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

该项目调查如何以及在何种条件下政治化进程发生在欧洲安全领域。它对所谓特殊安全领域非政治化的突出论点提出质疑，为研究政治化问题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促进条件。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可能矛盾的后果，打开政治化进程的黑匣子。实证分析审查了欧盟一级和国家一级（以德国为例）反恐和边境安全领域的政治化进程。我们首先观察到，提供全面安全沿着内部和外部安全之间的模糊界限，已成为欧盟和成员国一级日益引起公众兴趣和争议的问题。面对一系列跨国风险（特别是移民和恐怖主义），欧盟机构越来越强调其安全职能，将其作为合法化和权威建设的来源，正如最近安全联盟的宣言所记载的那样。这反过来又可能使欧洲安全机构和政策的合法性成为争论的焦点。一方面，对公民自由和人权的一些关切是显而易见的，例如，与数据保留、大规模监视（包括斯诺登泄密）或FRONTEX扩张等问题有关。另一方面，不同政治阵营越来越多地要求欧盟必须增加其在安全事务中的作用，或者如右翼民粹主义者所言，欧盟本身被视为成员国安全的风险。因此，问题是，这些相互冲突的趋势是否标志着更广泛的政治化，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。该项目提出了测试传统主义和批判性的方法，往往描绘欧洲安全作为一个领域的高级政治和特权的政府，一个安全化的领域超出了正常的政治或技术官僚形式的多层次治理，分别，因此，避免政治化。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，重新评估安全与政治之间的关系，并更好地了解欧洲安全中更广泛的政治动态。

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.