About International Security
International Security is America’s leading peer-reviewed journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary, theoretical, and historical security issues. International Security is edited at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and is published by The MIT Press.
The growing debate concerning the soundness and direction of international security policies both in the United States and abroad signals a revival of intellectual ferment as well as intuitive uneasiness. Nations are increasingly defining their security not only in the conventional modes of military strength, economic vigor, and governmental stability, but also in terms of capabilities previously less central: energy supplies, science and technology, food, and natural resources. Two hundred years ago, a new state could secure its sovereignty and well-being through an ill-trained militia and a converted merchant fleet. Today, globalization has forced transnational concerns—such as trade, terrorism, and the environment—to be essential elements in the security considerations of any prospering society.
We view international security as embracing all factors that have a direct bearing on the structure of the nation-state system and the sovereignty of its members, with particular emphasis on the use, threat, and control of force. Our goal is to provide timely analyses of these issues through contributions that reflect diverse points of view and varied professional experiences. This interdisciplinary journal is offered as a vehicle for communication among scholars, scientists, industrialists, military and government officials, and members of the public who bear a continuing concern for this aspect of international life.
International Security offers a combination of professional and policy-relevant articles that we believe will contribute to the analysis of particular security problems. For more than thirty years, we have accommodated the broad range of methodologies and perspectives needed to clarify the various positions tendered in the discussion of international security. Our intent is to balance articles of assessment and opinion with those of analysis and research.
This effort is carried forward as a part of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. It is our expectation that research articles, reviews, debates, reports, documentation, and commentary, when made available regularly, will contribute to the disciplined discourse that distinguishes a profession.