ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the implications of Eurocentrism in the study of security around the world. It introduces two key concepts, the security dilemma and the insecurity dilemma and discusses the case of the Ottoman sultan’s visit to the Paris World Fair to offer an alternative approach that goes beyond both concepts in addressing the limitations of Eurocentrism in the study of security. John H. Herz offered the concept of the security dilemma to counter such everyday presumptions. He underscored that conflicts and war occurred because policy-makers were not aware of security dilemma dynamics. The concept of “societal security” was offered in debates about security in Europe in the post-Cold War era in response to developments unleashed by the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the wars of the Yugoslav break-up. With feminist scholars’ criticisms, then, discussions of the politics of security came full circle.
