Regional security: Demarcating theoretical and empirical borders

Abstract

The relevance of regional security has increased in the wake of decolonization and the end of the Cold War. In a globalized and intertwined world, security can no longer be conceived as having the state as its sole object or subject. Regional clusters of security have become a new paradigm in international relations, and a new wave of regionalist scholarship has arisen in response. However, although this body of work has devoted considerable attention to defining the elements that constitute each regional cluster, less attention has been given ascertaining how such clusters are formed. This exploratory chapter provides an extensive review of the relevant literature and draws two conclusions. First, it suggests that, as postulated by a large portion of the regional security literature, regions of security are a natural consequence of proximity, as threats travel more easily over short distances than over longer ones. Second, it extends that argument by arguing that security also clusters at the regional level when regions are targets of extra-regional threats (regions as objects), and when they gain ‘actorness’ and operate as agents of peace and security (regions as subjects).

Citation

Tavares, R. (2010), "Regional security: Demarcating theoretical and empirical borders", Berg Harpviken, K. (Ed.) Troubled Regions and Failing States: The Clustering and Contagion of Armed Conflicts (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 27), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-170. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-6310(2010)0000027010