Progressive and Regressive Securitisation: Covid, Russian Aggression and the Ethics of Security

Abstract

This paper contributes to the debate about the normative assessment of securitisation in light of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It develops the distinction of progressive and regressive securitisation. In doing so, it emphasises the processual, contextual and ambiguous nature of securitisation. I suggest that progressive securitisation is closely linked to the solidarisation, whereas regressive securitisation implies the pluralisation of international society. The two cases of Covid-19 and Russia illustrate that international order has increasingly been characterised by regressive securitisation and a pluralisation of international society, despite possible alternatives, such as a transnational response to the spread of Covid-19. They have thus contributed to the further demise of the post–Cold War liberal order, which despite its problems, has involved a re-orientation of security away from state territory and national identity as the core referent objects. I end with a plea to take the ethics of security more seriously again, and in particular to scrutinise the ways in which our own behaviour reinforces regressive securitisation.

política del miedo en la securitización de la pandemia de COVID-19

“…Aunque esta teoría ha sido ampliamente desarrollada, tal y como se desprende de la bibliografía antes citada, sorprende constatar que hasta la fecha no se ha llevado a cabo ninguna investigación que analice la relación entre este marco teórico y las ideas de thomas Hobbes acerca del miedo y la seguridad. Incluso los más recientes estudios de la pandemia de coronavirus que han asumido esta perspectiva teórica no abordan esta conexión con el pensamiento de Hobbes (kirk y McDonald, 2021;Hai, 2022;Dietrich et al, 2023;Diez, 2023;Stivas y Cole, 2023;Molnár et al, 2020;Dela Cruz et al, 2022;Chairil, 2020; kuteleva y Clifford, 2021; Pfrimer y Barbosa, 2020; Baele y Rousseau, 2022). Por este motivo el presente estudio trata de llenar esta laguna en la literatura académica al plantear un enfoque de la teoría de la securitización desde el prisma de la filosofía política de Hobbes.…”