ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book introduces a significant body of the periodical literature on the subject of national and international security. It looks at the contribution of arms control and disarmament and cooperative approaches to international security. The book also looks at the broader security agenda, which emerged at the end of the 1980s. It explores the concept of 'economic security'–a concept that long predated the end of the Cold War, but which traditionally meant little more than the analysis of economic factors relevant to the assessment of a state's military potential. The book deals with environmental security, the aspect of the broadened security field which has generated the largest scholarly literature and the most vigorous policy agenda. It examines the relationship between traditional ideas of security, the concept of state sovereignty and the nature of political communities.
