Security Dialogue

• 1. Introduction

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  Security Dialogue is a peer-reviewed academic journal with an origin story rooted in the political urgencies of 1970. Marek Thee founded it that year under the name Bulletin of Peace Proposals. The aim was pointed and ambitious: to systematically present, compare, and discuss ideas, plans, and proposals for development, justice, and peace. What would make it last? And what would transform it from a peace-focused bulletin into one of the leading journals in critical security studies?

  The journal is owned by the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which also hosts its editorial office. That institutional home in Norway has shaped the journal's identity across more than five decades. Its pages have hosted manifestos, controversies, and debates that rippled across academic security studies worldwide. The questions it publishes are not always comfortable ones.

• 2. From Bulletin to Dialogue

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  Marek Thee edited the journal for more than two decades, from 1970 through 1991. In September 1992, the journal changed its name to Security Dialogue. That change was not merely cosmetic. In the editorial introduction to the new title, then-editor Magne Barth called for inter-regional dialogue on security issues and for an internationalization of both the journal's scope and its reach.

  Barth's tenure ran from 1992 through 1996, followed by Pavel Baev from 1995 through 2001. The overlapping dates suggest a period of transition rather than a clean handover. By the time J. Peter Burgess took the editorship in 2001, the journal was ready for a more radical transformation in scope. Marit Moe-Pryce has served as managing editor since 2004, providing continuity through several editorial changes. In 2019, the journal marked its 50th anniversary, and Michael Murphy wrote a longer piece tracing its full history.

• 3. The C.A.S.E. Collective

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  One of the most-cited articles ever published in Security Dialogue was a manifesto. The C.A.S.E. Collective, a group of junior and senior scholars, wrote it to outline the recent history of critical security studies in Europe and to suggest directions forward. The authors included Claudia Aradau, Didier Bigo, Matti Jutila, Tara McCormack, Andrew Neal, Ole Waever, and Michael C. Williams.

  The article traced different schools of European critical security studies from a sociological perspective. Then-editor J. Peter Burgess recognized the controversy the piece provoked. Security Dialogue published a series of formal replies from R. B. J. Walker, Andreas Behnke, Mark B. Salter, and Christine Sylvester. The C.A.S.E. Collective then wrote a response to those critics, creating an extended scholarly exchange within the journal's pages. That kind of structured debate became a hallmark of the journal's approach to contested ideas.

• 4. A Charge of Racism

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  In August 2019, Alison Howell and Melanie Richter-Montpetit published an article with a direct and provocative title: "Is Securitization Theory Racist? Civilizationism, Methodological Whiteness, and Antiblack Thought in the Copenhagen School." Their argument was that Copenhagen School securitization theory is structured not only by Eurocentrism but also by civilizationism, methodological whiteness, and antiblack racism.

  Howell and Richter-Montpetit specified that their argument was not a personal indictment of any particular author. Even so, they extensively addressed the works of Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, two central figures of the Copenhagen School. Buzan and Waever replied in May 2020. They cited alleged errors in the article and argued that the methodology and academic standards were so profoundly and systematically flawed as to void the authors' argument. They also stated that the lack of credible supporting evidence made the charge libellous. The exchange illustrated the range of debates Security Dialogue is willing to host and the intensity those debates can reach.

• 5. Rankings and Reach

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  Since 1970, Security Dialogue has published 49 volumes across 214 issues, produced by six editors. The journal's climb in prestige accelerated under J. Peter Burgess, whose editorship ran from 2001 through 2013. After Claudia Aradau served as editor from 2013 through 2015, Mark B. Salter of the University of Ottawa took over on the 1st of October 2015 and holds the position today.

  The journal's 2016 impact factor was 2.692, placing it 6th out of 86 journals in the Journal Citation Reports category of International Relations. The current associate editorial team spans institutions across North America and Europe, including the University of Toronto, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Bayreuth, Oxford Brookes, the University of Sussex, and the University of Gothenburg. Beyond its flagship journal, Security Dialogue also runs a blog and podcast series, extending its reach to audiences beyond the academic library.