1. Approaches to European Security
PI5501 Lecture 2

2. Approaches to European Security
Realism
Neo-realism
Liberalism/Utopianism
Neo-liberalism
Social Constructivism
Post Structuralism

3. Approaches to European Security
What is security?

4. Realism and Strategic Theory
Realism (classical)
Pessimism about human nature and international system
Anarchy
Self-help
Major concern: survival and security
Accumulation of power
Focus is on the state/nation – Why? (Hobbes)
Treaty of Westphalia (1648)

5. Realism and Strategic Theory
Use in the Cold War
Role and application of military power to achieve political objectives
Geopolitics and territory
Conventional and strategic military power
(Nuclear) deterrence
Alliances
Bi-polar system and peace

6. Realism and Strategic Theory
Clausewitz On War (1832)
War: a controlled, rational, instrumental, political and legitimate act.
Norman Angell The Great Illusion (1914)
Inverse relationship between the cost of war and its frequency
War:
Causes of (particular) wars (19th C), or
Causes of War (phenomenon) (K. Waltz)

7. Realism and Strategic Theory
Basic Tenants of Neo-Realism
Anarchic system
States are primary actors
States are unitary actors
States are power seeking
States are rational actors

8. Realism and Strategic Theory
Kenneth Waltz Man, the State and War (1959)
3 “Images” (or causes)
Human Behaviour
Internal Structures of the State
International Anarchy
War: functional to system’s preservation
Balance of power mechanism
Conflict-resolution mechanism

9. Realism and Strategic Theory
Balance of Power and Deterrence
What is deterrence?
Nuclear Deterrence in the Cold War
MAD-based stability
based on rationality (?)
Nuclear Proliferation in the Post-Cold War
Greater deterrence?
Greater instability and danger?

10. Realism and Strategic Theory
Dominance of (Neo)realism in IR during Cold War:
International Sec=Strategic Studies
Security Dilemma, Balance of Power, Alliances, War, Deterrence, Arms Control Agreements
Weaknesses and contradictions of traditional approach
Anarchy? (collaboration and cooperation)
State as unitary actor? (pluralism)
State as primary actor? (non-state actors)
State as power seeking? (small states)
State as rational? (information)

11. Liberalism and institutions
Post-1945 International Relations:
Rise of international institutions as collective actors
Collective action problem
Rise of European integration
Rise of Pluralism in the US
Pluralism focused on new actors (transnational corporations, non-governmental organizations) and new patterns of interaction (interdependence, integration).
In the post-1945 period, liberals turned to international institutions to carry out a number of functions the state could not perform. This was the catalyst for integration theory in Europe and pluralism in the United States. By the early 1970s, pluralism had mounted a significant challenge to realism. It focused on new actors (transnational corporations, non-governmental organizations) and new patterns of interaction (interdependence, integration).

12. A new liberalism Neoliberalism’s challenge to contemporary realism.
They explain the durability of institutions despite significant changes in context.
Institutions exert a causal force on international relations, shaping state preferences and locking them in to cooperative arrangements.
Feedback loop
Democratic peace liberalism and neoliberalism are the dominant strands in liberal thinking today.
Neoliberalism represents a more sophisticated theoretical challenge to contemporary realism. They explain the durability of institutions despite significant changes in context. According to neoliberals, institutions exert a causal force on international relations, shaping state preferences and locking them in to cooperative arrangements.
Democratic peace liberalism and neoliberalism are the dominant strands in liberal thinking today.

13. Neo-liberalism
Neo-liberal institutionalism is rooted in the functional integration theoretical work of the 1950s and 60s and the complex interdependence and transnational studies literature of the 1970s and 80s.
IR 2001 International Organisations in Europe
Neo-liberal institutionalists see institutions as the mediator and the means to achieve co- operation in the international system.
Regimes and institutions help govern a competitive and anarchic international system and they encourage, and at times require, multilateralism and co-operation as a means of securing national interests.

14. Neo-liberalism
Neo-liberal institutionalists recognize that co- operation may be harder to achieve in areas where leaders perceive they have no mutual interests.
Neo-liberals believe that states co-operate to achieve absolute gains and the greatest obstacle to co-operation is ‘cheating’ or non-compliance by other states.
This is were institutions come in.

15. This is an intra-paradigm debate.
The neo-neo debate
The neo-neo debate is not a debate between two polar opposite worldviews.
They share an epistemology (shared knowledge), focus on similar questions and they agree on a number of assumptions about international politics.
This is an intra-paradigm debate.

16. The neo-neo debate
Neo-liberal institutionalists and neo-realists study different worlds of international politics.
Neo-realists focus on security and military issues - the high politics issue area.
Neo-liberal institutionalists focus on political economy, environmental issues, and lately, human rights issues. These issues have been called the low politics issue agenda.

17. The neo-neo debate
Neo-realists explain that all states must be concerned with the absolute and relative gains that result from international agreements and co- operative efforts.
Neo-liberal institutionalists are less concerned about relative gains and consider that all will benefit from absolute gains.
Neo-realists are more cautious about co- operation and remind us the world is still a competitive place where self-interest rules.

18. The neo-neo debate
Neo-liberal institutionalists believe that states and other actors can be persuaded to co-operate if they are convinced that all states will comply with rules and co- operation will result in absolute gains.
This debate does not discuss many important issues that challenge some of the core assumptions of each theory.
For example, neo-realism cannot explain foreign policy behavior that challenges the norm of national interest over human interests.
Neither theory addresses the impact of learning on the foreign policy behavior of states.

19. Neo-liberalism: A recap
Five key points to remember about Neoliberalism
States live with institutionalised cooperation
States are one of many actors
States are complex actors
States are still rational actors
States seek co-operation over conflict

20. Social Constructivism
Cold War
1960s & 1970s
Rise of security debate
Important changes in the West
1980s & 1990s
Security debate
Strategic Studies
Co-operative Security and Collective Security
Human Security

21. Social Constructivism
Key questions:
Security for whom?
Security for which values?
Security from what threats?
Security provided by whom?
Security by what means?

22. Social Constructivism
Key elements:
Securitisation as a speech-act (language theory)
Force of word “security”
Security and threats: neither subjective nor objective but rather intersubjective
Widens the security agenda
Opposite to the rationalist, objectivist theories
Focus on ideas, identities, perceptions, beliefs
Securitisation: moderate constructivist approach
Regional Security complexes
See next page

23. European security complex

24. Social Constructivism
In post-Cold War Europe:
Salience of regional security
Region as unit of analysis
Regional Security
Degree of autonomy from systemic level
Degree of interdependence
Regionally based clusters of security

25. Social constructivism and Security
Sector
Military
Political
Economic
Societal
Environ-mental
Object
State’s
sovereignty/
territorial
integrity
Government’s
recognition/
legitimacy
economy?
Nation’s
identity/
culture
Local and
planetary
biosphere
Threat
Military attack
Coup d’etat/
secessionism
Closing access
to external
resources?/
Embargoes?/
protectionism?
/monopoly?
Migration/
assimilation
/prohibition to
practice one’s
religion, etc.
Pollution/
depletion of
nat. resources

26. Social Constructivism
Summary of Social Constructivism
Context of its development
Questions the definition of security
Adds new dimension to theoretical debate
Allows for widening of agenda
Highlights importance of regions

27. Theories and Concepts Anarchy Security Dilemma Deterrence
The Role of the State
Alliances
Conflict
Security
How do different theories engage with these concepts?

28. Seminar Topic
Whose interests and whose security in European security?