Security Dialogue 43(6) 513–530 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub. co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0967010612463490 sdi.sagepub.com Corresponding author: Jutta Weldes Email: Jutta.Weldes@bristol.ac.uk The evolution of international security studies and the everyday: Suggestions from the Buffyverse Christina Rowley School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, UK Jutta Weldes School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, UK Abstract Security studies is again reflecting on its origins and debating how best to study in/security. In this article, we interrogate the contemporary evolutionary narrative about (international) security studies. We unpack the myth’s components and argue that it restricts the empirical focus of (international) security studies, limits its analytical insights, and constrains the sorts of interlocutors with whom it engages. We then argue that these limitations can at least partially be remedied by examining the performance of identities and in/ securities in everyday life. In order initially to establish the important similarities between (international) security studies and the everyday, we trace elements of the evolutionary myth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel – which both stand in for, and are, the everyday in our analysis.We then argue that the Buffyverse offers a complex understanding of (identities and) in/security as a terrain of everyday theorizing, negotiation and contestation – what we call the ‘entanglement’ of in/security discourses – that overcomes the shortcomings of (international) security studies and its myth, providing insights fruitful for the study of in/security. In conclusion, we briefly draw out the implications of our analysis for potential directions in (international) security studies scholarship and pedagogy. Keywords international security studies, insecurity, identity, social construction, everyday, popular culture, Buffy, Angel Introduction Giles: It’s terribly simple. The good guys are stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distin- guished by their pointy horns or black hats. Buffy: Liar. (B2.7) 1 Article