ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical roots of the security crisis confronting the field. It presents the historical origins of the current crisis in an attempt to understand the task that lies before us in the subsequent chapters. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores what a sophisticated form of realism and a political form of constructivism has to offer in the attempt to build a robust understanding of security that can be used to implement successful policy. It seek to demonstrate that while realism does not succeed as a general theory of international politics, it does provide a necessary understanding of the relationship between national security and human welfare in 'reasonably decent polities.'
