Truth and Security: The Possibility of Normative Judgment in Critical Security Studies.

This paper is about conceptions of truth in the field of Critical Security Studies. In particular, it aims at exploring two themes: 1) how different assumptions about knowledge have underpinned recent attempts to embed security within a political context, and what is the impact of these assumptions upon ideas about truth; and 2) whether existing accounts of truth in critical security studies can help us to devise normative criteria with which to make judgments about the desirability of security discourses and other claims to security. The paper makes the case for a reconsideration of the notion of truth in Critical Security Studies, and argues that a promising way to begin such an endeavor is the work of the Welsh School. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]