Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War (New International Relations) New Edition by Hansen, Lene published by Routledge

by Lene Hansen

This important text offers a full and detailed account of how to use discourse analysis to study foreign policy making. It provides an in-depth discussion of the methodology of discourse analysis and a poststructuralist theory of the relationship between identity and foreign policy.Part I examines the concept of identity and the intertextual relationship between official foreign policy discourse and oppositional and media discourses. It explains how genres can be as significant as having authority and knowledge when authors and politicians seek to establish themselves. Lene Hansen also presents and explains a theory of the construction of identity in foreign policy debates and demonstrates how competing discourses destabilize each other and how the dynamic of self versus other, pervades the process of foreign policy making.Part II applies discourse analytical theory and methodology to a detailed analysis of the Western debate on the Bosnian war. This analysis includes a historical genealogy ofthe Western construction of the Balkans as well as readings of the official British and American policies, the debate in the House of Commons and the US Senate, Western media representations, academic debates and travel writing and autobiography.Providing an introduction to discourse analysis and critical perspectives on international relations this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of international relations, security studies and research methodology.

Genres: International Relations, Academic, Political Science

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Kathleen in Oslo]

My GR shelves to the contrary, not everything I read is gay kinkster hockey-playing werewolf detectives. Just 99% of the things I read.

Re-read this for work and was reminded just how good it is. Excellent teaching text (more at the MA and PhD level) that really demonstrates the doing of discourse analysis on foreign and security policy (though applicable more broadly). Buzan and Wæver are most closely connected with the Copenhagen school, but for my money Hansen is the most accessible and useful, and the least problematic.

Anyway, in spirit of "if it's a book and I read it, it's going on GR" -- an incisive and deservedly influential read for those who dig this kind of thing (and/or are forced by their professors to read it).

[Shae C R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This enlightening book was introduced to me by my professor Dr. Homeira Moshirzadeh when I had just begun working on my master's thesis proposal.
For a junior researcher who had read about discourse analysis mostly in theory and had rarely used it for a large-scale study, this book was the holy grail. I was still trying to find a way to narrow down the scope of my research at the time and Hansen's quadrilateral research model for a discursive analysis of identity (Based on the number of selves, the inter-textual models that would be analyzed, the temporal perspective of the research and finally the number of events studied) really paved the way for me in this regard, hence I can even say that my actual thesis question was formulated thanks to this book.
It also introduced me to several other theorists including but not limited to Ole Wæver, the rock star of security studies, whose work has been my muse ever since, Roxanne Doty, whose 1997 work helped me through the empirical part of my research and Henrik Larsen, whose views on Europeanness familiarized me with "Othering" more than ever.
All in all, now that I have read a handful of works on identity, security, Othering, Securitization, De-Securitization and discourse analysis, I find that at some points my viewpoints diverge from those of Hansen's but this work remains to be among the most eye-opening works I have ever read and Lene Hansen remains to be among the top people who have influenced my research interest and probably my whole academic path.

[Vanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could be incredibly helpful to budding academics.

[Alex B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic guide of poststructuralist discourse analysis. It is extremely helpful and interesting.