Uni Reading List
Index / 001 EN
Contemporary Security Studies cover

Political Science

Political Science

Contemporary Security Studies

Alan Collins (ed.)

An edited textbook on security studies, edited by Alan Collins, in which specialists introduce the main theoretical approaches to security and then apply them to a wide range of military and non-military issues. It shows how the field has widened from the study of interstate war to questions of human, societal, environmental, economic and cyber security.

Prerequisites: An introductory course in international relations is helpful; the theoretical approaches are explained from the beginning.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
security studiesinternational securitysecuritizationterrorismhuman securityTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Collins, A. (Ed.). (2025). Contemporary Security Studies (7th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The seventh edition has twenty-nine chapters by different specialists, 584 pages in all (the chapters run to page 452). After an introduction come three parts: approaches to security (Chapters 2–14), "Deepening and Broadening Security" (Chapters 15–20) and "Traditional and Non-Traditional Security" (Chapters 21–28); a closing chapter by Ole Wæver and Barry Buzan reflects on the field. Most chapters run to between 13 and 20 pages, so each is a short introduction to one approach or issue.

Chapter 1: Introduction: What is Security Studies?

Presents security studies as a sub-discipline of international relations that emerged after the First World War to help prevent war. It follows the shift from a state-centred, military focus towards other threats (pandemics, environmental degradation, transnational crime) and other referent objects.

Part 1, Chapters 2–3: Realism; Liberalism and Liberal Internationalism

Chapter 2 sets out the anarchic international system and the role of power, distinguishes structural from motivational realism, contrasts Waltz's systemic constraints with offensive and defensive realism, and asks how China's rise looks through these lenses. Chapter 3 traces liberalism from its Enlightenment roots to liberal internationalism and the current crisis of the liberal international order.

Part 1, Chapters 4–5: Historical Materialism—Marxist Insights on Security; Peace Studies

Chapter 4 presents historical materialism, arguing that capitalism and neoliberalism produce insecurity for labour and security for capital. Chapter 5 traces peace studies from its post-1945 origins, including the charge that it was "appeasement studies", to its concern with structural violence and the Global South.

Part 1, Chapters 6–7: Social Constructivism; Securitization Theory

Chapter 6 covers identity, norms and Wendt's claim that anarchy is what states make of it, separating conventional from critical constructivism. Chapter 7 explains how issues come to be framed as security threats, building on Wæver's idea of security as a speech act, with applications to migration, religion, climate and health.

Part 1, Chapters 8–9: Critical Security Studies: A Schismatic History; Critical Security Studies II—Narratives of Security: Other Stories, Other Actors

Chapter 8 is a self-reflective history of critical security studies from a 1994 conference, including its divisions among constructivism, poststructuralism and critical theory. Chapter 9 uncovers marginalised subjects in security discourse, such as Indigenous peoples, children and advanced weapons technologies.

Part 1, Chapters 10–11: Gender and Security; Postcolonialism

Chapter 10 treats gender as socially constructed and looks at women in militaries as participants and victims. Chapter 11 criticises the Eurocentric foundations of security studies and asks what it would mean to decolonise security.

Part 1, Chapters 12–14: Human Security; Nonhuman Security Studies; Popular Culture and Security

Chapter 12 traces human security from the 1994 UNDP report and weighs it against state sovereignty. Chapter 13, new to this edition, questions anthropocentrism and treats nonhumans as threats to, and subjects of, security. Chapter 14 considers how films, music and video games shape beliefs about conflict.

Part 2, Chapters 15–20: Military Security; Regime Security; Societal Security; Environmental Security; Economic Security; Globalization, Development, and Security

Six chapters that widen and deepen the agenda. Military security (revised for this edition) covers alliances, deterrence and arms control, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a current case. Regime security uses Syria to show how weak states' rulers face internal threats; societal security draws on the Copenhagen School and the Yugoslav wars; the environmental chapter links environmental change to conflict; the economic chapter applies microeconomic reasoning to crime, terrorism and sanctions; and the last argues that neoliberal globalisation, with Egypt and Ghana as cases, breeds grievances.

Part 3, Chapters 21–28: Weapons of Mass Destruction; Terrorism and Counter-terrorism; Humanitarian Intervention; Energy Security; The Weapons Trade; Health and Security; Transnational Crime; Cyber-Security

Eight issue chapters. Terrorism and energy security have been reworked for this edition. The humanitarian intervention chapter reviews Rwanda, Bosnia and Libya and the Responsibility to Protect; health and security sets HIV/AIDS, malaria and COVID-19 beside bio-security; the transnational crime chapter examines the crime–terror nexus; and cyber-security covers hacktivism, crime and state-sponsored operations and the problem of attribution.

Chapter 29: Long After the Return to Theory: The Past, Present, and Future of Security Studies

Wæver and Buzan trace the field from post-war America through its "Golden Age" of deterrence and game theory to the contrast between European critical approaches and US empirical work.

Key Concepts

Part 1: Approaches (Chapters 2–14)

  • Referent object: whose security is at stake (state, individual, community or nonhuman), the question that separates the approaches.
  • Securitization: the process by which an issue is presented as an existential threat that justifies extraordinary measures (Chapter 7).
  • Human and nonhuman security: security centred on people and, in the new Chapter 13, on nonhumans.

Parts 2 and 3: Issues (Chapters 15–28)

  • Societal and regime security: identity as the thing to be secured, and the survival of rulers in weak states.
  • Deterrence and arms control: tools of military security named in Chapter 15, with deterrence also discussed in the weapons of mass destruction chapter (Chapter 21).
  • Crime–terror nexus: the overlap of criminal and political violence in Chapter 27.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • Wide, clearly sorted coverage. The three parts move from theories to broadened referents to specific issues, and the publisher describes the coverage as broad and easy to digest.
  • Critical perspectives included. The publisher highlights poststructuralism, postcolonialism and post-human approaches, and the contents devote separate chapters to gender, postcolonialism and nonhuman security.
  • Study features. The publisher lists "Think point" boxes that prompt students to question assumptions and case study boxes that connect theory and practice, plus e-book resources with multiple-choice questions.
  • Responsive to current events. The edition adds a chapter on nonhuman security and revises chapters on military security, terrorism and energy; Gëzim Visoka (Dublin City University) describes it as well-rounded and regularly updated, and Joshua Skoczylis (University of Lincoln) as a good introduction to concepts, theories and debates.

Limitations

  • Short chapters by many hands. At 13 to 20 pages, each chapter can only introduce its topic, and an edited volume with many contributors will vary in approach.
  • Approaches before issues. A reader after a particular issue, such as cyber-security, has to bring the theoretical chapters along to interpret it.
  • No methods or regional chapters. The contents list no chapter on how security studies research is done and none organised by region.
  • Dated material. Chapters refer to events such as the invasion of Ukraine and COVID-19; this kind of material changes quickly.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within the security studies list, this is the edited, comprehensive textbook that combines theory and issues. Williams and McDonald's Security Studies: An Introduction is also an edited introductory text on traditional and critical approaches and contemporary issues, so the two overlap and one is enough as the main text. Browning's International Security: A Very Short Introduction is a brief entry point that asks whose security should matter and suits a first look before this book.

The primary works behind several chapters are on the same list. Buzan, Wæver and de Wilde's Security: A New Framework for Analysis is the book that set out the Copenhagen School and securitization, which Chapters 7 and 17 draw on. Waltz's Man, the State, and War and Mearsheimer's The Tragedy of Great Power Politics are the originals behind positions the realism chapter discusses: Waltz's account of systemic constraints and Mearsheimer's offensive realism.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates studying international relations or security. The publisher describes the coverage of theories and concepts as easy to digest; an introductory IR course helps but is not essential.

  • Core: Chapter 1, then Chapters 2, 3 and 6 for the main theoretical approaches, and Chapter 7 for securitization.
  • For a critical course: add Chapters 8–13, which develop the critical, feminist, postcolonial and nonhuman approaches.
  • For an issues course: choose from Chapters 15–28 by topic; most can be read alone after the core theory chapters.
  • Closing perspective: Chapter 29 is best read last, as a history of the field that puts the earlier chapters in context.
  • Practice: use the Think points and case boxes to apply a theory to a news event, then compare how two approaches would read it.