This paper presents the results of a critical discourse analysis of a selection of Canada’s security texts and argues that the country’s security discourses construct Muslims as dangerous and different from the normative Canadian. The research relies on a social constructionist understanding of discourse and the recognition that our state’s representatives and agents, operating from positions of discursive power, wield disproportionate influence in directing the national conversation and managing the signals that shape our social attitudes and imaginaries. By persistently qualifying terrorism with Islam, portraying the terrorist figure as a religiously and ideologically-motivated actor opposed to ‘Western values’ and by casting suspicion on the ordinary behaviour of Muslims, Canada’s security discourses produce a mental model in which Islam and its followers are associated with a propensity for terrorist violence. The discourses also naturalize the idea that Muslims are in need of surveillance, not only by the state’s agents, but by the public itself. When examined alongside a body of research illustrating Canada’s ‘visible minority’ population continues to be negatively affected by dominant group discrimination, the results of the study raise questions about the culpability of state representatives in the reproduction of ideas of difference which continue to inform the country’s social imaginary and hinder the equality and inclusivity of minority groups within the national collective.

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.

The main objective of this thesis is to acquaint the reader with the main types of credit derivatives, with the methods of functioning and with main valuation principles. The theoretical part focus on description of credit derivatives market developement with more detailed description of subjcts, who are operating on credit derivatives market. The analysis fosus on how the financial crises influenced these subjects and their credit derivatives portfolios. I have also described the new suggested regulation changes. As a conclusion is the estimation of the regulation changes on the credit derivatives market size.

Thesis is focused on construction of threat in newcast. The purpose of the quantitative content analysis is the construction of threat in Czech printed news in case of Russian federation. Thesis is based on presumption that with help of selective processes by journalists that implies usage of certain frames and granting of space for certain actors and themes, media are able to construct a threat that may not be even real. Czech news may be influencing our way of thinking towards Russia. The content of thesis is divided to four main parts. The first theoretical chapter links three crucial research areas: news, securitization theory and the concept of media framing. Next chapter describes bilateral relationship between Czech Republic and Russia that provides context for analysis outcomes. Methodological part is concentrated on selective processes, which are being held in news about Russia. It has been operated with four variables: actor, theme, news frames (conflict, attribution of responsibility, human interest, morality and economic) and securitization frame. Concerning securitization frame, the elements of diagnosis, prognosis or motivation to actively deal with a problem has been researched. Description of results and their graphical projection is integrated to the last chapter. The most...

In recent years EU-citizens living in poverty exercising their right to free movement within EU have gained increased political interest. Some vulnerable EU citizens travel to Sweden in order seek livelihood, some of them engage in begging. The presence of vulnerable EU citizens engaged in begging has generated the emergence of a new policy area with increased political activity at both national and municipal level. Here, a state public report, policy proposals and problematization of the issue at municipal level are analysed. The analysis reveal how begging is constructed as a social problem and how the vulnerable EU citizen is positioned. The political discourse in this policy area is characterized by securitization and individualisation of responsibility, begging is problematized based on notions of welfare nationalism. People who beg are positioned as undeserving and associated with criminality, with few exceptions, the social rights approach is silenced. Begging is mainly constructed as an individual problem and linked to personal deficiencies. Thus, the structural issues such as inequality, discrimination and poverty are also subordinated in the political discourse. Further, the analysis exposes that human rights issues are not taken into account when policies targeting begging are formulated.

[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.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é compreender a dinâmica que promoveu uma possível securitização da imigração nos Estados Unidos após 2001. Para tanto, procuramos identificar e analisar as mudanças na formulação, orientação e condução da política de imigração nos Estados Unidos a partir da ótica do enforcement imigratório e das legislações de imigração, enfatizando a atuação dos grupos restricionistas para a evolução dessa política. Defendemos que a colocação da imigração como uma questão de segurança no pós-11 de setembro está inserida dentro de um processo mais amplo e resgata o papel importante do ativismo restricionista em especial, do nativismo - na promoção de conteúdos hostis ao imigrante. Além de ser fruto de uma trajetória de demonização do imigrante identificada desde o século XIX, o cenário pós-11 de setembro marca a consolidação da escalada do controle imigratório em curso desde finais dos anos 1980. Na conclusão, utilizamos parte do arcabouço teórico sobre segurança desenvolvido pela Escola de Copenhague para testar a hipótese proposta inicialmente, procurando também apontar os perigos concernentes ao alargamento do conceito de segurança e à produção de modelos de política imigratória como o norteamericano que, ao colocar em destaque os aspectos de segurança da imigração, promoveu uma lógica de ingerência da política de segurança na condução da política imigratória e que tem implicado num aprofundamento dos estranhamentos culturais e das representações negativas do imigrante. / This research intends to analyze the dynamics that probably promoted the securitization of immigration in the United States after 2001. In order to accomplish this objective, are analyzed the changes in formulation, orientation and conduction of the immigration politics in the United States through the study of the immigration law and enforcement, focusing on the role of restrictionist groups in the development of that politics. We will try to demonstrate that the treatment of immigration as a security issue in the post-September 11 era must be comprehended into a broader process and that it recovers the restrictionist activisms role especially, the nativism of promoting hostile contents about immigrant. Therefore, the post-September context is both a product of a trajectory of demonization of the immigrant that can be identified since the ninetieth century and the consolidation of the immigration control escalate that was in progress since the late 1980s. Finally, the analysis employs the Copenhagen Schools securitization concept in order to test the basic hypothesis of this dissertation and to contribute for the making up of immigration politics outside the logic based on security aspects of immigration

This research aims to examine the securitization of migration in the Council of the European union by answering the question “Why did a securitization of migration wave in 2015 occur in the political debate within the Council of the European union?”. The research focuses on the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) and the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC). This is done by a discourse analysis of relevant Council documents, whereas the securitization theory is used as an explanatory tool. The results of the study show that a securitization of migration occurred due to the discourse 1) connecting migration to terrorism, 2) producing the image of a crisis taking place, 3) mobilizing institutions to act upon these notions, and 4) overlooking migrants’ security through power relation mechanisms detected in the discourse.

A presente tese apresenta três artigos que demonstram através do histórico da segurança humana sua compreensão em de três pontos de vista: histórico, conceito e ferramenta de política externa. O primeiro artigo busca evidenciar que existe baixo nível de debate, diálogo e contribuição entre a agenda de desenvolvimento e segurança na construção da abordagem da segurança humana através do Relatório de Desenvolvimento Humano (RDH) do Programa de Desenvolvimento das Nações Unidas (PNUD) de 1994 e do Relatório da Comissão Internacional sobre Intervenção e Soberania Estatal (CIISE) de 2001. Enquanto o segundo artigo realiza uma análise comparativa da segurança humana e da securitização à fim de demonstrar as diferenças e especificidades de ambos e procura demonstrar que apesar de existirem semelhanças entre os termos, e uma certa complementariedade, eles não são substituíveis. Já o terceiro aborda como e para quais interesses potências médias usam a segurança humana, através dos estudos de caso do Japão e Canadá a fim de demonstrar que estes beneficiam interesses próprios. / The present thesis presents three papers that displays through the history of human security its comprehension from three points of view: history, concept and foreign policy tool. The first paper seeks to demonstrate that there is a low level of debate, dialogue and contribution between the development and security agenda in the construction of the human security approach through the Human Development Report (HDR) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) from 1994 and the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) from 2001. While the second seeks to comparatively analyze human security and securitization to indicate differences and similarities and seeking to demonstrate that despite the similarities between the terms, and a certain complementarity, they are not replaceable. And lastly, the third one approaches how and to serve which interests middle powers use human security, through the case studies of Japan and Canada seeking to show rather they beneficiate self-interest.

Submitted by Fabricia Fialho Reginato (fabriciar) on 2015-06-30T01:26:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CristinaFerabolli.pdf: 1444963 bytes, checksum: 3a500787cd63e67d3ffdedda874efc97 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-30T01:26:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CristinaFerabolli.pdf: 1444963 bytes, checksum: 3a500787cd63e67d3ffdedda874efc97 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Nenhuma / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar os principais fatores que levaram os bancos brasileiros a utilizarem instrumentos de securitização no período de 2005 a 2012. Avaliou-se ainda o cenário da crise financeira mundial e a se a mesma modificou o padrão da securitização no mercado brasileiro. Os resultados obtidos através da aplicação do modelo de regressão logística em uma amostra de 643 observações indicam que a liquidez é o principal fator determinante na opção pela securitização, seguido pelo capital regulatório. Além disso, o tamanho do banco também apresenta relevância estatística, sinalizando possíveis ganhos de escala nas operações de securitização. Não foram encontradas evidências de utilização da securitização por transferência de risco de crédito e por performance, nem evidências de mudanças no padrão da securitização, no Brasil, no período pré e pós crise. / This research aims to analyze the main factors leading Brazilian banks to use securitization instruments in the period of 2005-2012. It was also evaluated the scenario of the global financial crisis and whether it changed the pattern of securitization in Brazil. The results obtained by applying the logistic regression model in a sample of 643 observations indicate that liquidity is the main determining factor in the choice of securitization, followed by regulatory capital. Moreover, the size of the bank also presents statistical relevance, signaling possible economies of scale in securitization transactions. There is no evidence of the use of securitization for credit risk transfer and performance, nor evidence of changes in the pattern of securitization, in Brazil, in the pre and post crisis.