NATO, Civilisation and Individuals : The Unconscious Dimension of International Security

This book critically engages with NATO's two main referent objects of security: civilisation and individuals. By rethinking the seemingly natural assumption of these two referent objects, it suggests the epistemological importance of an unconscious dimension to understand meaning formation and behaviour change in international security. The book provides a historicised and genealogical approach of the idea of civilisation that is at the core of the Alliance, in which human needs, narratives, and security arrangements are interconnected. It suggests that there is a Civilised Subject of Security at the core of modern Western security that has constantly produced civilised and secure subjects around the world, which explains NATO's emergence around a civilisational referent. The book then proceeds by considering the Individualisation of Security after the Cold War as another stage of the civilising process, based on NATO's military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Sarah da Mota is currently researching astropolitics and the impact of space exploration for IR, peace and security. She has co-authored Drones and the uninsurable security subjects (Third World Quarterly) and Visibility and Politics: an Arendtian reading of US drone policy (Nação e Defesa) This book critically engages with NATO's two main referent objects of security: civilisation and individuals. By rethinking the seemingly natural assumption of these two referent objects, it suggests the epistemological importance of an unconscious dimension to understand meaning formation and behaviour change in international security. The book provides a historicised and genealogical approach of the idea of civilisation that is at the core of the Alliance, in which human needs, narratives, and security arrangements are interconnected. It suggests that there is a Civilised Subject of Security at the core of modern Western security that has constantly produced civilised and secure subjects around the world, which explains NATO's emergence around a civilisational referent. The book then proceeds by considering the Individualisation of Security after the Cold War as another stage of the civilising process, based on NATO's military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Sarah da Mota is currently researching astropolitics and the impact of space exploration for IR, peace and security. She has co-authored Drones and the uninsurable security subjects (Third World Quarterly) and Visibility and Politics: an Arendtian reading of US drone policy (Nação e Defesa) Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Seeking Alternative Connections Between Civilisation and Security (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 1-31 IR’s Disciplinary Connections with Western Civilisation (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 33-44 Individualising Civilisation: The Civilised Subject of Security (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 45-68 Standards of Civilisation: Architecting Security, Order, and Hierarchy (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 69-80 NATO’s Deep Origins (1939–1949): Unbreaking the Civilised Habitus? (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 81-117 NATO’s Cold War Evolution: Civilisation from Referent Object to Standard (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 119-142 Post-Cold War NATO: New Ways and Reasons for Coexistence (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 143-161 The Individualisation of Security: A New Architecture for International Security (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 163-184 The Individualisation of Security Within NATO (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 185-229 Conclusion (Sarah da Mota)....Pages 231-238 Back Matter ....Pages 239-241 Annotation Critically engages with NATO's two main referent objects of security: civilisation and individuals. By rethinking the seemingly natural assumption of these two referent objects, it suggests the epistemological importance of an unconscious dimension to understand meaning formation and behaviour change in international security. The book provides a historicised and genealogical approach of the idea of civilisation that is at the core of the Alliance, in which human needs, narratives, and security arrangements are interconnected. It suggests that there is a Civilised Subject of Security at the core of modern Western security that has constantly produced civilised and secure subjects around the world, which explains NATO's emergence around a civilisational referent