<p>In the post-9/11 period, the United States can be seen to have securitized its approach to homeland security policy. Canada did not follow suit. Instead, the Canadian state sought to respond to American securitization initiatives in order to protect its own state interests. An in-depth examination of securitization theory demonstrates that this theoretical construct has been re-interpreted by scholars and adapted to various research agendas. This dissertation differentiates amongst three variants of securitization theory: philosophical, sociological, and post-structural. Common to these competing variants of securitization theory was the finding that the role of the audience had remained vague, hindering the use of this theoretical model for examining the policy creation process. Focusing on the philosophical variant of securitization theory, as originally articulated by the Copenhagen School, this dissertation re-evaluates the role of the audience while examining the ways in which the American approach to homeland security was securitized in the new security environment that emerged following 9/11, as well as Canada’s response to this securitization.</p> <p>This project divides the audience into two separate groups, made up of three components. The elite audience, which is comprised of members of the state policy elite, and the media first determine whether or not an issue poses an existential threat to the security of the state. The populist audience - the state’s public - then determines for itself whether or not it accepts the existential nature of the threat. This division of the audience into two separate groups allows for a clearer understanding of whether or not a given issue has been successfully securitized.</p> <p>In the post-9/11 period, the American audience groups willingly accepted that the threat of terrorism posed an existential threat to the state. The Canadian audience groups, prompted by their own authorized speakers of security, did not recognize terrorism as posing an existential threat to the Canadian states. Ultimately, an examination of the audience groups in these two states demonstrates the utility of the philosophical variant of securitization theory for evaluating states’ responses to security threats.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis applies securitisation theory to the Israeli-Palestinian case with a particular focus on the potential for desecuritisation processes arising from Israeli-Palestinian cooperation/coexistence efforts in peace education and water management. It aims to apply securitisation theory in general and the under-employed concept of desecuritisation in particular, to explore the limits and prospects as a theoretical framework. Concepts, arguments and assumptions associated with the securitisation theory of the Copenhagen School are considered. In this regard, the thesis makes a contribution to Security Studies through its application of securitisation theory and sheds light on a complex conflict situation. Based on an analytical framework that integrates the concept of desecuritisation with the concepts of peace-building and peace-making, the thesis pays attention to desecuritisation moves involving Israeli and Palestinian civil societies through peace education and water management. The thesis contributes to debates over the problems and prospects of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, so making a significant empirical and theoretical contribution in the development of the concept of desecuritisation as a framework for analysing conflict resolution. The thesis develops an analytical framework that combines political level peace-making with civil society actors' peace-building efforts. These are seen as potential processes of desecuritisation; indeed, for desecuritisation to occur. The thesis argues that a combination of moves at both the political and societal levels is required. By contrast to securitisation processes which are mainly initiated by political andlor military elites with the moral consent of society (or 'audience' in Copenhagen School terms), processes of desecuritisation, especially in cases of protracted conflicts, go beyond the level of elites to involve society in cultural and structural peace-building programmes. Israeli-Palestinian peace education and water management cases are employed to illustrate this argument.

The threat from homegrown terrorism in the United States is called a new face of the threat from terrorism. The aim of this study is to empirically examine how the new threat from homegrown terrorism has been constructed in the American discourse. Furthermore it is interesting to examine how the construction relates to the American counterterrorism policy and possible consequences. This is done by using the theoretical framework of Copenhagen’s school of securitization. By using a discourse analysis, documents and speeches from the U.S. government are analysed to see how the threat from homegrown terrorism are constructed by using the securitization theory. This study concludes that the threat from homegrown terrorism is constructed by portraying it as an existential threat to the United States, it’s people and it’s collective identity. The construction has made it possible to undertake exceptional actions that may reduce the American citizens’ freedom in benefit for security.

[pt] Essa dissertação tem por tema mais amplo o processo de construção das organizações políticas chamadas de Estados. A problemática mais específica sobre a qual ele se debruça, por outro lado, é a da relação entre construção do Estado, comunidade política e segurança, tendo como estudo de caso o processo de construção do Estado uzbeque na Ásia Central pós- soviética. O argumento fundamental do trabalho é o de que cada vez que Estados empreendem atos de securitização - isto é, identificam ameaças existenciais e agem para combatê-las, sejam elas eminentemente internas ou externas - eles estão demarcando os contornos de sua comunidade política ao excluírem certos grupos do vínculo político com o Estado, do que decorre um processo de construção do Estado, ou seja, das instituições políticas estatais. No estudo de caso dos processos de securitização na República do Uzbequistão, exploramos a identificação discursiva e as ações para lidar com a ameaça do neoimperialismo russo, a qual engendrou certos padrões de alinhamentos internacionais e um certo repúdio da herança lingüística e cultural russa internamente, o que resultou na instalação de um processo, mesmo que ainda incipiente, de nacionalização étnica do Estado. Em fins da década de 90, contudo, a percepção dessa ameaça foi sendo suplantada pela identificação da politização do Islã (do Islã político) como a maior ameaça à existência do Estado uzbeque, a qual tem produzido severa repressão a qualquer manifestação religiosa - islâmica, em particular - no país e a oposição de grupos islâmicos radicalizados, em grande medida, por tal repressão. O efeito crucial desse processo foi a construção de um Estado laico, ou seja, de práticas e instituições que não permitem a participação de idéias e representantes religiosos na política. / [en] This thesis tackles the wider theme of the process of construction of those political organizations we call states. The more specific problematique into which it delves, on the other hand, is the relation between state-building, political community, and security, our case study being the state- building process of the Uzbekistani state in post-soviet Central Asia. The fundamental argument in our research is that every time states carry out acts of securitization - that is, identify existential threats and act to counter them, whether these threats be mainly internal or external - they are demarcating the boundaries of their political community by excluding certain groups from the political tie to the state, what brings about a process of state-building, that is, of the construction of state political institutions. In the case study of the processes of securitization in the Republic of Uzbekistan, we explore the identification and actions to counter the threat of Russian neoimperialism, which produced certain patterns of international alignments and a certain denial of the Russian linguistic and cultural heritage internally, which resulted in a process, incipient as it may be, of ethnic nationalization of the state. Toward the end of the 90´s, however, such perception of threat was gradually superseded by the identification of the politicization of Islam (of political Islam) as the greatest single threat to the existence of the Uzbekistani state, an identification which has produced severe repression of any religious manifestation - particularly Islamic - in the country and the opposition of groups that were largely radicalized by such repression. The fundamental result of this process was the construction of a lay state, that is, of practices and institutions which do not permit the participation of religious ideas and representatives in politics.

<p>Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.</p>

Since HIV and AIDS were discovered in the early 1980s the infection rates have taken on the proportions of a global pandemic. Whilst the rates are still quite low in the Western World there are areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, of which South Africa is a part, where the rates are as high as 25%. In light of this a debate as to how the situation should be handled and dealt with has developed. In 2000 the United Nation Security Council debated HIV/AIDS as a threat tonational and international peace and security. This was the first time a virus or disease had been debated in this forum. The debate was instigated by, among others, the United States. If states in the Western World, where infection rates are still low, can view this issue as a threat to security, how are HIV/AIDS viewed in a country like South Africa with a prevalence rate of 25%? There are those who claim that in order to say that an issue poses a threat to security one has to define what constitutes a threat and define the concept of security. Is it a subjective value? Could a disease and/or a virus be declared a security threat and what would the logic behind that be? Following the end of the Cold War the study of security was developed as some scholars wanted to widen the traditionally state-centred and military concept of security and reconceptualize it so that it would be applicable to non- traditional security-threats. The theory of securitization was developed with this purpose. It introduces a security-concept that is shaped by a grammar of drama and urgency based in a logic of existential threats that call for measures beyond the normal code-of-conduct. Thus, studies into how military, health, social and political issues etc can be defined as issues of security, i.e. become securitized, are made possible. The aim of this thesis is to, through the theoretical lenses of securitization- theory and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, establish which meanings are involved in the structuring of the issue of HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Further we aim to establish whether these meanings can be related to a broader security concept, i.e. if there is a case of ‘securitization’ at hand. We have found, by analysing speeches given by government officials and key political documents between the years 1998 to 2002, that there are different trends in how HIV and AIDS have been defined, i.e. which meaning they have been given, and how these have been structured. Between 1998 and 2000 HIV and AIDS were seen as a threat and dealt with as such; they were securitized. In the years that followed we argue that there was a more cautious tone; the issue was desecuritized as the level of drama and urgency that had characterized the discourse of 1998-2000 was lowered between 2000-2002. The thesis acknowledges that it is too early to say whether this (de)securitizing move will succeed or not as time has yet to see the full effect of the move on a full desecuritization.

The regional security aspect is becoming increasingly more important within security studies. The United Nations and the United Nations Security Council has expressed an intent to utilize regional organizations as security actors with regards to maintaining international peace and security, with the purpose of achieving a greater sense of legitimacy for conflict resolution. This study aims to explore the possibilities of using such organizations within regions of varying stability, and how this usage can relate to the idea of legitimacy. Based on regional security complex theory, this study seeks to show how regional organizations have been used by the Security Council within different security sectors, and how this usage is affected by the degree of integration within the region. The result of the study show that the idea of legitimacy is easiest to achieve in regions with a mid-level degree of regional integration and concerning questions of political security. The results also show a tendency within the Security Council to use organizations from other regions with higher levels of integration in regions with lower levels of integration, and raises the question if this way of using regional organizations may risk harming the ultimate goal of legitimacy.

An embedded case study investigating the ongoing securitization of migration in the EU from 2014-2020 and the role of legal institutions, in this case the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in these processes. Securitization Theory is used in combination with Critical Legal Theory to create a framework that attempts to both illuminate the role of the functional actor in Securitization Theory further, and the impact securitization has on legal institutions. It provides explanations for sudden shifts in legal argumentation, especially in cases of high political relevance with the use of Critical Legal Theory. The case of N.D. &amp; N.T. vs. Spain serves as an example of a functional actor providing two contrasting judgments on the same events within a short period of time and opens up discussions about political influences on legal institutions. Securitization and the framing of refugees as existential threats to European identity and culture is one of the many ongoing political processes related to the issue of migration and refuge in Europe. As the political landscape shifts and right-wing populist parties establish themselves in European Member States, illegal pushbacks have become common practice at the outer borders of the EU and are challenged both politically and legally. This study investigated cases of illegal pushbacks to renew criticism against the institutions engaging in and enabling the practice.

[pt] Em países como Irã e China, alguns grupos religiosos tem enfrentado diversas dificuldades no que tange a sua liberdade religiosa, em especial os cristãos, alvo desta pesquisa. Tais restrições envolvem o impedimento de culto, detenções, prisões entre outros, todas estas devido a escolha do cristianismo como religião. Ser cristão nesses países, significa ter muitos direitos básicos privados. Por este fator, o tema direitos humanos também ganha destaque neste estudo. Tais grupos são vistos como ameaças do ponto de vista dos dois governos. Eles representam valores distintos aos expostos pelos líderes. Através dos estudos produzidos pela Escola de Copenhague é possível analisar como os grupos minoritários cristãos se tornaram uma ameaça. Esses estudos, dentro do campo de Segurança Internacional, nos permite analisar a ameaça como um conceito mutável. Ou seja, é possível avaliar como os cristãos se tornaram uma ameaça para os governos iraniano e chinês. Logo o objetivo central é avaliar quando e porque esses grupos se tornaram uma ameaça para esses governos. Através dos estudos da Escola de Copenhague, o caso dos grupos minoritários cristãos no Irã e na China serão abordados como exemplos que comprovem as perspectivas teóricas. / [en] In countries like Iran and China, some religious groups have faced many difficulties regarding their freedom of religion—particularly Christians, the subject of this research. Such restrictions include the forbiddance of worship, detention, and imprisonments among others, all of these because the choice of Christianity as a religion. Being a Christian in these countries means being private of many basic rights. For this factor, the human rights issue is also emphasized in this study. Such groups are seen as threats from the point of view of the both Chinese and Iranian governments. They represent different values than the ones exhibited by their leaders. Through the studies produced by the Copenhagen School is possible to analyze how the minorities Christians groups have became a threat to those governments. These studies, in the fields of International Security, allow us to analyze the threat as a mutable concept. Therefore the main objective is to assess when and why these groups became a threat to those governments. Through the studies of the Copenhagen School, the case of minority Christians in Iran and China are discussed as examples to prove the theoretical perspectives.

The diploma thesis titled Securitisation of Organized Violence in Europe: The Case of Great Britain and Italy deals with the analysis of security discourses in the United Kingdom during the conflict in Northern Ireland and Italy during the war with the Sicilian Mafia according to the securitization theory of the so-called Copenhagen School and their subsequent comparison. The main aim of this thesis is to capture the form of securitization processes in Italy in connection with the local organized crime. To reach this objective the situation in Italy is confronted with securitization processes in Northern Ireland whose conflict is a frequent subject of international relations and security studies. The theory of securitization as a research tool is presented in its original form formulated by the Copenhagen School and is supplemented by numerous criticisms by later securitization theorists. A significant part of the thesis is focused on a thorough analysis of historical and social context of the investigated phenomenon and on capturing of many securitization statements of political actors to which this work is primarily oriented. The discourse analysis is structured into five stages that reflect the most dramatic periods in development of the presented issue. These periods are characterized by the...