Contemporary Security Studies Alan Collins

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Contemporary Security StudiesAlan Collins

• Approaches to Security
• Securitization

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Introduction

• The Copenhagen School and Securitization
• What Is Security?

• Security is about survival
• A security concern must be articulated as an
  existential threat
• The school maintains the security-survival logic
  found in the traditional understanding of
  security

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Introduction

• Widening and Broadening the Definition

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Introduction

• A New Framework for Analysis?

• The dynamics of each security category are
  determined by securitizing actors and referent
  objects
• The Copenhagen School provides a framework to
  define security how an issue becomes securitized
  or de-securitized

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Securitization Model

• Two-Stage Process
• The Referent Object

• The referent object can be individuals and groups
  or issue areas
• The referent object must possess a legitimate
  claim to survival and whose existence is
  ostensibly threatened

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Securitization Model

• Two-Stage Process
• The Securitizing Actor

• The securitizing actors can be the government,
  political elite, military, and civil society.
• An actor securitizes an issue by articulating
  the existence of threats to the survival of
  specific referent objects

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Securitization Model

• The Securitization Spectrum

• Non Politicised
• Non-inclusion
• in public debate

• Politicised
• Standard political system
• and part of
• Public policy

• Securitized
• An act of
• securitization

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Securitization Model

• Two-Stage Process
• Securitization

• De-securitization actors reconstitute an issue as
  no longer an existential threat moving it from
  the securitized realm into the public arena
• Securitizing actors use a speech act to
  convince a specific audience of the existential
  nature of the threat

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Successful Acts of Securitization

• An audience must be convinced
• An act of securitization can either fail or
  succeed
• Governments and elites have an advantage
• What constitutes security is a subjective matter
• Securitization involves a political and security
  act

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Extraordinary Measures and Motives

• Extraordinary Measures
• What constitutes an extraordinary measure is not
  defined
• Motives
• A securitization act can lead to excess and abuse
  of power

De-securitization can re-introduce an issue into
a politicised sphere
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Limitations of the Securitization Model

• Empirical research to understand the dynamics of
  securitization
• Euro-centric viewpoint
• Blurring of boundaries between securitization and
  politicization
• Questions raised about the role of scholars and
  analysts

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Undocumented Migration
Undocumented migrants are often said to represent
a political, societal, economic security threat

• The John Howard government
• The securitization of smuggled, undocumented
  migrants
• The speech act was generally accepted by the
  wider Australian public (audience) as an
  existential threat
• The securitization act led to the implementation
  of extraordinary measures.

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Drug Trafficking
Narcotics are viewed as a threat to political,
societal, economic, and health security

• Thailand declared war on drugs in 2003
• The Thai population (audience) accepted the
  articulation of drug trafficking as a threat to
  Thailand and society security
• The implementation of extraordinary measures led
  to abuses

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War in Iraq Failure of Securitization
Moves of securitization can fail! This results
from the audience rejecting the speech act
articulated by the securitizing actor
US President Bush and British Prime Minister
Blair failed to convince the international
community of the existential threat (WMD and
international terrorism) posed by Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein