Security has become a defining feature of contemporary public discourse, permeating the so-called 'war on terror', problems of everyday crime and disorder, the reconstruction of 'weak' or 'failed' states and the dramatic renaissance of the private security industry. But what does it mean for individuals to be secure, and what is the relationship between security and the practices of the modern state? In this timely and important book, Ian Loader and Neil Walker outline and defend the view that security remains a valuable public good. They argue that the state is indispensable to the task of fostering and sustaining liveable political communities in the contemporary world and thus pivotal to the project of civilizing security. This is a major contribution by two leading scholars in the field and will be of interest to anyone wishing to deepen their understanding of one the most significant and pressing issues of our times.

Ian Loader is Professor of Criminology and Director of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Policing and the Condition of England (with A. Mulcahy, 2003) and Crime and Social Change in Middle England (with E. Girling and R. Sparks, 2000) and an editor of the British Journal of Criminology. Ian is a leading authority on contemporary transformations in policing and security.

Prologue. On writing about security today; 1. Uncivil security?; Part I. On State Scepticism: 2. The state as meddler; 3. The state as partisan; 4. The state as cultural monolith; 5. The state as idiot; Part II. Securing States of Security: 6. The good of security; 7. The necessary virtue of the state; 8. The democratic governance of security; 9. Security as a global public good.