About CAST

Centre for Advanced Security Theory (CAST) is one of 20 new research projects fund after university wide competition under the University of Copenhagen's Excellence Programme with the aim of strengthening basic research. The grant of 19 mill DKr. altogether over 5 years was awarded to Professor Ole Wæver.

CAST is an interdisciplinary academic project placed at the Department of Political Science, University of Copen-hagen. It aims to bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to explore, compare and refine the methods, concepts and prin-ciples, each discipline uses in assessing its kind of threats, dangers and risks. Research will be anchored in and contribute to the further development of the theory of securitization, also known as 'the Copenhagen School' within security studies.

The centre had its official opening 21st October 2008.

For further information please download CAST's folder (danish version here).

Recent publications

Lene Hansen and Helen Nissenbaum (2009) "Digital Disaster, Cyber Security, and the Copenhagen School" International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4 (December 2009), pp. 1155-1175.

Barry Buzan and Lene Hansen (2009) "The Evolution of International Security Studies" (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Ole Wæver (2009) "What Exactly Makes a Continuous Existential Threat Existential - and How Is It Discontinued?" in Oren Barak and Gabriel Sheffer (eds.) "Existential Threats and Civil-Security Relations" (Plymouth: Lexington Books).

Vibeke Schou Tjalve (2009) "Realism and the Politics of (Dis)enchanment" in Duncan Bell "Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme" (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Arlene B. Tickner and Ole Wæver (2009) "International Relations Scholarship Around the World" (Routledge).

Ole Wæver "Waltz's Theory of Theory" International Relations, Vol. 23, No. 2 (June 2009) 201-222.

News

Patterns of religious persecution

Ole Wæver, director of CAST, comments on patterns of religious persecution in P1 Morgen. Listen to the interview here. 

CAST co-organizes international conference on violent conflict and health

CAST is a co-organizer of the 'Global Response' conference January 22-25, 2010. The conference is initiated by Global Doctors and aims to create an international network of researchers, obtain an overview of existing knowledge on the subject of health and violent conflict in order to identify future challenges for prevention of violent conflicts and their impact on health, and develop plans of action to meet the challenges. Read more here. 

Cyber Security and the Copenhagen School

Lene Hansen, Professor University of Copenhagen, and Helen Nissenbaum, Professor New York University, analyse cyber security within the framework of securitization theory in the December issue of International Studies Quarterly. Read the article here.

Future generation KLIMA Camp

As a part of ‘Future Generation KLIMA Camp’ organised by the University of Copenhagen, Ole Wæver, CAST Director, and Kjeld Rasmussen, member of the CAST steering committee, comment on the climate change agenda and the implications of considering climate change as a security threat. Watch the videos here.

State of exception

Professor, dr. jur. Henning Koch has written the foreword on "Law and Exception" in the Danish translation of Giorgio Agamben's modern classic "Stato di Eccezione" as a part of his work at CAST. State of Exception is a part of the series "Radical philosophy" published by Philosophia.