The York University journal, Critical Studies on Security, was added to the Web of Science Index, resulting in its being awarded an Impact Factor. 

Critical Studies on Security was founded a decade ago by the York Centre for International and Security Studies (YCISS) as the first journal entirely dedicated to the study of international security informed by critical social theory.  ‘

Critical Security Studies’ emerged in the 1990s as a response to the end of the Cold War and the need to rethink security in its aftermath, and was named at a conference hosted by YCISS in 1994. It has developed as an increasingly influential way to think about international security, and particularly the social foundations and consequences of security thinking and practice. York University continued to be seen as a leader in the field, together with the Universities of Copenhagen and Aberystwyth and Science PO in Paris.

Critical Studies on Security published its first volume in 2013, under the editorship of Founding Editor David Mutimer, Professor of Politics in LA&PS, together with two LA&PS alumni Marshall Beier (McMaster) and Kyle Grayson (Newcastle, UK).  Now in its 11th Volume, Prof. Beier has taken over as Editor in Chief, but the journal’s editorial team still retains strong connections to York and to LA&PS. 

The journal publishes at the cutting edge of critical security scholarship, recently including such articles as ‘Securing the Platform: How Google appropriates security’; ‘Changing scenes of security in the time of the coronovirus pandemic’; and, Conceptualising the smartphone as a security device.’ 

The Impact Factor, presently 1.6, is a recognition of the influence of the journal and its community of scholarship on the field.  It is also a reflection of the impact that LA&PS has had on the global study of security, an impact that is still growing!