A Companion to State Power, Rights and Liberties

The precariousness of individual and collective civil liberties and human rights is
a dominant theme of scholarship, media commentary, policy debate and public
concern. Being inextricably bound to matters of state power, its extent, form and
function have a direct influence on the accessibility to, protection of and wider
structural patterns of liberties and rights. The need to analyse politics and the
assumed upholders of protectionist strategies – that is, governments themselves
– is an important endeavour for many, including those writing, researching,
informing and challenging practice, abuse or neglect.
The Companion presented here aims to do just that. It is a forum of voices, all of
which pose deliberately critical questions on how (if at all) justice in respect of
individual rights and liberties may manifest as an issue of centrality, as a fringe
matter, be curtailed or be the victim of entrenched authoritarianism. This
Companion delivers a suite of progressive conversations and evaluations drawn
from disciplinary areas such as criminology, law, International Relations, politics,
military studies and peace studies.