From Social to National Security: On the Fabrication of Economic Order

Abstract

This article explores some of the conceptual, political and historical links between social and national security. Social security and national security are not often talked about together, despite the recent surge of interest in widening the security agenda. The first aim of this article is to contribute to critical ways of thinking security by identifying the issues connecting social and national security. The second aim is to suggest that if there is any mileage in the idea of ‘securitization’ as a process, its primary example may lie in the realm of social security. The third aim is to link social security and national security via the notion of economic security, bringing together themes within international political economy and security studies in an argument about the fabrication of economic order.