Security in the age of networks

TLDR

Security is conceptualized as produced by networks of public and private actors, moving beyond the state‑vs‑market debate to focus on the shared complex morphology of security assemblages that exist at local, institutional, international, and informational levels in both Anglo‑Saxon and Continental societies. The study proposes a dynamic framework grounded in the capital metaphor to overcome the descriptive nature of network approaches by illustrating how each actor mobilizes distinct resources to maximize its position within a security network. This framework can be applied to map the emergence and transformation of security networks and the strategies employed by their nodes.

Abstract

Using the literature on the networked society as a starting point, this article argues that security can also be conceptualized as being produced by various networks of actors—public and private. This approach eschews the usual debate between those who defend the pre‐eminence of the state (general interest) and those in favour of a plural mode of security production (market‐oriented) to focus instead on the shared complex morphology that characterizes security assemblages in the present era: networks. Security networks are found in both Anglo‐Saxon and Continental societies at the local, institutional, international and informational levels. In order to overcome the descriptive tendency of network approaches, a dynamic framework based on the capital metaphor shows how each actor of a security network mobilizes distinct forms of resources in order to maximize its position in the network. This framework can be applied to chart the emergence and transformation of security networks and the strategies deployed by their nodes.