Politicizing European Security? Processes of Politicization in Counter-terrorism and Border Security

该项目调查欧洲安全领域政治化进程是如何以及在何种条件下发生的。它对所谓的特别安全领域中关于非政治化的突出论点提出了质疑，为政治化研究制定了一个多阶段分析框架，并通过深入的案例研究探讨了政治化进程及其便利条件。该项目旨在通过研究不同行为者的具体政治化行动、它们引发的互动的有争议的政治以及由此产生的潜在矛盾后果，来揭开政治化进程的黑匣子。经验性分析审查了欧盟一级以及国家一级(以德国为例)反恐和边境安全领域的政治化进程。我们首先注意到，在内部和外部安全之间模糊的界限上提供全面安全已成为欧盟和成员国一级日益引起公众关注和争议的问题。面对一系列跨国风险(特别是移徙和恐怖主义)，欧盟机构日益强调其作为合法化和建立权威来源的安全职能，最近安全联盟的宣布证明了这一点。反过来，这可能会让欧洲安全机构和政策的合法性引发争论。一方面，人们对公民自由和人权存在许多担忧，例如，在数据保留、大规模监控(包括斯诺登爆料)或Frontex扩张等问题上。另一方面，来自不同政治阵营的呼声越来越高，要求欧盟必须增加其在安全事务中的作用，或者像右翼民粹主义者所说的那样，欧盟本身被视为对成员国安全的风险。因此，问题是，这些相互冲突的倾向是否预示着更广泛的政治化，我们将其理解为将以前没有争议或没有公开辩论的问题转移到公开决策、公共审议和社会辩论的领域。该项目考验了传统主义和批判性方法，这些方法倾向于将欧洲安全描述为一个高度政治化和政府特权的领域，一个超出正常政治或多层治理的技术官僚形式的证券化领域，因此，这两种方法规避了政治化。该项目将正在进行的关于欧洲和全球治理政治化的辩论与证券化研究联系起来，重新评估安全与一般政治之间的关系，并更好地了解欧洲安全的更广泛的政治动态。

The project investigates how and under which conditions politicization processes occur in the area of European security. It challenges prominent arguments about depoliticization in the purportedly special security field, develops a multi-stage analytical framework for the study of politicization and explores politicization processes as well as their facilitating conditions through in-depth case studies. The project aims to open up the black box of politicization processes by studying concrete politicization moves by different actors, the interactive contentious politics they provoke and the resulting, potentially ambivalent consequences. The empirical analysis examines politicization processes in the fields of counter-terrorism and border security at EU level as well as at national level (by using the example of Germany). We start from the observation that the provision of comprehensive security along the blurred divide between internal and external security has become an issue of increasing public interest and controversy at EU and member state level. In the face of a range of transnational risks (in particular migration and terrorism), EU institutions increasingly emphasize their security function as a source of legitimation and authority construction, as recently documented by the proclamation of the Security Union. This, in turn, may put the legitimacy of European security institutions and policies up for debate. On the one hand, there are a number of concerns about civil liberties and human rights, as visible, for example, in relation to issues such as data retention, mass surveillance (including the Snowden revelations) or the expansion of FRONTEX. On the other hand, there are growing demands from different political camps that the EU must increase its role in security affairs or, as right-wing populists have it, the EU itself is seen as a risk for the security of member states. Hence, the question arises whether these conflicting tendencies signal a broader politicization, which we understand as the transfer of previously uncontroversial or not publicly debated issues into the realm of open decision-making, public deliberation and societal contestation. The project puts to the test both traditionalist and critical approaches that tend to depict European security as an area of high politics and prerogative of governments, a securitized field beyond the reach of normal politics or a technocratic form of multi-level governance, respectively, which, therefore, evades politicization. The project links ongoing debates on the politicization of European and global governance to securitization studies, reassessing the relationship between security and politics in general as well as providing a better understanding of the broader political dynamics in European security.