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

经济证券化在美国政治中并不是一个新现象。在上个世纪，我们发现了关于经济-安全关系的战略叙事--塑造共同意义以塑造政策结果的意义制造手段--从赞扬民主武器库到诊断美国霸权衰落。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。本项目通过将经济问题的证券化置于中心舞台，以冷战后的美国为实证重点，解决了这一空白。它的重点是（i）追踪经济安全联系的概念基础;（ii）确定经济安全化举措的核心话语工具包;（iii）探索影响叙事有效性的社会语言机制;（iv）分析经济安全化的影响因素。以及（iv）评估美国政治中的经济问题证券化，以及作为美国大战略的一部分，在政治上是如何产生影响的。研究现状到冷战结束时，在国际政治中，经济-安全关系的概念逐渐出现了四种流行的思路，但对这种关系的确切组成、如何实现以及为什么重要却没有一个共同的学术理解：（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因素;（2）（新）制度主义关注国家间经济合作对国际安全的好处;（3）自由国际主义提出了国际经济正义在促进和平方面的重要性;以及（4）民主和平理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。分析战略本项目旨在了解关于经济-安全关系的战略叙述塑造了美国的外交政策及其影响。调查集中在三个相互关联的研究问题：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论述的主要内容是什么？3.哪些因素--包括社会语言层面以及经济条件、政治行为和文化残余--影响了这些叙事的接受性和有效性？为了回答这些问题，该项目进行了混合方法研究，系统地分析了冷战后每个政府的关键经济证券化举措。它结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更广泛地评估美国政治中的经济问题的证券化以及作为美国大战略的一部分在政治上的重要性。目标和贡献阐明了当代美国外交政策中经济和国家安全的整合，它的主要贡献是：（1）在美国外交政策背景下，发展对支撑经济问题证券化的核心机制的学术理解;（ii）在安全研究的更广泛的学科，符合，但也超越了，该领域的叙事转向的经济问题的概念整合;和（iii）战略叙事的力量的实证说明，以经济-安全关系为特色，以塑造政策结果以及社会政治促进条件这样做。

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.