Traditional analyses of global security cannot explain the degree to which there is “governance” of important security issues—from combatting piracy to curtailing nuclear proliferation to reducing the contributions of extractive industries to violence and conflict. They are even less able to explain why contemporary governance schemes involve the various actors and take the many institutional forms they do. Juxtaposing the insights of scholars writing about new modes of governance with the logic of network theory, this book offers a framework for understanding contemporary security governance ... More

Traditional analyses of global security cannot explain the degree to which there is “governance” of important security issues—from combatting piracy to curtailing nuclear proliferation to reducing the contributions of extractive industries to violence and conflict. They are even less able to explain why contemporary governance schemes involve the various actors and take the many institutional forms they do. Juxtaposing the insights of scholars writing about new modes of governance with the logic of network theory, this book offers a framework for understanding contemporary security governance and how it varies. The approach leads to a fresh look at power and how it works in global politics. While power is integral to governance, it is not a commodity actors own, but emerges from, and depends on, relationships. And power is dynamic. An actor’s relational position shapes her power, but it is also something she can take action to shape. The new power politics is thus about (1) maintaining, developing, and shaping relationships and (2) using them to affect governance outcomes. These two logics inform the structure of this volume. The authors examine how actors work to shape their network position and then how network structure and processes affect conflict reduction, alliances, and the mobilization of US action, as well as particular governance outcomes in making amends, small arms, military and security services, conflict diamonds, conflict minerals, land mines, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and antipiracy.