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Security Is A Threat Of Security

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Introduction:
Security is a central concern in the study of international relations (IR). Yet despite being the focus of considerable scrutiny, few agreed conceptions of security exist (Buzan, 1991; Huysmans, 2006; Terriff et al., 1991; McSweeney, 1999; Morgan, 1992; Croft 2012; Smith 2000). Buzan even goes as far to posit that the very conception of security is “essentially contested” and thus poses an unsolvable debate (Buzan, People, states and fear; Little, ideology and change, p35). These disagreements have created rifts in the security community over what can be threatened and indeed what can even be considered a threat. Part of the complexity to the subject is derived from the numerous opposing and often contradicting theoretical perspectives within international relations itself, of which security is a sub-field (Terrif et al. 1991 – Security studies today). This paper thereby seeks to trace the various theoretical strands of security studies with the hope of elucidating how and why Islam, and Muslims immigrants have been increasingly portrayed as a threat and ‘Otherised’ in Britain.
The ‘Golden Age’ of Security Studies:
For the latter half of the Twentieth Century, the dominant school of thought related to security was neo-realism. Stemming from works produced by Hobbes, Thucydides, and Machiavelli, followers of the neo-realists paradigm sought to see the world for what it was, rather than what they wished (Crawford 1991; Terrif et al., 1991). Established in 1979

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