Normative Political Theory and the Logic of Securitization

초록

This paper seeks to address the methodology of “securitization theory”, the approach to security studies developed by the so-called Copenhagen School, and its compatibility with moral norms. This theory provides a leading explanatory framework for “securitization”, the transformation of normal political issues into urgent security concerns, and “desecuritization”, the return from security politics to normal. Scholars in the field have also asserted that the processes understood from this approach may be assessed from moral standpoints, and have elaborated theories of normative securitization. The article argues that this is currently misconceived. Because the core of securitization theory under the Copenhagen School has been a “nomological” or “covering-law” explanation, its approach is incommensurable with the moral principles and evidentiary requirements of normative securitization. The paper proposes, instead, that methodological pluralism and interpretivism in explanatory security studies are better matched to normative inquiry.

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