A Perspective on Critical Security Concept and International Migration Nexus through Copenhagen School: The Quest for Societal Security

Year 2023, , 23 - 32, 31.01.2023

Atahan Demirkol

https://doi.org/10.47478/lectio.1146768

Abstract

This study dwells on the quest for a critical security perspective on international migration. Therefore, how international migration could be perceived through critical security studies is the main research question of this study. Critical Security Studies (CSS) or Welsh School of security studies emerged after Robert Cox’s debate between problem-solving and critical theories, especially after the 1990s. In this respect, CSS focus on questioning the mainstream theories and their interpretation of security. Instead of accepting the state as the referent object, critical security studies provide other elements that may be threatened, so that related to the security. On the one hand, CSS is, therefore, critical against the traditional approaches to security as realism and liberalism. Securitization, on the other hand, as Copenhagen School provided a speech act to put an issue into the field of security. International migration is one of the accurate examples of securitization. In this study, we employed CSS and securitization perspectives to international migration to understand how international migration could be assessed through critical theories.

Keywords

Critical Security Studies, Copenhagen School, Securitization, International Migration

References

• Alexseev, M. A. (2011). Societal security, the security dilemma, and extreme anti-migrant hostility in Russia. Journal of Peace Research, 48(4), 509–523. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343311406155
• Aradau, C. (2004). Security and the democratic scene: Desecuritization and emancipation. Journal of International Relations and Development, 7(4), 388–413. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800030
• Aradau, C., Huysmans, J., Neal, A., & Voelkner, N. (2014). Introducing Critical Security Methods. In Critial Security Methods. Routledge.
• Beňuška, T., & Nečas, P. (2021). On societal security of the state: Applying a perspective of sustainability to immigration. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 9(2), 473–487. https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.9.2(31)
• Bilgin, P. (2014). Dialogue of Civilisations: A Critical Security Studies Perspective. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs, 19(1), 9–24.
• Bi̇rdi̇şli̇, F. (2014). Eleştirel Güvenlik Çalışmaları Kapsamında Frankfurt Okulu ve Soğuk Savaş Sonrası Güvenlik Sorunlarına Eleştirel Bir Yaklaşım: Galler Ekolü. Güvenlik Stratejileri Dergisi, 10(20), 0–256.
• Booth, K. (1997). Security and Self: Reflections of a Fallen Realist. In K. Krause & M. C. Williams (Eds.), Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (pp. 83–119). UCL Press.
• Booth, K. (2007). Theory of world security. Cambridge University Press.
• Booth, K., & Vale, P. (1997). Critical Security Studies and Regional Insecurity: The Case of Southern Africa. In K. Krause & M. C. Williams (Eds.), Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (pp. 329–358). University of Minnesota Press.
• Bourne, M., & Bulley, D. (2011). Securing the human in critical security studies: The insecurity of a secure ethics. European Security, 20(3), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2011.572070
• Browning, C. S., & McDonald, M. (2013). The future of critical security studies: Ethics and the politics of security. European Journal of International Relations, 19(2), 235–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066111419538
• Butler, E. (2007). Hungary and the European Union: The political implications of societal security promotion. Europe-Asia Studies, 59(7), 1115–1144. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130701607102
• Buzan, B., & Wæver, O. (1997). Slippery? Contradictory? Sociologically Untenable? The Copenhagen School Replies. Review of International Studies, 23(2), 241–250.
• Buzan, B., Wæver, O., & Wilde, J. de. (1998). Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Cox, R. W. (1981). Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory. Millennium, 10(2), 126–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/03058298810100020501
• Csanyi, P. (2020). Impact of Immigration on Europe and Its Approach Towards the Migration (european Union States Vs Visegrad Group Countries). Journal of Comparative Politics, 13(2), 4–23.
• Demirkol, A. (2021). Understanding American Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Through Robert Kagan: A Review. Uluslararası İlişkiler ve Diplomasi, 4(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.51763/uid.868169
• Demirkol, A. (2022). An Empirical Analysis of Securitization Discourse in the European Union. Migration Letters, 19(3), 273–286.
• Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of History and the Last Man. Free Press.
• Gierszewski, J., & Piwowarski, J. (2016). Theoretical Basics of Societal Security. Security Dimensions. International and National Studies, 18, 30–48.
• Hama, H. H. (2017). State Security, Societal Security, and Human Security. Jadavpur Journal of International Relations, 21(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973598417706591
• Harrington, C., & Lecavalier, E. (2014). The environment and emancipation in critical security studies: The case of the Canadian Arctic. Critical Studies on Security, 2(1), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2013.856197
• Høyland, S. A. (2018). Exploring and modeling the societal safety and societal security concepts – A systematic review, empirical study and key implications. Safety Science, 110, 7–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.10.019
• Huntington, S. P. (1997). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Penguin Books India.
• Hynek, N., & Chandler, D. (2013). No emancipatory alternative, no critical security studies. Critical Studies on Security, 1(1), 46–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2013.790202
• Ilgit, A., & Klotz, A. (2014). How far does ‘societal security’ travel? Securitization in South African immigration policies. Security Dialogue, 45(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010613519161
• Kale, B. (2017). The Limits of an International Burden-sharing Approach: The Syrian Refugee Protection Crisis and Its Consequences on Turkey’s Refugee Policy. PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs, 22(3), 55–84.
• Karyotis, G. (2007). European migration policy in the aftermath of september 11: The security–migration nexus. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 20(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610701197783
• Kaygusuz, D. (2021). Uluslararası İlişkilerde Göç Olgusu ve Göçün Güvenlikleştirilmesi. Akademik Düşünce Dergisi, 3, 60–76.
• King, J. (2004). Societal Security, Refugees and Criminology: Discourses in Tandem. Probation Journal, 51(3), 197–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0264550504045897
• Krause, K. (1998). Critical Theory and Security Studies: The Research Programme of `Critical Security Studies’. Cooperation and Conflict, 33(3), 298–333. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836798033003004
• Krause, K., & Williams, M. C. (2002). From Strategy to Security: Foundations of Critical Security Studies. In K. Krause & M. C. Williams (Eds.), Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases (pp. 33–60). UCL Press.
• Küçük, M. N. (2021). Göç-Güvenlik Bağlantısını Yeniden Düşünmek: Eleştirel Güvenlik Yaklaşımları, Özgürleşme ve Türkiye’deki Suriyeli Mülteciler. Uluslararası İlişkiler Dergisi, 18(69), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.777329
• McCormack, T. (2010). Critique, security and power: The political limits to emancipatory approaches. Routledge.
• Mutimer, D. R. (2009). My Critique is Bigger than Yours: Constituting Exclusions in Critical Security Studies. Studies in Social Justice, 3(1), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v3i1.1021
• Newman, E. (2010). Critical Human Security Studies. Review of International Studies, 36(1), 77–94.
• Nunes, J. (2012). Reclaiming the political: Emancipation and critique in security studies. Security Dialogue, 43(4), 345–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010612450747
• Peoples, C., & Vaughan-Williams, N. (2021). Critical security studies: An introduction (3rd edition). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Rumelili, B., & Karadağ, S. (2017). Göç ve Güvenlik: Eleştirel Yaklaşımlar. Toplum ve Bilim, 140, 69–92.
• Stamnes, E. (2004). Critical security studies and the united nations preventive deployment in Macedonia. International Peacekeeping, 11(1), 161–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/1353331042000228508
• Štefančík, R., Némethová, I., & Seresová, T. (2021). Securitisation of Migration in the Language of Slovak Far-Right Populism. Migration Letters, 18(6), 731–744.
• Taureck, R. (2006). Securitization theory and securitization studies. Journal of International Relations and Development, 9(1), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jird.1800072
• Theiler, T. (2003). Societal Security and Social Psychology. Review of International Studies, 29(2), 249–268.
• UNDP (Ed.). (1994). Human development report 1994. Oxford Univ. Press.
• WÆver, O. (2008). The Changing Agenda of Societal Security. In H. G. Brauch, Ú. O. Spring, C. Mesjasz, J. Grin, P. Dunay, N. C. Behera, B. Chourou, P. Kameri-Mbote, & P. H. Liotta (Eds.), Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century (pp. 581–593). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75977-5_44
• Wæver, O. (2012). Aberystwyth, Paris, Copenhagen: The Europeanness of new “schools” of security theory in an American field. In A. B. Tickner & Blaney (Eds.), Thinking International Relations Differently. Routledge.
• Wæver, O., Buzan, B., Kelstrup, M., & Lemaitre, P. (Eds.). (1993). Identity, migration and the new security agenda in Europe (1st ed.). Pinter Publishers.
• Wilkinson, C. (2007). The Copenhagen School on Tour in Kyrgyzstan: Is Securitization Theory Useable Outside Europe? Security Dialogue, 38(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010607075964
• Wyn Jones, R. (1999). Security, strategy, and critical theory. Lynne Rienner Publishers.