Governing Anarchy: A Research Agenda for the Study of Security Communities

Abstract

Adler and Barnett demonstrate how changes occurring in international politics create the nostalgia of security communities, a concept made prominent by Karl Deutsch nearly forty years ago. The realist-based models in security debates are giving way to the constructivist approach to possibilities of peace by establishing communities rather than by balancing power. By thinking the unthinkable - that community exists at the international level, shaping security politics and developing a pacific disposition - the authors intend to draw attention to the concept's importance for understanding contemporary events.