The Biden-Harris administration’s discussion of climate change is analyzed during the transformative time of the administration’s first hundred days in office. The theoretical framework of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies (CS) is used to develop the coding frame to perform a qualitative content analysis of empirical material consisting of speeches and other documents of the administration. Several securitization moves have been identified and climate change has been presented as a security issue and an existential threat by the Biden- Harris administration. A wide range of referent objects are identified, which is the people and things presented to be threatened by climate change. The whole world, ecosystems, the American people and future generations are a few of the identified referent objects. International and national solutions are presented, though the solutions are not interpreted as extreme measures as discussed by the CS. Therefore, this study supports the critique of a too narrow definition of securitization by the CS.

Over the last four decades organized crime groups, particularly, drug trafficking organizations or drug cartels, have managed to be under the spotlight of the security agendas of American countries such as Colombia and the United States. During the last two decades, however, the global securitization of the drug trafficking issue, has led them to become a major security threat not only for the Americas, but also for Europe and more recently for West African countries. These organizations pose a threat not only to the security of the state, but to the very essence of it, by corrupting and damaging everything they come in contact with at the political, social, economical and even cultural level. This graduate thesis presents an analysis on Latin American drug trafficking organizations or drugs cartels, as they are commonly known, focusing on the cases of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. By comparing these two case studies, I suggest that today's Mexican drug trafficking organizations have gained their momentum and incommensurable strength by following the footsteps of the big three Colombian drug cartels that existed between the 1980s and 1990s. The first chapter will expose the definitions and concepts surrounding the research of organized crime. In the second and third chapters, both the...

This Master's thesis dealt with securitization attempts related to the planned construction of a new reactor at the Dukovany NPP. Therefore, its aim was to find, analyse and explain securitization speech acts associated with the planned reactor, in the period from summer 2015 to December 2020 using the critical discourse analysis approach. The results show that securitization speech acts of this kind do appear in the Czech public sphere and are articulated mainly by four groups of actors: representatives of Austria, Czech environmental NGOs, Czech governmental representatives, and Czech political opposition. These actors have different goals: to stop the construction of the reactor, to implement the construction of the reactor, or to influence the way in which the construction will be implemented. One case of successful securitization was found in the outcome: The Czech government was able to enforce extraordinary measures that deviated from standard democratic processes using security-based arguments. Their goal was to implement the construction of the reactor. It remains to add that the research also revealed three important functional actors who co-created the discourse: the BIS secret service, the SÚJB nuclear safety office and the company ČEZ.

[pt] A figura da migrante trabalhadora do sexo pode ser interpretada de múltiplas formas de acordo com interesses, visões morais e objetivos políticos dos atores em jogo. Este trabalho analisa as perspectivas de segurança, gênero e resistência promovidas, respectivamente, por atores governamentais, associações e pelas próprias migrantes brasileiras na França. Investiga como as interações sociopolíticas das brasileiras trabalhadoras do sexo cisgêneros e transgêneros configuram, em conjunto, uma economia moral da mobilidade de trabalhadores sexuais. Mais especificamente, esta tese tem como intuito elucidar de que forma o rótulo de vítima vulnerável, por um lado, e os de criminosa, cafetina, clandestina e transgressora, por outro, são produzidos e mobilizados pelos diferentes atores envolvidos na regulação da migração laboral sexual. A análise realizada neste trabalho baseia-se em pesquisa de inspiração etnográfica, descrevendo o campo da prostituição brasileira nas cidades francesas de Paris, Lyon e Toulouse. A partir dessa imersão, a tese demonstra como as articulações existentes entre a categoria de vitima - de tráfico, de exploração laboral sexual, do patriarcado, do capitalismo desigual - e a categoria de criminosa - por cafetinar as amigas, por ser clandestina, por alimentar o mercado negro, por exercer uma atividade imoral - são mobilizadas nesse contexto. Revela uma realidade altamente nuançada e ambivalente, uma vez que as brasileiras prostitutas são muitas vezes, ao mesmo tempo vítimas e autônomas, manipuladas e oportunistas, cafetinas e exploradas. / [en] The migrant sex worker character can be interpreted in multiple ways according to the interests, moral views and political goals of relevant stakeholders within this context. This work analyzes how the perspectives of security, gender and resistance, respectively promoted by government actors, associative agents and the subjects themselves reverberate in the empirical practice, that is, through the interactions of Brazilian cisgender and transgender sex workers with the other actors surrounding them and with whom they together configure the moral economy of the mobility of sex workers. More specifically, this thesis aims to investigate how the label of vulnerable and naive victim on the one hand, and the labels of criminal, pimp, illegal and transgressive on the other are produced and mobilized by the different actors involved in the regulation of sexual labor migration. The analysis carried out in this work is based on ethnographic-inspired research, describing the field of Brazilian prostitution in the French cities of Paris, Lyon and Toulouse. From this immersion, the thesis demonstrates how the articulations between the category of victim - of trafficking, of sexual labor exploitation, of patriarchy, of unequal capitalism - and the category of criminal - for pimping friends, for being clandestine, for feeding the black market, for exercising an immoral activity - are mobilized in this context. It reveals a highly nuanced and ambivalent reality, since Brazilian prostitutes are often simultaneously victims and autonomous, manipulated and opportunists, pimps and exploited.

This study explores the discourses related to forced migration in the aftermath of disruptive emergencies through a case study of Turkey. 2 devastating earthquakes hit ten provinces on February 6, 2023, with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6, and over 50,000 lives were lost In Turkey. 1.7 million refugees were residing in earthquake-affected provinces. The study aims to contribute to the understanding of meaning construction by host community members around refugees in the context of a disruptive emergency, using the Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT 2.0), theory of securitization, and human security to analyze online narratives of the earthquake and refugees. The study adopts a qualitative approach, with a case study design drawing on the method of contrapuntal analysis. This study's findings contribute to understanding the discursive interplay between Securitized Discourse (SD) and Humanizing Discourse (HD) in the aftermath of disruptive emergencies and shed light on the meaning construction by host community members around refugees. Additionally, this study extends the use of Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT 2.0) and the theory of securitization in the analysis of online narratives of crises. The focus of the study is to investigate the different discourses surrounding refugees after disasters, without intending to provide an analysis of the political actions or a moral assessment of the competing discourses. Limitations of the study include the use of online data and a specific platform within a specific time frame.

This master thesis explores the media representation of deepfakes. The first part summarizes previous research followed by a comprehensive review of deepfakes, including the technology allowing for their emergence, current uses and methods of regulation and detection. The second part connects the phenomenon with important theoretical concepts such as social construction of reality and the crucial role of media in this process. The empirical part consists of research combining two methods - quantitative content analysis and qualitative critical discourse analysis. The research analysis is focused on media articles dealing with deepfakes in order to find out how the media represent this phenomenon. The results show that current media discourse of deepfakes is strongly negative as the media frame them as a security threat. This negative representation is highly speculative since journalists often invent their own stories of future disastrous consequences of the technology for national security due to lack of current examples. The findings show an apparent hierarchy of the harms posed by deepfakes which is present in media coverage, and reflects gender sereotypes and inequality in the current society. Harm in the form of non-consensual fake pornography targeting women is neglected in the media...

[pt] Constatou-se que os atos piratas no Golfo da Guiné, especialmente em Nigéria, estão fortemente associados ao roubo de cargas de petróleo e à pilhagem das instalações de exploração do produto. As ações dos perpetradores de tais atos, como é o caso da Nigéria que se debruçou mais, visam atingir o Estado Federal e as multinacionais exploradoras do petróleo bruto nacional. Com base na Teoria dos Complexos Regionais de Segurança e nos conceitos teóricos sobre a securitização, procurou-se analisar a pirataria na região estudada como uma ameaça existencial socialmente construída e como um objeto securitizado por uma variedade de atores políticos (regionais e internacionais). O objetivo cabal é mostrar que, no atual contexto da corrida pelo petróleo no Golfo da Guiné, a securitização da pirataria provoca a despolitização de questões econômicas e sociais inerentes aos Estados locais e a ameaça suas soberanias e integridades territoriais. / [en] It was found that pirates acts in the Gulf of Guinea, especially in Nigeria, are strongly associated with the theft of oil cargo and the pillaging of the product exploration installations. The actions of the perpetrators of such acts, as is the case of Nigeria which leaned more, aim to achieve the Federal State and the multinationals exploiting the national crude oil. Based on the Theory of Regional Security Complex and on the theoretical concepts of securitization, we tried to analyze piracy in the region studied as a socially constructed existential threat and a securitized object by a variety of political actors (regional and international). The full goal is to show that, in the current context of the race for oil in the Gulf of Guinea, the securitization of piracy causes the depoliticization of economic and social issues related to local states and threatens their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This thesis examines how the Arctic region is portrayed and constructed as a security matter within Swedish state discourses from 2020 to 2023. Focused on the escalating geopolitical significance and the transformative impact of climate change in the Arctic, the thesis scrutinizes Sweden's portrayal of security in the region. The research aims to gain a deeper understanding of how the Arctic region is constructed in Swedish discourses and the possible implications of this.  This thesis employs securitization theory, which is useful for understanding who securitizes, on what issues, for what reasons, and with what results, as well as under what conditions. The findings show that securitizing moves are more prevalent in the traditional security sector, but that environmental security is also gaining prominence. Through critical discourse analysis and securitization theory, the thesis unveils different representations and discourses used by various actors, as well as cross-references between the environmental and traditional security sector.

Arguing from the traditional point of view with regard to the concept of securitization, this work analyses the effects securitization has on international environmental policy on the example of four case studies—the Rio Conference, the climate change regime, the ozone depletion regime as well as the fragmented forest regime. Contrasting securitization to the variables of regime complexity and the national interest, its twofold effects become evident. While succeeding in “raising the stakes” of an issue, securitization at the same time provokes conflicts between either the actors involved (e.g., forest convention negotiations) or the actors and the regime itself (e.g., climate change regime).

The Arctic region is a region defined by change. Climate change, militarization and a growing interest from both Arctic and non-Arctic states are increasing the geopolitical significance for the region. As a consequence, concerns about the Arctic region's security and what threat the region might constitute have grown.  The following thesis seeks to study in which way the Arctic region is perceived as a security and defence concern by the Swedish government and state agencies in Swedish state discourse from first of January 2019 to the 19th of June 2023. By using arguments from the Copenhagen schools Securitization Theory, the thesis aims to understand to what extent the Swedish state discourse has securitized the Arctic region and what and/or who the is presented as security issues and defence threats. The findings argue that the Swedish Arctic discourse does not securitize the Arctic region, however, patterns of securitization could be found which indicate that the region might be securitized in the future. The Swedish Arctic discourse recognise several security issues and defence threats and present cooperation with other states as well as strengthen military capabilities in northern Sweden as countermeasures. This further indicates that the Swedish Arctic discourse recognise security and defence concerns connected to the Arctic region even if they are not presented by the terms of securitization.