The Map is not the Territory: Reconceiving Human Security

However broad their scope, theories of world politics are abstractions from the richness and complexity of life. Of course, theorizing necessitates boundaries which define and limit what is deemed pertinent and within which coherent understanding and explanatory power can be developed and defended. This generally holds, however difficult it might sometimes be to clearly distinguish the border between, say, international relations and international political economy; or between economics and economic sociology.1