ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relation between security and politics, and contrasts a political reading of security with a security reading of politics. Security practices are often presented as different from political practice. They are an intelligence practice that evaluates which dangers require priority on the basis of the level and acuteness of threat and that does horizon scanning of upcoming dangers. The chapter explains at how security and democracy have been related in international studies and proposes a political reading that starts from the inherent tension between security and democracy. Interpreting the political technique of securitising is mostly organised in relation to more specific concepts than 'politics'. Democratisation is claimed to be a condition for regional or global security. The chapter proposes to integrate this tension into the study of security by defining security practice as techniques that enact democratic limits by rendering insecurities.
