Poetics of Security

In: Alternatives: global, local, political, Band 25, Heft 3, S. 287-306

Abstract

Conventional International Relations (IR) theory defines security as "freedom from danger or risk." Understood in this way, "security" has often been used to justify courses of action & support traditional authorities & regimes. Emphasis on this particular definition has also marginalized other equally valid ways of understanding security. An examination of extracts from four poetic works -- a verse of the ancient Greek writer Archilochus, a selection from an Epistle of St. Paul (1st Thessalonians 5:1-10), a section of a Sufi poem by Jalaludin Rumi, & a portion of The Garden of the Prophet by the contemporary Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran -- reveals other ways of understanding security. Particularly significant is security as "freedom from care" rather than "freedom from danger." Recognizing the arbitrary ways in which "security" as it has traditionally been understood by IR theorists & security practitioners is thought to be the first step in conceiving & implementing viable alternatives. K. W. Larsen