Amity and Enmity in Its Regional Context

This chapter will attempt to further develop one of the central concepts in RSCT: the amity/enmity variable co-defining the character of RSCs alongside their units, polarity and anarchy. Buzan and Waver (2003: 45–51) describe patterns of amity/enmity as ‘taking the form of subglobal, geographically coherent patterns of security interdependence’. They furthermore roughly outline a typology of such patterns — conflict formation, security regime and security community — and suggest a possible ‘Wendtian’ approach to this issue (Buzan & Waver, 2003: 50–55). Apart from this vague sketch, the concept has as yet not been given the development warranted by its central importance in the overall theory. Furthermore, much of its empirical application seems to make significant leaps of logic, by assuming the corporate agency of states-as-units and by giving a bird’s-eye view of the securitisations between them.