De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”

Drawing on the concepts of securitisation and desecuritisation, the article argues that the construction of security threats does not necessarily have to relate to their threat potential, but can be instrumentalised and utilised by competing actors for specific aims. Using the example of the Austria...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alexandra Schwell
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UACES 2009-08-01
Series:Journal of Contemporary European Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/178
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author Alexandra Schwell
author_facet Alexandra Schwell
author_sort Alexandra Schwell
collection DOAJ
description Drawing on the concepts of securitisation and desecuritisation, the article argues that the construction of security threats does not necessarily have to relate to their threat potential, but can be instrumentalised and utilised by competing actors for specific aims. Using the example of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and the Austrian tabloid press, the article scrutinises how West-European security-political and media actors reacted to the challenges of the 2007 Schengen enlargement. With reference to Balzacq’s “three faces of securitisation” it shows that the tabloids’ securitising strategy proved to be more successful than the ministry’s desecuritising strategy, because the newly emerged context did not support a congruence of the audience’s frame of reference and the ministry’s speech act.
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spelling doaj.art-ef000b23f34e49b4a7d38eb0b2e920af2022-12-21T19:21:41ZengUACESJournal of Contemporary European Research1815-347X2009-08-0152De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”Alexandra Schwell0University of ViennaDrawing on the concepts of securitisation and desecuritisation, the article argues that the construction of security threats does not necessarily have to relate to their threat potential, but can be instrumentalised and utilised by competing actors for specific aims. Using the example of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior and the Austrian tabloid press, the article scrutinises how West-European security-political and media actors reacted to the challenges of the 2007 Schengen enlargement. With reference to Balzacq’s “three faces of securitisation” it shows that the tabloids’ securitising strategy proved to be more successful than the ministry’s desecuritising strategy, because the newly emerged context did not support a congruence of the audience’s frame of reference and the ministry’s speech act.https://jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/178AustriaBalzacqSchengensecuritisationEastern Europe
spellingShingle Alexandra Schwell
De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
Journal of Contemporary European Research
Austria
Balzacq
Schengen
securitisation
Eastern Europe
title De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
title_full De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
title_fullStr De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
title_full_unstemmed De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
title_short De/Securitising the 2007 Schengen Enlargement: Austria and “the East”
title_sort de securitising the 2007 schengen enlargement austria and the east
topic Austria
Balzacq
Schengen
securitisation
Eastern Europe
url https://jcer.net/index.php/jcer/article/view/178
work_keys_str_mv AT alexandraschwell desecuritisingthe2007schengenenlargementaustriaandtheeast