Securing the world

Referent object

Something that is being threatened

Referent subject

The threat in question

Postcolonial critique

A critique of Euro-West-centrism that has characterised the fields International Relations and Security Studies

Postcolonial perspective

Wants the past to be interpreted beyond the dominant Eurocentric lens and as an interaction amongst the societies

Four hierarchies

- Global North & South

- Developed & developing

- Free & the rest

- Subjugator & subjugated

Contrapuntal approach

Placing interests, threat perception and corresponding practices of both sides under the same analytical framework and studying them

Melian dialogue

There are power-dynamics, but smaller powers should be emphasized

Athenian dialogue

Emphasizing power-dynamics; weak powers should submit to the more powerful ones

Three roles for non-Western actors

- Involved in production of security: junior partners

- Troublemakers: pushback

- Bargaining chips: literal actors being used as trade

Approaches according to postcolonial critique

- Unsilencing the unrecorded past

- Contrapuntal approach

Imperial/male gaze

The gaze puts the white subject as superior at the center and the colonized people as inferior on the periphery; it objectifies the other and establishes control over the other

Three postcolonial critiques of SS

- The weak as the object of security

- The powerful as the subject of security

- Perspective of the powerful cannot capture all

Orientalism

Style for dominanting, studying, restructuring and having authority over the 'Oriënt'; way of seeing the world through a bifocal lense

Blind arrogance

Being blinded by exceptionalism and stereotypes

First civilization mission

- Invasion of Ottoman Egypt in 1798

- 'Service to the Sultan'

- Idea to save the people from the Mamluks

- In reality, it was about control of Britains routes, revival of commerce and French loans

Intersubjectivity

Form of social constructivism; the process of product of sharing experiences

Subaltern

Those who have limited or no access to power

Why is it hard/impossible for the subaltern to securitize?

Securitizing act must be understood as legitimiate, which means that the subaltern must challenges the state/status quo/law to become legitimate

Terrorism

Systematic spreading of fear and panic through acts of violence for political objectives

Five waves of terrorism

- Anarchist

- Anti-colonial

- New left

- Religious

- Now: far-right?

Security in three primary ways

- State of being: absence of threat, feeling safe, freedom of anxiety

- As means to an end: pursuit of security becomes an end, since absolute security is unattainable

- As assurance: in financial contexts as a guarantee

Objective vs subjective security

- Objective: absence of threat; absolute security

- Subjective: feeling safe/freedom from anxiety

Positive vs negative subjective security

- Positive: feeling safe

- Negative: freedom from anxiety

Locutionary silencing

The subaltern literally cannot speak, because of threats, physically unable to etc

Illocutionary frustration

Speech is uttered and understood, but the audience refuses uptake, eg avoiding to label situations

Illocutionary disablement

Speech is uttered but cannot be heard correctly because 'disabling frames' (ideology) distort the message

Three ways of securitizing 'for' the subaltern

- Political action: NGO's, networks of transnational activists, human rights advocacy groups

- Normative critique: critics who denounce the theoy's marginalizing effects are also caught

- Mere analysis: simple diagnosing the silence-problem

Welsch School of CSS

Critical theory

Emancipatory realism

Securitizing actor

who creates/frames the threat

Extraordinary action/measures

Measures that fight the threat

The four G's

- Geopolitics

- God

- Gold

- Glory

Differences between seeing and gazing

Seeing entails understanding the other & agency of the other is acknowledge, while gazing is a one-way attitude

Buzan & Weaver

Two main critiques on the securitization theory

• Speech Act ignores silence: Hansen (passive) & Bilgin (active)

• Postcolonial critique: Bilgin and Bakawi & Laffey

Process of securitization theory