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Reconstructing desecuritisation: the normative-political in the Copenhagen School and directions for how to apply it

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2011

LENE HANSEN
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Abstract

The concept of desecuritisation – the move of an issue out of the sphere of security – has been the subject of heated international political theory debate and adopted in case studies across a range of sectors and settings. What unites the political theory and the applied literature is a concern with the normative-political potential of desecuritisation. This article documents the political status and content of desecuritisation through four readings: one which shows how desecuritisation is a Derridarian supplement to the political concept of securitisation; one which traces the understanding of the public sphere's ability to rework the friend-enemy distinction; one which emphasises the role of choice, responsibility, and decisions; and one which uncovers the significance of the historical context of Cold War détente. The last part of the article provides a reading of the varied use of desecuritisation in applied analysis and shows how these can be seen as falling into four forms of desecuritisation. Each of the latter identifies a distinct ontological position as well as a set of more specific political and normative questions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 525 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2011

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References

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10 This conception is located within ‘the classical tradition that contains Machiavelli as well as Arendt’. Buzan et al., Security, p. 144.

11 Ibid., p. 143.

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29 Thus, according to Nicole J. Jackson, securitisation theory is difficult to apply to authoritarian states, because of the absence of ‘normal politics’ in those settings. Jackson, Nicole J., ‘International Organizations, Security Dichotomies and the Trafficking of Persons and Narcotics in Post-Soviet Central Asia: A Critique of the Securitization Framework’, Security Dialogue, 37:3 (2006), pp. 299–317, p. 312CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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