What is real? What can we know? How might we act? This book sets out to answer these fundamental 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. He suggests that human society globally is facing a set of converging historical crises, and 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.
What is real? What can we know? How might we act? This book sets out to answer these fundamental 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. He suggests that human society globally is facing a set of converging historical crises, and 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.
Über den Autor
Ken Booth is E. H. Carr Professor in the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. He was the first president of the British International Studies Association and is the current editor of International Relations.
Zusammenfassung
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. He suggests that human society is facing a set of converging historical crises, and 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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Part I. Context: 1. Present imperfect: future tense; 2. Thinking theory critically; Part II. Theory: 3. Security, emancipation, community; 4. Deepening, broadening, reconstructing; 5. Being, knowing, doing; 6. The world, the world; Part III. Dimensions: 7. Business-as-usual; 8. Who will own the twenty-first century?; Part IV. Futures: 9. The new twenty years' crisis; 10. A long hot century.
