Security in Anarchy: Utopian Realism in Theory and Practice

Abstract

Peer reviewe

Marginalising women in politics: Recent trends in KwaZulu-Natal

“…Traditionally, security tended to be equated with state security and was thus viewed only from a state-centric and militarist point of view with the state as the sole actor (Booth 1991). However, new sources of threat to human existence emerged in the last decade of the 20 th century which poses greater danger to human existence than interstate war, with the result that there has been an increasing need to rethink the concept of security.…”

“…However, new sources of threat to human existence emerged in the last decade of the 20 th century which poses greater danger to human existence than interstate war, with the result that there has been an increasing need to rethink the concept of security. This rethinking has widened and deepened the concept to include people as referent subjects in the security calculus (Booth 1991;Buzan 1991;Peterson 1992;Tickner 1995). For example, in its 1994 Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) maintains that threats to human security occur in at least seven distinct areas of human existence (UNDP, 1994):…”

A reassessment of E.H. Carr and the realist tradition: Britain, German–Soviet Relations and neoclassical realism

“…In contrast to this hopeful outlook, realists 'can generally be counted on to take a pessimistic or "Augustinian" view of the behaviour of man or society or both in the conduct of international relations' (Haslam, 2002, p. 12). It is the former elements, as others have pointed out, which have been downplayed in the conventional understanding of Carr (Booth, 1991;Howe, 1994;Linklater, 1997).…”

“…In turn, the depiction of it as realism par excellence has been undermined. Booth (1991), as an example, concludes that the traditional depiction of it as an attack on utopianism 'failed to note [Carr's] uncertainty, his criticism of realism and his positive comments about utopianism' (p. 531).…”

“Utopian in the Right Sense”: The Responsibility to Protect and the Logical Necessity of Reform

“…85 Booth likewise rejected expansive plans for global governance, advocating instead "reformist steps" toward both the diffusion of decision-making on certain issues to communities below the level of the state, and the transfer of authority on other matters of global importance to "global functional organisations" above the state. 86 Carr and Booth's prescriptions thus share core similarities: a disinclination to accept that the lawless power politics of the state system is immutable; a belief that normative prescriptions must be advanced lest we lapse into sterility; a conviction that prescriptions need not be immediately feasible, but also should not be hopelessly idealistic; and, ultimately, that progressive change requires diminishing the power of states through the delegation of authority to bodies above-and in Booth's case also below-states. How might such guidelines be applied to the prevention and cessation of intrastate mass atrocities?…”