TY - JOUR

T1 - Macrosecuritization and Security Constellations

T2 - Reconsidering Scale in Securitization Theory

AU - Buzan, Barry

AU - Wæver, Ole

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - The Copenhagen school's theory of securitization has mainly focused on the middle level of world politics in which collective political units, often but not always states, construct relationships of amity or enmity with each other. Its argument has been that this middle level would be the most active both because of the facility with which collective political units can construct each other as threats, and the difficulty of finding audiences for the kinds of securitizations and referent objects that are available at the individual and system levels. This paper focuses on the gap between the middle and system levels, and asks whether there is not more of substance there than the existing Copenhagen school analyses suggests. It revisits the under-discussed concept of security constellations in Copenhagen school theory, and adds to it the idea of macrosecuritizations as ways of getting an analytical grip on what happens above the middle level. It then suggests how applying these concepts adds not just a missing sense of scale, but also a useful insight into underlying political logics, to how one understands the patterns of securitization historical, and contemporary.

AB - The Copenhagen school's theory of securitization has mainly focused on the middle level of world politics in which collective political units, often but not always states, construct relationships of amity or enmity with each other. Its argument has been that this middle level would be the most active both because of the facility with which collective political units can construct each other as threats, and the difficulty of finding audiences for the kinds of securitizations and referent objects that are available at the individual and system levels. This paper focuses on the gap between the middle and system levels, and asks whether there is not more of substance there than the existing Copenhagen school analyses suggests. It revisits the under-discussed concept of security constellations in Copenhagen school theory, and adds to it the idea of macrosecuritizations as ways of getting an analytical grip on what happens above the middle level. It then suggests how applying these concepts adds not just a missing sense of scale, but also a useful insight into underlying political logics, to how one understands the patterns of securitization historical, and contemporary.

U2 - 10.1017/S0260210509008511

DO - 10.1017/S0260210509008511

M3 - Journal article

VL - 35

SP - 253

EP - 276

JO - Review of International Studies

JF - Review of International Studies

SN - 0260-2105

IS - 2

ER -