Politics of Security: Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought

by Michael Dillon

In this critique of security studies, with insights into the thinking of Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Levinas and Arendt, Michael Dillon contributes to the rethinking of some of the fundamentals of international politics developing what might be called a political philosophy of continental thought. Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger, Politics of Security establishes the relationship between Heidegger's readical hermeneutical phenomenology and politics and the fundamental link between politics, the tragic and the ethical. It breaks new ground by providing an etymology of security, tracing the word back to the Greek asphaleia (not to trip up or fall down), and a unique political reading of Oedipus Rex . Michael Dillon traces the roots of desire for security to the metaphysical desire for certitude, and points out that our way of seeking that security is embedded in 20th century technology, thus resulting in a global crisis. Politics of Security will be invaluable to both political theorists and philosophers, and to anyone concerned with international relations, continental philosophy or the work of Martin Heidegger.

Genres: International Relations

264 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 1996

About the author

Michael Dillon is Emeritus Professor of International Politics at the University of Lancaster, UK

Dillon researches the problematisation of politics, security and war from the perspective of continental philosophy. He has been especially interested in what happens to the problematisation of security when security discourses and technologies take life rather than sovereign territoriality as their referent object (www.keele.ac.uk/biopoliticsofsecurity). He has also written extensively on security and war, international political theory, continental philosophy,and cultural research. Since security is foundational to all understandings of the political, he also researches the relation between continental thought and political theory; concentrating increasingly on the philosophy of the event, the politics of encounter and more recently divine violence and political theology drawing on the philosophy of Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida and Jacques Ranciere.

Reviews

[Lukáš · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best political theory books I've ever read. Dillon takes up some of Heidegger's "less" political texts, asks if we can take them seriously as political thought and from this point, reconstructs what is known as politics AS a politics of security, which gradually loses meaning as anything told by "typical" Cold War or post-Cold War analyses and instead becomes a process of confronting and taming reality. This has two closely related fronts - the first one is a radical challenge to the 'unreality' of whatever 'realist' or 'idealist' politics of security there are, and at the same time, showing how through confronting these matters, we can arrive to a much broader and deeper understanding of politics as traditionally held. The re-reading of Greek tragedy as a counter-problematique to the eschatologies of liberal security then simply comes as stellar. Not an easy book to read, but rewarding.

[Amr Magdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely inspiring read.. challenging, difficult, needs a lot of focus.. but my experience with it tells me it's indispensable. If you want to read something on the essence of security, freedom, polity and all of these terms. That's the book to read.

It elaborates mainly on Heidegger but also Foucault and Derrida .. Oedipus Rex is a major pillar in the book institution that is also analyzed very brilliantly by Dillon.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For one not immersed in contintental thought, it is fairly accessible. Some of the most provocative thoughts -- that politics is necessarily immersed in metaphysics, that philosophy is a security project, that at the heart of contemporary international relations lies the seeds of its own destruction.