National security cultures: patterns of global governance
National security culture is a meaningful independent variable affecting state behavior, argue emil J. kirchner and James Sperling (eds. in National Security Cultures: Patterns of Global Governance. They seek to explore the effects of national security culture on national security governance policies across europe, North America, and Asia. A collection of experts on 10 states plus the european Union each offer a chapter of analysis based on the editors' theoretical framework for analyzing the impact of national security cultures on national security governance, which they subdivide into four categories: assurance (which they define as post conflict intervention) prevention (pre conflict intervention) protection (internal security) and compellence (military intervention) Security culture is a notoriously difficult variable to pin down, so an effort at systematically assessing its effects as an independent variable is a welcome contribution to our understanding of security policy and governance. eleven qualitative analyses based on the same conceptual framework therefore mark a significant development, and make this an important volume for any student of security studies, strategic culture, or strategic studies more broadly. To develop such a framework for analysis, the editors broadly categorize states as exhibiting either "westphalian" or "post westphalian" security cultures, and suggest that this variable is more likely to be continuous than dichotomous. westphalian states, they contend (p. 4) exhibit a higher degree of sovereign control than do post westphalian states; are penetrated less deeply and less permanently by state and non state actors than are post westphalian states; define security in terms of territory and power as opposed to vulnerability and milieu goals; and define interests more narrowly than do post westphalian states. The implication is that the variation between westphalian and post westphalian security cultures will lead to variations in state behavior. The editors propose three hypotheses as to how this variation might unfold. First, they posit that national security culture will "account for the securitization of threats and the preferred instruments relied upon to meet them (p. 13)" Second, they hypothesize that collective action problems will be mitigated by post westphalian security cultures and intensified context of the first two "Transatlantic Bargains." Second, while transatlantic bargaining is discussed in the context of burden sharing, the massive issue of transatlantic burden sharing in the realm of defence is not addressed in a deliberate fashion. in spite of these lacunae, this volume offers an exceptionally broad and deep treatment of the key issues facing NATo that is a valuable reference for academics and practitioners. The timing of the book's release was almost unfortunate it deals with many of the underlying questions allies have had to address politically since Russia's invasion of Crimea, yet it predated that invasion by only a year. while unfortunate in the sense that the reader is deprived of what would certainly be valuable analysis of emerging Alliance issues, this timing also helps demonstrate the enduring conceptual value of a book like this one. Future volumes, structured similarly but updated to address emerging issues, would be valuable for scholars and policy makers alike.