lynne Rienner,
2005). Available online.
Barkawi and Laffey, ‘The Postcolonial Moment in Security Studies, Review of International Studies,
32:2 (2006), pp.329-352.
Recommended Reading
Fierke, K. Critical Approaches to International Security (Polity, 2007). Chapter 1. Available online.
Ayoob, ‘Defining Security: A Subaltern Realist Perspective’, in Krause and Williams (ed.), Critical
Security Studies (UCL Press, 1997).
Darby, ‘Recasting Western Knowledge about (postcolonial) Security’, in Grenfell and James
(eds.), Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence (Routledge, 2008).
Duffield, Development, Security and Unending War (Polity, 2007).
Collins, A., ‘What is Security Studies?’ in Collins (ed.), Contemporary Security Studies (Oxford UP,
2007).
Rothchild, E., ‘What is security?’ Daedalus, 124:3 (1995), 53-99.
Buzan, B., People, States and Fear, 2nd ed. (Lynne Rienner, 1991).
Huysmans, J, ‘Security! What do you mean? From Concept to Thick Signifier’, European Journal of
International Relations, 4:2 (1998), 226-55.
McSweeney, B., Security, Identity and Interests (Cambridge UP, 1999), esp. introduction, chapter 1.
Dalby, Simon, ‘Geopolitical Change and Contemporary Security Studies: Contextualising the Human
Security Agenda’,Working Paper No.30 (Institute of International Relations, University of British
Columbia: 2000).
Baldwin, David A., ‘The concept of security’, Review of International Studies, 23 (1997), 5-26.
Haftendorn, H., ‘The Security Puzzle’, International Studies Quarterly, 35 (1991), 3-17.
Kolodziej, E., Security and International Relations (Cambridge UP, 2005). Chapter 1.
Lipschutz, R.D. (ed.), On Security (Columbia UP, 1995), chapter 1.
Baylis, J. et al. (eds.), Strategy in the Contemporary World (Oxford UP, 2010), Introduction.
Baylis, J., ‘International and Global Security in the Post-Cold War Era’, in Baylis, J. & Smith, S.
(eds), The Globalization of World Politics (OUP, 3rd ed, 2004).
Smith, S., ‘The Increasing Insecurity of Security Studies’, Contemporary Security Policy, 20:3 (1999),
72-101.
Tickner, J.A., ‘Re-visioning security’ in K. Booth & S. Smith (eds), International Relations Theory
Today (Polity Press, 1995), pp. 175-97.
Shaw, M., ‘There is no such thing as society’: Beyond individualism and statism in international
security studies’, Review of International Studies, 19:2 (1993), 159-76.
Snyder, Craig A., "Contemporary Security and Strategy" in Craig A. Snyder, Contemporary Security
and Strategy, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999.
Baldwin, D. ‘Review Article: Security Studies and the End of the Cold War’, World Politics, 48 (1995),
117-41.
Bell, C., The Freedom of Security: Governing Canada in the Age of Counter-Terrorism (UBC Press,
2011), 1-22.