Security, Identity and Interests A Sociology of International Relations [Hardcover]

Addresses the central problem of international relations - security - and constructs a novel framework for its analysis.The study of security has been dominated for four decades by a scientific perspective which has been under attack since the end of the Cold War. In this book, Bill McSweeney discusses the inadequacy of this approach and criticizes the most recent attempts to surmount it. Drawing on contemporary trends in sociology, he deve lops a theory of the international order within which the idea of security takes on a broader range of meaning, inviting a more interpretative approach to understanding the concept and formulating security policy.The study of security has been dominated for four decades by a scientific perspective which has been under attack since the end of the Cold War. In this book, Bill McSweeney discusses the inadequacy of this approach and criticizes the most recent attempts to surmount it. Drawing on contemporary trends in sociology, he deve lops a theory of the international order within which the idea of security takes on a broader range of meaning, inviting a more interpretative approach to understanding the concept and formulating security policy.The study of security has been dominated for four decades by a scientific perspective that has been under attack since the end of the Cold War. In this book, Bill McSweeney discusses the inadequacy of this approach and criticizes the most recent attempts to surmount it. Drawing on contemporary trends in sociology, he develops a theory of the international order within which the idea of security takes on a broader range of meaning, inviting a more interpretive approach to understanding the concept and formulating security policy.Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The meaning of security; Part I. Objectivist Approaches to International Security: 2. Early stages of development; 3. Broadening the concept of security; 4. Identity versus the state; Part II. Theorizing Security: the Turn to Sociologyl³!