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Security, Strategy, and Critical Theory

Richard Wyn Jones
 
ISBN: 978-1-55587-335-6
$55.00
1999/196 pages/LC: 99-21482
Critical Security Studies
“There [has been] a great need for a book which explores directly the relationship between critical theory and security studies. Richard Wyn Jones’s book fills that gap admirably.”—Eric Herring, International Affairs

“Timely and valuable.... [This] book is a must-read for anyone engaged in security or strategic studies.... [Wyn Jones] brings a great deal of clarity to critical theory and its application to security studies.”—Craig Snyder, Millennium

DESCRIPTION

Laying out the conceptual foundations of critical security studies, Richard Wyn Jones uses the ideas of the Frankfurt School to advance critical thought about security, strategy, and the relationship between the theory and practice of security.

Wyn Jones provides a sophisticated yet accessible overview of the ideas of the Frankfurt School's main thinkers—Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas, Honneth, and Beck—and applies their insights to the study of security. His analysis challenges many of the assumptions underlying both the traditional and some alternative approaches to security studies. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Wyn Jones is senior lecturer in the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is editor of  Critical Theory and World Politics.  

CONTENTS

  • Introduction.
  • TRADITIONAL AND CRITICAL THEORY.
  • Promise: Toward a Critical Theory of Society.
  • Impasse: Emancipatory Politics After Auschwitz.
  • Redemption: Renewing the Critical Project.
  • TRADITIONAL AND CRITICAL SECURITY STUDIES.
  • Theory: Reconceptualizing Security.
  • Technology: Reconceptualizing Strategy.
  • Emancipation: Reconceptualizing Practice.
  • CONCLUSION.