ABSTRACT
This chapter is designed to relate to the previous chapters in the context of a dynamic, contentious and evolving set of security agendas. Whereas many IR textbooks will focus on state-and military-centric security, the distinctive nature of IPE approaches, as opposed to IR, means that they tend to adopt a broader interpretation and analysis of security issues. This is the approach taken here. The discussion in this chapter demonstrates the evolution of the study of security issues from traditional analyses to much broader ones that consider both state and non-state actors as having security interests, and that take account of a range of issues. During the latter half of the twentieth century processes of globalisation, technological and industrial development, environmental change and demographic growth, among others, led to the emergence of critical security studies. This eld of study has been characterised by a shift away from the dominance of the billiard-ball model of international relations. This model, as was discussed in Chapter 1, sees states as the only important unit of analysis in IR/IPE and power and military security as their primary concern. Furthermore, this model of understanding and explaining assumes that states are unitary and rational egoistic actors, meaning that, in eect, everything that goes on inside the state (the agency of individuals, MNCs, NGOs and so on) is irrelevant to security studies.
