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Domestic Instability and Security CommunitiesLondon School of Economics, UK, and University of Cape Town, South Africa The problem of political instability is neglected in the literature on security communities. In this article I argue that domestic stability, defined as the absence of large-scale violence in a country, is a necessary condition of these communities. Domestic violence precludes the existence of security communities because it renders people and states insecure; it creates the risk of cross-border destabilization and violence; and it generates uncertainty and tension among states, inhibiting trust and a sense of collective identity. I conclude that the benchmark of a security community—dependable expectations of peaceful change—should apply as much within states as between them. This is consistent with the work of Karl Deutsch, whose pioneering concept of a security community is widely understood to mean the absence of interstate war. Deutsch, in fact, was equally concerned with large-scale internal violence.
Key Words: Karl Deutsch • domestic instability • security community
European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, No. 2,
275-299 (2006) This article has been cited by other articles:
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