Northeast Asian Critical Security

Abstract

Much of the contemporary discourse on international security is, for obvious reasons, dominated by terrorism and the systemic implications of the attacks of 9/11. In the wake of these attacks we have seen a resort to traditional security responses in the form of the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have also seen attempts to redefine warfare to account for the durable character of the terrorist form of threat with a closer policing of state boundaries and an enhanced surveillance of the domestic arena. However, whilst there has been some consideration of the societal factors that have helped to spawn these pathological forces, these have been subordinated to the perceived operational imperatives of fighting a global war on terror. The following study returns to the pre-9/11 debate about security and explores once again the basic issues of a ‘critical’ understanding of security. This study seeks, then, to contribute to a return to a more balanced discussion about the character of contemporary security that allows for the insecurities of the everyday to be the subject of our continuing concern.