ABSTRACT
The purpose of this volume is to offer a critical but practically relevant engagement with security issues that are central to dealing with the threat of terrorism. We advance four propositions: that the September 11 attacks challenged core Western beliefs about the theory and practice of security, that America and its allies responded with a strategy underpinned by old and discredited ways of pursuing security, that this strategy has failed, but that alternatives are possible. These are not radical propositions. Indeed, they are propositions broadly shared by American and British voters, as demonstrated by the 2006 American elections and the dwindling support for Prime Minister Tony Blair. The chapters that follow examine these propositions in detail. All offer, in one way or another, viable alternatives to the present culture of insecurity.
