KEN BOOTH

Realist assumptions of security studies increasingly have been challenged by an approach that places the human being, rather than the state, at the center of security concerns. This text is an indispensable statement of the ideas of this critical security project, written by some of its leading exponents. The book is structured around three concepts - security, community, and emancipation - that arguably are central to the future shape of world politics.Each of its three parts begins with a survey of key theoretical issues, followed by an investigation of current case material. The authors emphasize that critical security is about the problems of real people in real places, and about linking theory and practice. Throughout, they address the fundamental questions at the heart of critical thinking about security.

What is real? What can we know? How might we act? This book sets out to answer these fundamental philosophical questions in a radical and original theory of security for our times. Arguing that the concept of security in world politics has long been imprisoned by conservative thinking, Ken Booth explores security as a precious instrumental value which gives individuals and groups the opportunity to pursue the invention of humanity rather than live determined and diminished lives. Booth suggests that human society globally is facing a set of converging historical crises.He looks to critical social theory and radical international theory to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding the historical challenges facing global business-as-usual and for planning to reconstruct a more cosmopolitan future. Theory of World Security is a challenge both to well-established ways of thinking about security and alternative approaches within critical security studies.