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Ethics of Security

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies

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Introduction

Security is an essentially contested term with an even broader and heated debate (Gallie 1956). Security, in terms of conception and practice, is inherently a normative activity. The pursuit of security is often regarded as a priority task for supranational, national, and subnational actors within the international system, and portrayed as being driven by structural aspects or actor imperatives (Mearsheimer 2019). However, there is nothing automatic or natural about security. That is, security is bound up with the (perceived) need to make choices as one looks to secure a particular object against a particular threat or set of threats. It is within these adoptions – themselves up for debate but often made implicitly – that the ethics of security are revealed. Ignoring these choices, and neglecting their consequences, does not make security any less ethics bound; rather, it merely means that one is dealing with it in an inattentive fashion.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Global Affairs, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Christopher Ankersen

  2. International Centre for Policing and Security, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK

    Scott N. Romaniuk

Authors
  1. Christopher Ankersen
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  2. Scott N. Romaniuk
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher Ankersen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Alberta, AB, Canada

    Scott Romaniuk

  2. Nemzetkozi Tanulmanyok Intezet, Rm 503, Corvinus Univ, Inst of Intl Studies, Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Marton

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Ankersen, C., Romaniuk, S.N. (2021). Ethics of Security. In: Romaniuk, S., Marton, P. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_41-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74336-3_41-1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74336-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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