ABSTRACT
In 1957 Karl Deutsch coined the concept ‘pluralistic security community’ (Deutsch, 1957), reintroducing the old debate of realism and idealism in International Relations (IR). This time, however, it was no longer about whether independent states could coexist peacefully, but, instead, under which circumstances they could do so. That is, under which conditions a group of sovereign states could exist as a community in an international, anarchic scenario. Deutsch’s security community is characterised by the assurance that its members would not resort to violent means to resolve their disputes, but would settle them peacefully. The concept challenged mainstream International Relations theory of nearly fifty years, bringing sociology and IR closer. Traditional IR thinking has been intellectually grounded on a Hobbesian approach, which regards the international system as an anarchic, self-help scenario, where nation-states struggle for power and survival. Deutsch, conversely, applied a typically sociological concept ( ‘community’) to the international arena (Adler and Barnett, 1998). Contrary to what realism traditionally suggested, he argued that there can exist a community not only within the boundaries of a state, but also across states, and that peace and peaceful change can be expected within such international communities.
