ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY OR SOURCE OF AMERICAN DECLINE? How strategic narratives on the economy-security nexus shape United States foreign policy

导言经济证券化在美国政治中并不是一个新现象。在过去的一个世纪里，我们在经济与安全的关系上找到了各种战略叙事，从赞扬民主武器库到诊断美国霸权的衰落，这些叙事都是为了塑造政策结果而打造共同意义的意义制造工具。然而，令人惊讶的是，我们对经济事务证券化的机制和影响知之甚少。这个项目通过将经济问题的证券化放在中心舞台来填补这一空白，并将实证重点放在冷战后的美国。它侧重于(1)追溯经济-安全联系的概念基础；(2)确定经济证券化行动的核心论述工具包；(3)探索影响叙事有效性的社会语言机制；以及(Iv)评估将经济问题证券化在美国政治中以及作为美国大战略的一部分是如何产生政治影响的。研究状况到冷战结束时，国际政治中逐渐出现了四种普遍的经济-安全关系概念化，但对于这种关系的确切组成、应该如何实现以及为什么重要，缺乏共同的学术理解：(1)新现实主义思想提出了经济能力影响国家安全的观点，因为它们是国家物质力量构成的关键成分；(2)(新)制度主义专注于国家间经济合作对国际安全的好处；(3)自由国际主义提高了国际经济正义在促进和平方面的重要性；(4)民主和平论提出了以选民的经济利益为中心的民主治理制度对国际安全的好处。分析战略这个项目试图了解关于经济-安全关系的战略叙事如何影响美国的外交政策，以及它有什么不同。调查围绕三个相互关联的研究问题展开：1.在美国外交政策预测中，什么类型的经济-安全关系战略叙事占据主导地位？2.关于经济与安全之间联系的不同类型战略叙事的主要成分是什么？3.什么因素--包括在社会语言层面以及经济条件、政治行为和文化残余方面--影响这些叙事的接受度和有效性？为了回答这些问题，该项目采用混合方法进行研究，系统分析冷战后每一届政府的关键经济证券化举措。它融合了计算机辅助的定量文本分析和定性话语分析，针对三种不同类型的政治代理人：(I)政府层面；(Ii)专家层面；(Iii)媒体层面。该项目的分层研究过程将允许对经济问题证券化在美国政治中以及作为美国大战略的一部分如何具有政治后果进行更广泛的评估。目标和贡献阐明了经济学和国家安全在当代美国外交政策中的整合没有得到充分认识，其主要贡献是：(I)对支撑美国外交政策背景下经济问题证券化的核心机制的学术理解；(Ii)将经济问题概念整合到更广泛的安全研究学科中，这与该领域的叙事转向一致，但也超出了该领域的叙事转向；以及(3)以经济-安全关系为特色的战略叙述在塑造政策成果方面的力量的实证说明，以及这样做的社会政治便利条件。

IntroductionSecuritizing the economy is not a new phenomenon in American politics. Over the last century, we find strategic narratives - sense-making devices that forge shared meanings in order to shape policy outcomes - on the economy-security nexus ranging from praising an arsenal of democracy to diagnosing American hegemonic decline. Yet we know surprisingly little about the mechanisms and implications of securitizing economic affairs. This project addresses this lacuna by putting the securitization of economic issues center-stage, with an empirical focus on post-Cold War America. It focuses on (i) tracing the conceptual underpinnings of the economy-security link; (ii) identifying the core discursive toolkit of economic securitization moves; (iii) exploring the socio-linguistic mechanisms influencing narrative effectiveness; and (iv) evaluating how securitizing economic issues in US politics, and as part of American grand strategy, is politically consequential.State of ResearchBy the end of the Cold War, four prevalent strands of conceptualizing the economy-security nexus in international politics had incrementally emerged, but without a shared scholarly understanding of what the nexus precisely comprised, how it should be achieved, and why it matters: (1) neorealist thought advanced the idea economic capabilities affect national security because they are key ingredients to states' composition of material power; (2) (neo)institutionalism focused on the benefits of interstate economic cooperation for international security; (3) liberal internationalism raised the importance of international economic justice in fostering peace; and (4) Democratic Peace Theory proposed the advantages of democratic systems of governance for international security in which economic interests of the electorate feature centrally.Analytical StrategyThis project seeks to understand how strategic narratives on the economy-security nexus shape US foreign policy and what difference it makes. The inquiry is centered on three interconnected research questions:1. What types of strategic narratives on the economy-security nexus have emerged as dominant within US foreign policy projections, and in what context?2. What are the main ingredients of the different types of strategic narratives on the link between economy and security?3. What factors - including at the socio-linguistic level as well as with respect to economic conditions, political behavior, and cultural residue - influence the receptiveness and effectiveness of these narratives?To answer these questions, the project engages in mix-methods research that systematically analyses the key economic securitization moves from each post-Cold War administration. It features a blend of computer-assisted quantitative textual analysis and qualitative discourse analysis aimed at three different types of political agents: (i) government level; (ii) expert level; (iii) media level. The project's tiered research process will allow for a broader evaluation of how the securitizing of economic issues in US politics and as part of American grand strategy is politically consequential.Objective and ContributionsIlluminating the under-recognized integration of economics and national security in contemporary US foreign policy, its key contributions are (i) the development of an academic understanding of the core mechanisms underpinning securitization of economic issues within an American foreign policy context; (ii) the conceptual integration of economic issues within the broader discipline of security studies that aligns with, but also goes beyond, the narrative turn of the field; and (iii) an empirical illustration of the power of strategic narratives featuring the economy-security nexus to shape policy outcomes as well as the socio-political facilitating conditions to do so.