Security as politics: beyond the state of exception

Title: 'Security as politics: beyond the state of exception'
Speaker: Dr Andrew Neal (University of Edinburgh)
Date: Wednesday 8^th May
Time: 13:00-14:30
Location: SCH101 (Schofield Building)

The lecture will centre on arguments developed in Dr. Neal’s new book, Security as Politics (Edinburgh University Press).

Dr. Neal will argue that while ‘security’ was once an anti-political ‘exception’ in liberal democracies, it has now become normalised in professional political life. This challenges critical security studies debates and their core assumption that security is a kind of illiberal, undemocratic and exceptional ‘anti-politics’. Using archival research and interviews with politicians, he investigates UK security politics from the 1980s to the present day to show how its meaning and practice have changed over time. In so doing, he develops an original reassessment of the security/politics relationship.