Exploring ‘What’s Good about Security’: Politics of Security during the Dissolution of Yugoslavia

Abstract:

In the last decade, students of Critical Security Studies (CSS) have been increasingly studying and understanding the concept of security in negative terms. The way they choose to analyse security instils a one-sided understanding, which revolves around totalizing the material and ideational power of the state. This paper aims to discuss how students of CSS can avoid essentializing the meaning of security by extending its analytical scope beyond security professionalism and state-centrism. It will be argued that it is possible to inquire ‘what is good about security’ by examining the experiences of the most victimized through a study of the pluralism of politics of security. The argument will be illustrated through a discussion of ideas and practices of the Yugoslav anti-war feminist movement between 1989 and 1994.