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Securitisation and Diego Garcia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2013

Abstract

To advance the on-going debate on Securitisation Theory (ST), we argue that the important questions of audience and attention can be addressed through careful historical study. In an analysis of the securitising moves concerning the American military base on Diego Garcia, we are able to demonstrate that the Copenhagen and Paris Schools are not methodologically incompatible, and empirically that public attention for security issues has a tendency to dissipate without continual discursive investment.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2013 

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References

1 This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (410-10-0553).

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4 We want to highlight a distinction between security measures and security moves. While measures refer to particular practices, a security move is the attempt to name an issue area a security issue that cannot be debated. Our thanks to a reviewer for this precision.

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