Beyond the Security Dilemma
Ending America's Cold War
Routledge Revivals Series

This title was first published in 2001. The security dilemma has long been at the heart of the security studies discipline. Moving beyond this, this book attacks the assumptions of the traditional concept and redefines the security dilemma in a way more useful for examining security policy. By exposing the historical and social contingency of the traditional concept, the book argues that the security dilemma is an important though not a permanently operating feature of international politics. An examination of US policy towards the Soviet Union demonstrates the limits of perceiving the Cold War and challenges the role that American security policy has played in the process of constructing a transatlantic security community.

Contents: Critical security studies and the security dilemma; The security dilemma: the military dimension; America’s cold war: the military dimension; Security communities and normative dilemmas; America’s cold war: the political dimension; American hegemony: the economic dimension; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.