Security and International Relations

Building a foundation under security and international security

We need a foundation on which we can construct a conceptual framework to understand and explain security. Such a foundation is also needed to justify the choices we've made in chapter 1 about the relevant actors, factors, and levels of actor exchanges associated with security and the central role of the state. One tried and tested way is to examine how thinkers and statesmen have traditionally understood what security means and to draw on this knowledge in forming our own positions. This may well lead to rejecting “old” thinking and striking out on our own. In critically evaluating the thinking of the past, there is no presumption at the start of this intellectual journey that we are necessarily prejudicing where our views about security will eventually take us.

If we examine the thinking of three great theorists – Thomas Hobbes, Carl von Clausewitz, and Thucydides – who devoted much of their genius to explaining and understanding security, we can get a jump start in our quest to develop our own theory of security by trading on their insights. Their contributions provide a point of departure, not a final resting point. Studying the thinking of these theorists won't tell us all we want to know, but it will help us to learn how to think about security and quite a bit about what to think about security and why. These thinkers were able to go well beyond their eras.