Widely acclaimed, this book takes as its main theme the question of how states and societies pursue freedom from threat in an environment in which competitive relations are inescapable across the political, economic, military, societal and environmental landscapes. Buzan argues that the concept of security is a versatile, penetrating and useful way to approach the study of international relations. Security provides an ananlytical framework which stands between the extremes of power and peace, incorporates most of their insights and adds more of its own.