Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2009

This case study explores the securitization of Marseille's banlieues during the era of the Frame of Republican order that in the last decade of the twentieth century and first years of the new millennium significantly influenced intensive securitization of French banlieues with a high concentration of ethnic minorities and countless overlapping social and economic problems. In 2005, in reaction to the era of intensive securitization, unprecedently violent riots and social unrest broke out in banlieues across France, yet banlieues in Marseille remained calm. This thesis, therefore, aims to describe the securitization process and at the same time expose causes that lowered the intensity of securitization, mitigated the influence of the Frame of Republican order and alleviated its adverse effects on the local population. For this purpose, the thesis builds on a combined theoretical framework of securitization theory and framing theory that enables to put the securitization process into the broader context and considers specific historical background. This thesis also interprets findings on the securitization process and offers a critical evaluation of recent development in Marseille that puts into danger Marseille's resistance to securitization and exposes the city to adverse consequences.

Following a period of civil unrest that occurred in Kazakhstan in January 2022, the Collective Security Organization (CSTO) unprecedently activated its collective defense mechanism to intervene in Kazakhstan. This thesis examines the course of events that took place in Kazakhstan and critically poses questions related to the CSTO’s military intervention. In addition, the study reviews the way Russian media projection of the Kazakhstani unrest demonstrates messages related to securitization. By drawing on securitization theory to conduct a critical discourse analysis of the audiovisual and textual representations of the unrest on the Russian broadcaster RT’s English-language YouTube channel, this thesis demonstrates that RT amplified securitizing moves made by Kazakhstani President Tokayev and Russian President Putin, which framed the unrest as an existential threat to Kazakhstan and Russia respectively. The study illustrates that President Putin securitized the unrest out of a concern that it may develop into a “color revolution” with possible ripple effects on Russian domestic politics, while Tokayev did so to convince the leaders of the CSTO to intervene in Kazakhstan. This thesis thereby not only contributes to securitization research, but also sheds light on the under-researched and regionally significant event that the Kazakhstani unrest constitutes.

Given the armed conflict in Ukraine, the terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere in Europe and the pressing issue of climate change one could argue that there are no longer room for just one sector in security studies. Based on Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver and Jaap de Wilde’s theory of securitization the aim of this paper is to study whether the Swedish Defense Committee perceive threats in any sectors other than the traditional military sector in its two reports or not and therefore also if the Defense Committee has adapted the wider security concept; and if so answer the question of what other sectors the Committee put forward in the reports. The aim is also to compare the findings in the two reports with each other to point out similarities and differences the Defense Committee’s perception of threats. The method used in this paper was an intense qualitative content analysis where the author manually examined the two reports to find indications on what kind of threats was present in the reports and how they were presented. The result of the study shows that all sectors with the exception of the societal sector in the Copenhagen School were present in the reports. An additional result of the study was that there were many similarities and differences in the reports; one similarity being that Russia was perceived as a threat in both reports while one distinction was the only in the latest report were a global financial crisis perceived as a threat.

The Arctic—warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet—is a source of striking imagery of amplified environmental change in our time, and has come to serve as a spatial setting for climate crisis discourse. The recent alterations in the Arctic environment have also been perceived by some observers as an opportunity to expand economic exploitation. Heightened geopolitical interest in the region and its resources, contradicted by calls for the protection of fragile Far North ecosystems, has rendered the Arctic an arena for negotiating human interactions with nature, and for reflecting upon the planetary risks and possibilities associated with the advent and expansion of the Anthropocene—the proposed new epoch in Earth history in which humankind is said to have gained geological agency and become the dominant force over the Earth system. With the Arctic serving as a nexus of crosscutting analytical themes spanning contemporary history (the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century until 2015), this dissertation examines defining characteristics of the Anthropocene and how the concept, which emerged from the Earth system science community, impacts ideas and assumptions in historiography, social sciences and the environmental humanities, including the fields of environmental history, crisis management and security studies, political geography, and science and technology studies (STS). The primary areas of empirical analysis and theoretical investigation encompass constructivist perspectives and temporal conceptions of environmental and climate crisis; the role of science and expertise in performing politics and shaping social discourse; the geopolitical significance of telecoupling—a concept that reflects the interconnectedness of the Anthropocene and supports stakeholder claims across wide spatial scales; and implications of the recent transformation in humankind’s long duration relationship with the natural world. Several dissertation themes were observed in practice at the international science community of Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard, where global change is made visible through a concentration of scientific activity. Ny-Ålesund is furthermore a place of geopolitics, where extra-regional states attempt to enhance their legitimacy as Arctic stakeholders through the performance of scientific research undertakings, participation in governance institutions, and by establishing a physical presence in the Far North. This dissertation concludes that this small and remote community represents an Anthropocene node of global environmental change, Earth system science, emergent global governance, geopolitics, and stakeholder construction in an increasingly telecoupled world.

The aim of the study is to analyse the discursive construction of the immigrants‟ identity within the EU‟s common migration policy. More specifically, this study seeks to identify what discourses are constituted within the EU, and how these discourses are constructed. Moreover, the study efforts to understand what consequences these discourses may have to the identity of immigrants. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a number of policy documents and agreements have been analysed. This analysis is implemented by applying a social constructivist approach, based on the notion about ethnic identities, securitisation theory, discourse theory and the theoretical concepts of Eurocentrism and Europeanisation. The methodological approach applied to the analysis is the Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis.The conclusion of the study is that the EU, through its policy documents, has contributed to the construction of the following discourses: identity discourse, threat discourse and power discourse. Consequently, the analysis showed that these discourses may affect the image of immigrants negatively. The strengthening of “we” and “them” identities is emphasised through categorisation of immigrants, integration provisions, and through managing security and migration questions together.

Sweden has traditionally been portrayed as a tolerant and generous country in terms of its migration policy. In conjunction with the increased flow of refugees in 2015 this image of Sweden has slowly but surely come to be questioned. Swedish political parties have raised concerns over the increased number of asylum seekers, and stressed the social, political and economic implications it may have for the Swedish society. This essay examines how Swedish political parties frame the refugee issue, and how these frames can be understood from a security lens. The following questions have been examined; How do Swedish parlamentary parties frame the refugee issue? To what extent is the refugee issue securitized in the Swedish context? What consequences can securitization of the refugee issue have for Swedish citizens’ attitudes to the welcoming of refugees? Two complementary methods are used to analyze the material. In the first step, Faircloughs critical discourse analysis uncover Swedish parliamentary parties frames of the refugee issue. In the second step, the securitization theory is applied in order to relate these refugee portrayals to security. Four central refugee discourses are identified in the material, following are; solidarity, responsibility, identity and expenditures. The essay argues that the refugee issue tends to be framed as a security threat of parties on the right wing of the political spectrum. Parties such as the Moderate Party and the Sweden Democrats have securitized the refugee issue. These parties frame the issue in terms of expenditures and identity, which follow a security rhetoric. The remaining parties show a great concern on the issue, but put emphasis on solidarity and responsibility. Successful securitization has thus not taken place among these parties.

<p>The aim of this essayis to show how the issues of asylum and immigration have been formulated as security issues in EU policy by applying a discursive approach to policy analysis and securitization, analyzing selected policy texts produced by the European Commission and the Council for Justice and Home Affairs from 1999 to 2006. The positioning of these issues in the policy domain of 'Freedom, Security and Justice' has facilitated a linkage between these issues and issues like terrorism and organised crime and has enabled a formulation of asylum and immigration according to a logic of securitization. The analysis of policy texts aims at investigating how linkages between issues are represented, how these linkages shape issues, and how the policy, in formulating threats and responses, also represent the EU in very specific ways. Policy from this perspective is not the rational answer to an unambigous reality but rather, highly implicated in its production. An important part of this analysis is drawing out the implications of the policy, in terms of further policy development, as well as how the policy implicates particular ways of dealing with those represented as for instance 'illegal immigrants' or 'illegitimate asylum seekers'.</p>

<p>This thesis has investigated and analysed whether or not the Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has affected or changed Europe's security situation. By analysing how the Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has been described as a political or economic project by the EU, one can conclude whether the project has been securitized by the EU or not. This is done through the study of official EU documents. The documents have been analysed using framework for sector analysis  and securitization as theorised by the Copenhagen School of international relations. By distinguishing the different conceptions of threat, security and methods discussed in these documents it is possible to analyse whether arguments belong to either the economic or political sector of sector analysis, and how they can be seen as signs of securitization. This has been done by utilizing qualitative text analysis in a case study framework. The thesis concludes that the  Nord Stream Natural Gas Pipeline has not been securitized as a threat by the EU. On the contrary, the project is endorsed as a part of energy proliferation. The EU insist and encourages upon the project and several similar ones in order to ensure energy security for the EU in the future.</p>

This thesis analyzes the causes and impacts of recent financial crisis, which originated in the U. S. in 2007. It deals with the theoretical view and the specification of the financial crisis. A significant part is devoted to analyzing the root causes of the emergence of the recent financial crises. Here we find important implications in the functioning and structure of the financial system, in which we see many long-term unhealthy factors which largely contributed to the crisis. The paper also deals with analysis of the financial crisis on the real economy. It analyzes the impact of the crisis on the main macroeconomic indicators in the U. S. and Europe. Here we find an analysis of the measures taken in the U. S. and the EU in order to stabilize the financial sector. Find negative effects of state aid to public debt and government budget deficits.