Conclusion: Reshaping International Relations?

Abstract

To what extent do security communities fulfil the normative promise ascribed to them by writers such as Deutsch, Adler and Barnett? Do they reshape regional security politics by replacing conflict with cooperation, or merely reproduce realist logic at their borders? Do they suggest a move towards a solidarist society of states or threaten an epoch of civilisational confrontation? In the course of the four case studies, many of our intuitive beliefs have been called into question. In particular the relationship between the type of security community and its effect on relations between members and non-members is counter-intuitive. That is, the greater the maturity and more tightly-coupled the security community, the less likely it is to be a regional fortress. In this conclusion, I will begin by explaining this claim before questioning what this means for the way we think about International Relations. In particular, I argue that relations between a security community and its neighbours are framed by political choices and social relations, and can therefore be constructed in an indefinite number of ways. To borrow an over-used phrase of Alexander Wendt’s, security communities are what their members and neighbours make of them.¹