Abstract
The Duty to Secure
From Just to Mandatory Securitization
Cambridge University Press, 2024
The Journal of International Political Theory provides a space for scholars working at the intersection of political theory and international relations. Rita Floyd’s book, The Duty to Secure, sits squarely within that intersection. In her provocative new book, she extends and develops the arguments she made in her 2019 book, The Morality of Security. In that work, she argued that securitization could be considered through a normative lens. In this most recent book, she takes that further by arguing that there may well be a duty to secure, or a moral obligation to securitize various issues in international relations. Bringing together the just war theory with the IR theory of securitization, she has made an important contribution to both IR theory and International Political Theory.
But, as the contributors to this roundtable on her book demonstrate, not everyone is satisfied with her account. Some argue that it fails to appreciate the complexity of the just war tradition while others look to how it relates to the concept of securitization. Professor Floyd responds to these concerns and issues in her response.
We believe that JIPT is the right space for engaging with these kinds of arguments. I am happy to see the engagement with Professor Floyd’s work. I look forward to more such roundtables on important new works in the ever widening field of International Political Theory.