Critical and Conventional Approaches to Security

National Security and Terrorism

In this course, Dr Lily Hamourtziadou (Birmingham City University) explores national security and the threat of terrorism. In the first lecture, we think about the contrasting critical and conventional approaches to security. In the second lecture, we think about forms of irregular warfare and the groups involved in each type. In the third lecture, we think about counter terrorism strategies and the war on terror. Next, we think about the use of drones in counter terrorism. In the fifth and final lecture, we think about critical and conventional approach views on the use of killer drones in warfare.

Critical and Conventional Approaches to Security

In this lecture, we think about the critical and conventional approaches to security, focusing in particular on: (i) the conventional approach to security, which posits that threats exist in the world independently of the state in question and its actions; (ii) the conventional approach position that national security and territorial sovereignty are of utmost importance; (iii) the importance of border control and defence in the conventional approach to security; (iv) the conventional approach to security, which considers war to be inevitable, positing that the most important aspect of security is that a nation should be ready for war at any time; (v) the critical approach to security, which states that threats are not objective, but part of the politics of representation; (vi) the critical approach’s view that knowledge can change over time, relative to truth; (vii) collective, cooperative and human security under the critical approach, which serve a purpose above individual national security; (viii) defunding the military in favour of international cooperation as part of a critical approach to security; (ix) a critical approach consideration of the conditions that create a threat to national security, rather than just the threat itself; (x) violations of rights, injustice, poverty and illiteracy as threats to national security under the critical approach; (xi) contrasting threats from outside of the sovereign nation with those present within; (xii) ideational threats as a core threat to individual and national security.