ABSTRACT
Cold War Security Studies had two ‘foundational precepts’: the historical context of the Cold War and its students’ embrace of realism. Cold War Security Studies embraced realism’s scientific-objectivist conception of theory and theory/practice relationship. The chapter discusses four main strands of criticism raised by the proponents of common security, the World Order Models Project (WOMP), students of Peace Research and Third World security. Common security thinking emerged during the height of the Cold War, as part of a broad set of efforts designed to find a way out of the superpower nuclear arms race. The WOMP was assembled during the 1960–1980s as a response to the Cold War tensions that also animated the proponents of common security. Feminists, proponents of common security and WOMP, students of Peace Research and Third World security, as well as other participants to peace movements challenged such presumptions.
