Cover -- Half-title -- Series-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 The meaning of security -- Usage and meaning -- From 'defence' to 'security' -- Part I Objectivist approaches to international security -- 2 Early stages of development -- Principal ideas and periods of development -- The period of political theory -- The 'golden age' of political science -- Self-images of the 'golden age' -- 3 Broadening the concept of security -- Buzan's agenda for 'international security studies' -- An overview of the Buzan thesis -- Individuals and the state -- The question of values -- The domestic dimension and the role of sectors -- The regional dimension -- The question of agency -- 4 Identity versus the state -- Society and societal security -- The problem of identity -- Identity and moral judgment -- Part II Theorizing security: the turn to sociology -- 5 A conceptual discussion -- Security as an 'essentially contested' idea -- Subjects, objects and instruments -- Natural and social threats -- Positive and negative security -- 6 The social constructionist approach -- Causality and structure in neorealism -- The social constructionist approach -- Sociology and the sociology of knowledge -- Deconstructing security -- 7 The limits of identity theory -- An alternative turn to sociology -- 8 Agency and structure in social theory -- Elements of social action -- Reflexivity and the monitoring of routine -- The duality of structure -- The double hermeneutic -- The state as actor -- 9 Seeing a different world: a reflexive sociology of security -- The need for security -- Security and identity -- The inner-outer dimensions of identity -- Identity as structure and action -- Doing identity -- The duality of identity and interests -- A seduction model -- Part III Practising security.

10 Doing security by stealth -- Doing identity and interests -- The primacy of interests -- 11 Conclusion: Security and moral choice -- Different worlds, different security -- Social constructionism and neo-liberal constructivism -- A reflexive model of social order -- Reflexivity as seduction -- Security as moral choice -- Bibliography -- Index.