ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the development of theoretical approaches to poverty within the field of IR and the sub-field of security studies. It examines the development of mainstream International Relations (IR). This addresses three key issues in relation to poverty; democracy, civil society and international ethics. The chapter elaborates Influences on, and the objectives of, critical approaches to security and poverty research. It addresses distortions in the research agenda identified by Said's Orientalism. The chapter explores the growth of theoretical responses to poverty as humans have adapted to economic modernity. It argues that poverty research, in terms of its aim being to enhance the quality of human life, should be central to the political agenda of IR. The chapter intends to act as a bridge between traditional and critical understandings of poverty as a security issue in IR. Specifically it focuses on the central ideas of the Copenhagen School and its critics.
