对传统安全研究的批评早在冷战后期的20世纪80年代渐成规模。欧洲与美国学者在讨论传统安全概念弊端的初期各有建树，但至90年代末期，大西洋两岸安全研究的分野越来越明显。批判的安全研究在欧洲的发展远比美国强劲有力，并极大地改变了欧洲安全研究的面貌，美欧在安全研究的本体论以及纲领研究上变得大不相同。欧洲形成了重塑安全研究的三大中心，即丹麦的哥本哈根、法国的巴黎与英国的阿伯里斯特维斯。以三大分支流派为主干的欧洲批判安全研究，构成了在一个美国人长期把持的领域内颇具欧洲特性的安全理论群。

he criticism upon traditional security study was greatly increased in 1980s when the Cold War was coming to its later periodScholars from both sides of the Atlantic participated in the debate,making their contributions to redefining securityHowever by the end of 1990s,the split in security study across the Atlantic has become obviousCritical approaches to security study in Europe were developing more vigorously,which largely reshaped the security study in Europe,and differentiated this subfield of IR in European from that of the US in terms of ontology and research agenda programCopenhagen,Paris and Aberystwyth are the three major locations and branches of European critical security studiesThey manifest the Europeanness and constitute the key components of European school of security theory in an American field