ABSTRACT
What is security? Where is it coming from? Is there a relationship between security and the use of military force? The aim of this chapter is to introduce and discuss the key concepts and causal relationships building the analytical framework of this book. Most importantly, three central questions are considered: a) what are the determinants of security as a concept?; b) what are the determinants of security as a policy or practice?; and finally c) what is the relationship between concept and policy (or what is the mechanism behind the translation of an idea/assumption into action/behavior?). After a review of the various meanings of security and of the associated disciplinary and theoretical approaches, it will be argued that culture affects grand strategy, although security outputs and outcomes (practice) might not necessarily reflect the cultural input.
