The View from (T)Here: Perspectives on Security

Abstract The field of security studies largely focuses its gaze on the security provider without consideration of how security practice is perceived as legitimate by those it is meant to protect. This article presents a framework for categorizing how security is understood based on two viewpoints: first, the core responsibility of the state for providing protection and, second, the universality of rights beyond one’s core identity group. These two angles shape a person’s worldview, which then informs how different forms of security practice are seen as legitimate by those who constitute the referent object of that practice. In this article, we offer security studies scholars and practitioners a sorting tool that categorizes these worldviews in four ways: statist, federalist, nativist, and cosmopolitan. We examine each of these four categories and discuss how each perspective shapes practice by so-called security providers and the legitimacy of that practice by referent populations. We introduce four illustrative examples that demonstrate how these perspectives operate in practice. Finally, we discuss the implications of varied security perspectives as they relate to the current global security architecture.