19. International Security and Arms Control

Timothy Crawford, Boston College, timothy.crawford@bc.edu

Inequalities bedevil if not drive most aspects of both conflict and cooperation in international security. The categories conveying these inequalities form key concepts for security studies research, and the politics they implicate are the foci of much of our theorizing. The debate over American hegemony and its various synonyms (unipolarity, primacy, empire, global leadership, forward engagement, etc.) is, among other things, about the implications of inequality for international stability. So is theorizing about the structural patterns of conflict between satisfied status quo powers and rising revisionists and the propensities of great powers to “balance.” We study alliance politics between big and small allies, and “asymmetric conflicts” and the “asymmetric strategies” weak actors use in them; and both research programs speak to the present conflict between states and transnational terrorist groups. The “war on terrorism” is, indeed, premised on a fundamental inequality: the illegitimate violence of terrorists (unlawful enemy combatants) is distinguished from the violence inflicted by regular forces (lawful combatants) operating under state authorities.

The politics of nuclear non-proliferation is a struggle between the haves and have-nots which plays out in geopolitical, international legal, and normative arenas, as interested actors tout concepts that legitimize or de-legitimize the blatant inequality of the NPT regime. At the United Nations, inequalities run rampant in the politics of international peace and security and UN reform, starting with the veto power of the Security Council’s five permanent members and continuing down to the rights, obligations, and prerogatives of member states vs. non-state-actors and NGOs.

Research into the nature and dynamics of civil war inevitably revolves around inequalities and the categories we use to represent them. Rebel minorities resist unjust rule while central governments battle terrorist insurgents and criminal elements. Powerful outside actors that intervene, for humanitarian reasons or otherwise, bolster one side or another in the struggle, and thus introduce new inequalities.

The division seeks proposals for papers and panels relating to the themes noted above, and any others addressing major security issues broadly defined. Research reflecting the gamut of social science methods and approaches is welcome.