Security Communities

Argues that international community can exist, and examines the possibilities for peaceful relations between states.

This book argues that community can exist at the international level, and that security politics is profoundly shaped by it, with states dwelling within an international community having the capacity to develop a pacific disposition. By investigating the relationship between international community and the possibility for peaceful change, this book revisits the concept first pioneered by Karl Deutsch: 'security communities'. Leading scholars examine security communities in various historical and regional contexts: in places where they exist, where they are emerging, and where they are hardly detectable. Building on constructivist theory, the volume is an important contribution to international relations theory and security studies, attempting to understand the conjunction of transnational forces, state power and international organizations that can produce a security community.

Part I. Introduction and Theoretical Overview: 1. Security communities in theoretical perspective Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett; 2. A framework for the study of security communities Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett; Part II. Studies in Security Communities: 3. Insecurity, security, and asecurity in the West European non-war community Ole Waever; 4. Seeds of peaceful change: the OSCE's security community-building model Emanuel Adler; 5. Caravans in opposite directions: society, state and the development of a community in the Gulf Cooperation Council Michael Barnett and Gregory A. Gaus III; 6. Collective identity and conflict resolution in Southeast Asia Amitav Acharya; 7. Australia and the search for security community in the 1990s Richard A. Higgott and Kim Richard Nossal; 8. An emerging security community in South America? Andrew Hurrell; 9. The United States and Mexico: a pluralistic security community Guadelupe Gonzalez and Stephan Haggard; 10. No fences make good neighbours: the development of the US-Canadian security community, 1871–1940 Sean Shore; 11. A neo-Kantian perspective: democracy, interdependence and international organization in building security communities Bruce Russett; Part III. Conclusions: 12. International communities, secure or otherwise Charles Tilly; 13. Studying security communities in theory, comparison, and history Michael Barnett and Emanuel Adler.

This book argues that community can exist at the international level, and that states dwelling within an international community have the capacity to develop a pacific disposition. The contributors provide an exhaustive regional and historical survey of the possibilities for peaceful relations between states.