Securitization of an Imaginary Threat as an Authoritarian Legitimation Instrument: The Cases of Belarus and Uzbekistan. July 2021 GUID: 2458329A DCU ID: 19108281 CU ID: 22199053 Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the 
 Degree of International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies Word Count: 22 451 Supervisor: Donnacha Ó Beacháin Date of Submission: 31.07.2021 Abstract This research explores how the securitization of imaginary and exaggerated threats is used as a legitimation instrument in hegemonic authoritarian regimes. Approaching the task through the cases studies, this thesis will situate the securitization practice within the performance mechanism of authoritarian legitimation and apply it in two hegemonic autocratic regimes - Uzbekistan of Islam Karimov and Belarus of Alexander Lukashenko. This dissertation picks qualitative research design. Methodologically, discourse and content analysis will be used to test the theory that will be developed in this project. The arguments presented in the thesis draw upon the primary sources such as speeches, official statements, and memoirs. The dissertation will also refer to the secondary sources in order to synthesise arguments provided by the existing literature related to the issue in question. This research project...

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The following thesis intends to study how cyber security and cyber threats are portrayed in Swedish political discourses on cyber between the years 2015-2021. How the question about cyber security is framed can have a major impact on Sweden’s security- and digitization policy and further, on the population's view of which problems are important and how resources should be allocated. Through qualitative text analysis, more specific discourse analysis, political debate articles and government reports will be analyzed to evaluate how the question about cyber security has been framed as an existential threat and if so, for whom?  The purpose is to investigate whether features of securitization occurs and if the question about cyber security can be defined as securitized. And further, what kind of measures has been proposed as protection against these threats? The study also aims to identify which actors' arguments and problem representations have had an impact. The results show that there has been a securitization move within political cyber discourses and a number of safety features have been proposed or have already taken place. The question about cyber security can therefore be defined as securitized. The results also show that a few numbers of government actors have the privilege to represent the problems and furthermore, decide what actions to take.

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This thesis addresses speech acts on the subject of disinformation as a threat at the United Nations Human Rights Council in its 47th, 49th and 50th sessions where the matter was discussed. By combining securitization theory and qualitative content analysis with a method of examining speech acts through specific variables, it is possible to examine if this was a case of securitization or politicization and if the process was a success or a failure. The findings suggest that there were two instances that could be regarded as securitizing acts. A part of the audience accepted disinformation as a threat. However, the lack of supranational power of the Council, failure to unilaterally depict disinformation as an existential security threat, lack of exceptional measures and disagreements between representatives caused obstacles for the process. Thus I argue that disinformation was not securitized but quasi-successfully politicized in the Human Rights Council and that the discussion revealed geopolitical tensions within the organization which can make decision-making difficult also in the future.

Involuntary celibates (Incels) are an online community of men who struggle to find sexual and romantic relationships. Some members of the Incel community have increasingly become extreme misogynists and have committed lethal attacks across North America and Europe in response to their sexual frustration and loneliness. Scholars have argued that there is a lack of recognition by political and judicial actors of the potential security threat that Incels pose. This lack of recognition could subsequently result in a lack of securitization of the threat and allow the community to continue to grow. The transnational consequences, through the use of online platforms for radicalization, if Incels are not recognized and securitized provide a relevant International Relations topic. The aim of this research was to determine whether relevant security agents in the US, Canada, and Europe had, over the past years, recognized Incels as a security threat and if a process of securitization had been initiated. The results were that only the EU could be determined to have initiated a securitization process of Incels, Canada’s security agent to a large degree recognized the threat Incels may pose but had not initiated a securitization process, and the US could not be determined to have fully recognized the threat nor initiated a process of securitization.

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Relating to issues of democracy and security, the thesis examines suggested parallels inSwedish politics to the culture war phenomenon in the United States. Are there signs of asimilar development in Sweden? By examining political rhetoric by the political parties in theRiksdag, the aim is to find out how the parties relate to the concept of culture, what purposecultural policy should have and whether there are indications of securitisation in the discourseand potential implications for cultural polarisation. Utilising a theoretical frameworkconsisting of discourse theory and securitisation theory, various party programs andparliamentary documents are analysed with a focus on comparing discursive articulations,with a starting point in the ideological positioning around the creation of a culture canon. Thefindings show that the parties are divided in how they view culture along three differentscales, with several parties expressing securitising tendencies. Discursive polarisation isapparent in the material, with one party in particular articulated as a threat to the survival ofSwedish culture. Increasing polarisation in cultural rhetoric may lead to a culture war, thoughno such phenomenon is found at the moment in the current political discourse.

Выпускная квалификационная работа (магистерская диссертация) посвящена исследованию современных тенденций рынка ипотечного кредитования в России. Предметом исследования выступает механизм формирования и развития системы ипотечного жилищного кредитования, а также общественные отношения, возникающие в процессе его осуществления. Целью данного исследования является изучение теоретических и практических основ ипотечного кредитования, а также анализ ипотечного кредитования в АО «Газпромбанк» и разработка мероприятий по его совершенствованию. / Final qualifying work (master's thesis) is devoted to the study of modern trends in the mortgage market in Russia. The subject of the study is the mechanism of formation and development of the system of mortgage lending, as well as social relations arising in the process of its implementation. The purpose of this study is to study the theoretical and practical foundations of mortgage lending, as well as the analysis of mortgage lending in JSC "Gazprombank" and the development of measures to improve it.

Climate change and security have been increasingly interlinked since 2007. Initiatives to address climate change within a security agenda are forming by different international institutions, such as the UN Security Council, the NATO and the European Union. This thesis seeks to explore the relationship between climate change and security and to discuss how it is portrayed in the Greek context. By employing a media content analysis and utilizing the Copenhagen School's theory of securitization as a theoretical lens, the language and rhetoric of Greek online media have been scrutinized in order to investigate if there is a case of securitization of climate change in Greece. The findings have been cross-referenced with texts from the articles. The thesis concludes that the securitization of climate change is present in the Greek online media.