Conceptualizing Security Exceptions: Legal Doctrine or Political Excuse?

The dominant world political theory for international engagementhas long been Realism, where state power and state interestsare viewed as determining the limits on state relations. Increasingly,however, new theories have emerged to assist our understandingof how and why states interact in a global setting dominatedby international institutions and their antecedent agreements.This is no more apparent than in the field of internationaleconomic relations under the control of the World Trade Organization.Using political and legal theories, this essay explores whetherWTO security exceptions are legal doctrines or political excusesand how this informs our present, and possibly future, understandingof international state interaction.