Civilizing Security

Ian Loader is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Policing and the Condition of England (with A. Mulcahy, 2003) and Crime and Social Change in Middle England (with E. Girling and R. Sparks, 2000) and an editor of the British Journal of Criminology. Ian is a leading authority on contemporary transformations in policing and security. Neil Walker is Professor of European Law in the Department of Law at the European University Institute, Florence. He has made well-known contributions to questions of transnational constitutional theory as well as to the study of policing and security. He has recently edited Europe's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (2004) and Relocating Sovereignty (2006).

• Prologue. On writing about security today; 1. Uncivil security?; Part I. On State Scepticism: 2. The state as meddler; 3. The state as partisan; 4. The state as cultural monolith; 5. The state as idiot; Part II. Securing States of Security: 6. The good of security; 7. The necessary virtue of the state; 8. The democratic governance of security; 9. Security as a global public good.

'Loader and Walker have well deserved reputations as being amongst the most thoughtful contemporary scholar writers on policing and security and this book will further enhance that standing. Given the current preoccupation with security, the need for a 'thickening' of the notion beyond the familiar coercive versus civil liberties frameworks could not be more pressing. Loader and Walker deftly unpick the complexities of the relationship between security and different understandings of the state and its functions. They also propose the development of a more rounded concept of security as a 'public good' and spell out in particular how what they term 'anchored pluralism' may contribute to a more grounded and progressive understanding of the term at the national and international level. An important and timely book which should be read well beyond the borders of criminology.' Kieran McEvoy, Director, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Queens University Belfast