Blair's Africa: The Politics of Securitization and Fear

Abstract

Abrahamsen, R. (2005). Blair's Africa: The Politics of Securitization and Fear. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political. 30(1), pp.55-80 RAE2008Prime Minister Tony Blair has described Africa as a ?scar on the conscience of the world.? This article argues that New Labour's increasing attention to Africa is part of an ongoing securitization of the continent; interactions with Africa are gradually shifting from the category of ?development/humanitarianism? toward a category of ?risk/fear/threat? in the context of the ?war on terrorism.? The securitization of Africa has helped legitimize this ?war on terrorism,? but has very little to offer for Africa's development problems.Peer reviewe

Fighting Poverty to Fight Terrorism: Security in DfID's Development Policy During the War on Terror

“…This analysis is congruent with the arguments of Abrahamsen (2004Abrahamsen ( , 2005, Duffield and Waddell (2006) and Stern and Öjendal (2010) that in bringing security into development policy, DfID has prioritised hard security concerns rather than maintaining a firm poverty reduction stance. It is also consistent with the work of Chandler (2008) This research has implications for understanding the relationship between security and development and how state development agencies engage with it.…”

“…Whilst some argue that DfID has maintained a firm stance on poverty alleviation over security concerns (Beall et al 2006;Fitz-Gerald 2006;Youngs 2007;Wild and Elhawary 2012), still others claim that UK development policy has become securitised and is geared towards protecting the West from the dangers caused by the underdevelopment of non-Western states (Abrahamsen 2004(Abrahamsen , 2005Duffield and Waddell 2006;Carmody 2011). While these contributions add much to our understanding of this issue, they are largely based on analyses of particular moments in time rather than over a longer time period.…”

“…Although the contributions of Abrahamsen (2004Abrahamsen ( , 2005 analysing the public speeches of key state officials, Duffield and Waddell (2006) Two levels of analysis are employed. Firstly a content analysis gives a broad picture of patterns of word use within the documents.…”

“…One of Rita Abrahamsen's (2004Abrahamsen's ( , 2005 and UK national security (DfID 2011: 2; 36). In addition to this a 2010 leaked memo from the newly formed UK National Security Council (NSC) stated that development aid should make a maximum possible contribution to UK national security (Watt 2010).…”

Security trumps drug control: How securitization explains drug policy paradoxes in Thailand and Vietnam

“…To become securitized the audience must accept the issue as a security threat. Securitizing the issue in this way elevates it and permits the state to break its own norms of behaviour (Buzan et al, 1998), and may result in the reformulation of new norms (Abrahamsen, 2005). While securitization often increases coercive responses -such as war, intrusive surveillance or state terrorism (Abrahamsen, 2005) …”