An analysis of the complex developments of how the discourse of ‘security’ has come to dominate foreign policy in the post-Cold War period, when regional instability, ethnic conflict, ‘pre-emptive’ strikes, and the global ‘war on terror’ have fundamentally altered the geopolitical landscape. Duffield presents a strong critique of the humanitarian and development aid coming out of the West today, suggesting that instead of acting as a force for the improvement of conditions, it often only leads to increased surveillance, policing, and other control mechanisms whose main job is to contain and ‘stabilize’ the governments and populations of problem countries so that they do not threaten the West or its interests. See in particular Chapter 2 ‘NGOs, Permanent Emergency and Decolonizaion’ and Chapter 8 ‘Racism, Circulation and Security’ for a consideration biopolitics, non-state sovereignty, and the legacy of colonialism.