Critical security studies (CSS) is an

academic discipline An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, a ...

within

security studies __NOTOC__ Security studies, also known as international security studies, is an academic sub-field within the wider discipline of international relations that studies organized violence, military conflict, national security, and international s ...

which draws on

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

to revise and, at times, reject the narrow focus of mainstream approaches to security. Similarly to the case of critical international relations theory, critical security studies encompasses a wide range of theories including but not limited to:

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, neo-Gramscian,

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

postcolonial Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...

, and

queer theory Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term "queer theory" is broadly associated with the study a ...

. Additionally, critical security studies, draws from a number of related disciplines such as

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

, and

criminology Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

to find alternative routes to approach questions of security.

Definition

Defining critical security studies can be difficult due to the wide range of theories involved, meaning that any single definition is likely to exclude works and scholars who would list themselves, or be listed by most scholars as part of the subfield. Due to this, most definitions of critical security studies focus on listing shared components rather than create a single definition. Browning and McDonald argue that critical security studies entails three main components: the first is a rejection of conventional (particularly realist) approaches to security, rejecting or critiquing the theories, epistemology, and implications of realism, such as the total focus on the role of the state when approaching questions of security. The second is that of critically examining the meaning of security and the politics surrounding it, in particular the "function of representations or discourses of security in defining group identity, enabling particular policy or legitimating particular actors as security providers." One such example of this is that of the Copenhagen School and their theory of

securitization Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans, or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and sellin ...

. The third component, is that of critically examining the ethics and approaches inherent to the study of security. More recent topics of concern include environmental and planetary,

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

ontological Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

or everyday security.

Uses of the term

The term "critical security studies" is most often used to refer to some variation of the above definition of critical security studies, as a subfield of

or a set of alternative paradigms within that field. However, it has also been used to refer to a specific strand of approaches within this subfield, which has as its most characteristic element a commitment to emancipatory theory that is not shared by other critical approaches to security. The authors representing this latter view, such as Ken Booth and Richard Wyn Jones, are usually referred to as the Aberystwyth or Welsh School to avoid ambiguity.

Definition

Uses of the term

See also

References

Further reading