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BETWEEN PERPETUAL WAR AND PERPETUAL PEACE: LIBERAL SOCIAL ORDER AS PERPETUAL (IN)SECURITY

Year 2020, Issue: 29, 79 - 94, 16.05.2020

Abstract

The past forty years have seen a growing number of publications focusing on security due to its increasing role in (re)shaping internal and external political processes. However, despite its growing popularity as an academic object, far too little attention has been paid to the historico-philosophical roots of the concept from key liberal political thinkers. This paper therefore explores how security has been conceptualized in relation to concepts like war, property, and peace, in Hobbes, Locke and Kant respectively. The paper argues that security is the key element in the fabrication of the liberal social order. The demand for security is never innocent but always deeply connected to the demand for a specific form of social order. Security is neither neutral, nor natural; rather, it is highly political. It thus must be regarded as a proactive rather than reactive idea or practice. The philosophico-historical validity of these arguments can be shown by (re)reading (proto)liberal classical texts.

Supporting Institution

This paper was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBİTAK) as part of 2214-A International Research Fellowship Program (for PhD Students) 2014/1

Project Number

Grant No:1059B141400383.

References

  • Foucault, Michel. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976. Edited by Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana. Translated by David Macey. New York: Picador, 2003.
  • Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan (R. Tuck, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  • Kant, Immanuel. Kant: Political Writings. Edited by H. S. Reiss. Translated by H. B. Nisbett. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Edited by Richard H. Cox. Illinois: Harlan Davidson inc. Croft classics, 1982.
  • Neocleous, Mark. Critique of Security. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. ———. The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power. London: Pluto Press, 2000. ———. War Power, Police Power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
  • Neocleous, Mark, and George S. Rigakos, eds. Anti-Security. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 2011.
  • Schmitt, Carl. The Concept of the Political: Expanded Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. ———. The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol. Translated by George Schwab and Erna Hilfstein. London: Greenwood Press, 1996.
  • Spieker, Jörg. “Foucault and Hobbes on Politics, Security, and War.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 36, no. 3 (2011): 187–199.
  • Tilly, Charles. “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime.” In Bringing the State Back In, edited by Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, 169–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
  • Walt, Stephen M. “The Renaissance of Security Studies.” International Studies Quarterly 35, no. 2 (1991): 211–239.
  • Wood, and Wood. A Trumpet Of Sedition: Political Theory and The Rise of Capitalism. New York: New York University Press, 1997.

BETWEEN PERPETUAL WAR AND PERPETUAL PEACE: LIBERAL SOCIAL ORDER AS PERPETUAL (IN)SECURITY

Year 2020, Issue: 29, 79 - 94, 16.05.2020

Abstract

Geçtiğimiz kırk yılda, güvenliğin iç/dış politik süreçleri (yeniden) şekillendirmede artan rolüne bağlı olarak güvenlik kavramına odaklanan yayınların sayısında artış görüldü. Gelgelelim, akademik bir nesne olarak artan popülerliğine rağmen kilit liberal düşünürlerde kavramın felsefi-tarihi köklerini göstermek için çok az çalışma yapılmıştır. Bu makale, Hobbes, Locke ve Kant’ta sırasıyla savaş, mülkiyet ve barış gibi kavramlarla ilişkili olarak güvenliğin kavramsallaştırılma biçimlerini araştırmaktadır. Çalışma güvenliğin liberal toplumsal düzenin üretiminde kilit unsur olduğunu ileri sürmektedir. Güvenlik talebi asla masum değildir ve her zaman belirli bir toplumsal düzen talebi ile derinden bağlantılıdır. Güvenlik ne nötrtür ne de doğaldır; fakat bir hayli politiktir. Bu nedenle de reaktif bir fikir ya da pratikten çok proaktif olarak görülmelidir. Bu argümanların felsefi-tarihsel geçerliliği klasik (proto) liberal metinlerin (yeniden) okunmasıyla gösterilebilir.

Project Number

Grant No:1059B141400383.

References

  • Foucault, Michel. Society Must Be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976. Edited by Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana. Translated by David Macey. New York: Picador, 2003.
  • Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan (R. Tuck, Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  • Kant, Immanuel. Kant: Political Writings. Edited by H. S. Reiss. Translated by H. B. Nisbett. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Edited by Richard H. Cox. Illinois: Harlan Davidson inc. Croft classics, 1982.
  • Neocleous, Mark. Critique of Security. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. ———. The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power. London: Pluto Press, 2000. ———. War Power, Police Power. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
  • Neocleous, Mark, and George S. Rigakos, eds. Anti-Security. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 2011.
  • Schmitt, Carl. The Concept of the Political: Expanded Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. ———. The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol. Translated by George Schwab and Erna Hilfstein. London: Greenwood Press, 1996.
  • Spieker, Jörg. “Foucault and Hobbes on Politics, Security, and War.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 36, no. 3 (2011): 187–199.
  • Tilly, Charles. “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime.” In Bringing the State Back In, edited by Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, 169–91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
  • Walt, Stephen M. “The Renaissance of Security Studies.” International Studies Quarterly 35, no. 2 (1991): 211–239.
  • Wood, and Wood. A Trumpet Of Sedition: Political Theory and The Rise of Capitalism. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
There are 11 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Erol Subaşi 0000-0001-5710-9988

Project Number Grant No:1059B141400383.
Publication Date May 16, 2020
Submission Date December 26, 2019
Acceptance Date May 14, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Issue: 29

Cite

Chicago Subaşi, Erol. “BETWEEN PERPETUAL WAR AND PERPETUAL PEACE: LIBERAL SOCIAL ORDER AS PERPETUAL (IN)SECURITY”. FLSF Felsefe Ve Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, no. 29 (May 2020): 79-94.

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