Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics

The theory of “securitization” developed by the Copenhagen School provides one of the most innovative, productive, and yet controversial avenues of research in contemporary security studies. This article provides an assessment of the foundations of this approach and its limitations, as well as its significance for broader areas of International Relations theory. Locating securitization theory within the context of both classical Realism influenced by Carl Schmitt, and current work on constructivist ethics, it argues that while the Copenhagen School is largely immune from the most common criticisms leveled against it, the increasing impact of televisual communication in security relations provides a fundamental challenge for understanding the processes and institutions involved in securitization, and for the political ethics advocated by the Copenhagen School.

[1]  P. Bourdieu.  The Logic of Practice , 1990 .

[2]  Steve Smith.  The increasing insecurity of security studies: Conceptualizing security in the last twenty years , 1999 .

[3]  R. Price,et al.  Dangerous Liaisons? , 1998 .

[4]  C. Dauber.  Image as Argument: The Impact of Mogadishu on U.S. Military Intervention , 2001 .

[5]  O. Wæver.  Security Communities: Insecurity, security, and asecurity in the West European non-war community , 1998 .

[6]  J. Huysmans.  Revisiting Copenhagen: , 1998 .

[7]  K. Thompson,et al.  Politics Among Nations , 1948 .

[8]  Hans J. Morgenthau.  La notion du "politique" et la théorie des différends internationaux , 1933 .

[9]  T. Risse.  “Let's Argue!”: Communicative Action in World Politics , 2000, International Organization.

[10]  R. Jones.  Critical Theory and World Politics , 2000 .

[11]  C. Frei,et al.  Hans J. Morgenthau. An Intellectual Biography , 2001 .

[12]  Misperception and ethnic conflict: Transylvania's societal security dilemma , 2002, Review of International Studies.

[13]  Carl Schmitt,et al.  The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy , 1923 .

[14]  O. Wæver,et al.  In Defence of Religion: Sacred Referent Objects for Securitization , 2000 .

[15]  Charlie A. Jones.  E. H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie , 1998 .

[16]  Johan Eriksson.  Observers or Advocates? , 1999 .

[17]  R. Wolin.  Carl Schmitt , 1992 .

[18]  Olav F. Knudsen.  Post-Copenhagen Security Studies: Desecuritizing Securitization , 2001 .

[19]  Badredine Arfi,et al.  Constructivism in International Relations Theory , 2010 .

[20]  Edward Comor.  The Role of Communication in Global Civil Society: Forces, Processes, Prospects , 2001 .

[21]  Iver B. Neumann.  Identity and Security , 1992 .

[22]  John P. McCormick,et al.  Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics of Technology , 2000 .

[23]  Piers Robinson.  Theorizing the Influence of Media on World Politics , 2001 .

[24]  B. Buzan,et al.  Slippery? contradictory? sociologically untenable? The Copenhagen school replies , 1997, Review of International Studies.

[25]  Barry Buzan,et al.  People, States and Fear , 1983 .

[26]  J. Huysmans.  The Question of the Limit: Desecuritisation and the Aesthetics of Horror in Political Realism , 1998 .

[27]  Bill Mcsweeney.  Durkheim and the Copenhagen school: a response to Buzan and Waever , 1998, Review of International Studies.

[28]  Piers Robinson,et al.  The CNN effect: can the news media drive foreign policy? , 1999, Review of International Studies.

[29]  Chris Horrocks.  Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality , 1996 .

[30]  Carl Schmitt.  The Concept of the Political , 1932 .

[31]  Stefano Guzzini.  A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations , 2000 .

[32]  Bill Mcsweeney.  Identity and security: Buzan and the Copenhagen school , 1996, Review of International Studies.

[33]  Graeme P. Herd,et al.  `Societal Security', the Baltic States and EU Integration , 2001 .

[34]  B. Buzan,et al.  Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe , 1993 .

[35]  Carl Schmitt,et al.  Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty , 1986 .

[36]  Alexander Wendt.  Social Theory of International Politics: “Ideas all the way down?”: on the constitution of power and interest , 1999 .

[37]  Alexander Wendt.  Constructing International Politics , 1995 .

[38]  Piers Robinson.  The CNN effect , 2002 .

[39]  Roxanne Lynn Doty,et al.  Immigration and the politics of security , 1998 .

[40]  R. Jones.  Security, Strategy, and Critical Theory , 1999 .

[41]  Michael C. Williams.  Modernity, identity and security: a comment on the ‘Copenhagen controversy’ , 1998, Review of International Studies.

[42]  O. Wæver.  The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in International Relations , 1998, International Organization.

[43]  L. Hansen.  The Little Mermaid's Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School , 2000 .

[44]  M. Koskenniemi.  The Gentle Civilizer of Nations: The Rise and Fall of International Law 1870–1960 , 2001 .

[45]  John P. McCormick.  Carl Schmitt's critique of liberalism : against politics as technology , 1997 .

[46]  Arnold O. Wolfers,et al.  Discord and Collaboration , 1962 .

[47]  J. Habermas.  Theory of Communicative Action , 1981 .

[48]  W. Rasch.  Conflict as a Vocation , 2000 .

[49]  O. Wæver.  Securitizing Sectors? , 1999 .

[50]  Keith Krause,et al.  Broadening the Agenda of Security Studies: Politics and Methods , 1996 .

[51]  Steve Smith.  The Discipline of International Relations: Still an American Social Science? , 2000 .

[52]  Ronald J. Deibert.  Parchment, printing, and hypermedia : communication in world order transformation , 1997 .

[53]  Hans-Karl Pichler.  The godfathers of ‘truth’: Max Weber and Carl Schmitt in Morgenthau’s theory of power politics , 1998, Review of International Studies.

[54]  John J. Mearsheimer,et al.  The False Promise of International Institutions , 1994 .

[55]  Michael C. Williams.  The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations: The tyranny of false polarities , 2005 .

[56]  A. Moravcsik.  'Is something rotten in the state of Denmark?' Constructivism and European integration , 1999 .

[57]  B. Buzan,et al.  Security: A New Framework for Analysis , 1997 .

[58]  J. Honig.  Totalitarianism and realism: Hans Morgenthau's German years , 1995 .

[59]  John M. Hobson,et al.  Reimagining Weber: , 2001 .

[60]  L. Hansen,et al.  European Integration and National Identity : The Challenge of the Nordic States , 2002 .

[61]  W. Scheuerman.  Carl Schmitt: The End of Law , 1999 .

[62]  C. Mouffe.  The challenge of Carl Schmitt , 1999 .

[63]  J. Mearsheimer.  A Realist Reply , 1995 .

[64]  Renato Cristi.  Carl Schmitt and authoritarian liberalism , 1998 .