Referent object, securitising actors and the audience: the climate change threat and the securitisation of development in India

Sahu, Anjan Kumar

doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1707509

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Waever (1995) contends that the state and its representatives have uncontested legitimacy and representation to characterise an issue as an 'existential threat'. Securitising actors have the discretion to include and exclude audience to legitimise and securitise a policy discourse (Sahu 2019a). Thus, despite the under-theorisation of the concept of audience, it is evident that securitising actors are essential and powerful actors who form a state-driven securitisation process.…”

Section: Theory Of Securitisation: Referent Object Securitising Actor and The Audiencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The securitisation theory originated in western countries. However, its application in non-democratic and non-western countries like China is quite challenging and Asia’s socio-political context breaks a new ground to test the theory as it ‘lacks explanatory power’ to universalise securitising parameters (Bo 2016, 96; Sahu 2019b). The state-driven securitising process and violation of rules may be a common practice in some authoritarian political systems in Asia.…”

Section: Application Of the Securitisation Theory And Environmental Governance In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The securitisation of development argument is a fresh perspective in the climate change literature (Sahu 2019a) and China’s case study is an extension to the debate. To examine China’s climate policy and the securitisation of development, this study uses the tool of post-structural discourse analysis (PDA).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From the Climate Change Threat to the Securitisation of Development: An Analysis of China

Sahu¹

2021

China Report

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The climate change issue evolved as a significant policy priority within the China’s political establishment. The major factor that determines Beijing’s climate policy is the prevailing and potential climate change impact on the country’s economic development. As economic development is the foremost, pre-existing and abiding political concern, political leaders construct the climate change impact as a major threat to the country’s economic prosperity. Thus, political leaders’ overriding priority is to protect economic development—a referent object—from the perils of climate change. However, the interplay of climate threat and economic development drives political leaders to embrace security institution and develop military mind set to contend with climate-led development policies that trigger the securitisation of the development process in China. Employing the discourse analysis method, this paper examines the securitisation of development debate in China, especially at the domestic level, from the standpoint of the securitisation theory.

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Section: Theory Of Securitisation: Referent Object Securitising Actor and The Audiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Application Of the Securitisation Theory And Environmental Governance In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

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From the Climate Change Threat to the Securitisation of Development: An Analysis of China

Sahu¹

2021

China Report

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“…The PMCCC categorically mentions that “the Chairman may invite any other Minister/Officer/Experts to any meeting of the Committee depending upon the context of the meeting” and Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is the preeminent organization to decide the climate change policy with the support of other ministries. The series of recent developments in the environment domain such as the air pollution issue in Delhi, floods in the northeastern states of India, and the India‐Pakistan water issue after a series of Pakistan's cross‐border attacks, particularly the attack on an Indian Army camp in Kashmir's Uri on 18 September 2016, demonstrate the increasing role of PMO under the guidance of PM Modi (Sahu, forthcoming). Scholars believe that climate change policymaking is still the prerogative of “political machinations” of politicians, bureaucrats, and other people associated with it (Jogesh, , p. 275; Bidwai, ).…”

Section: Climate Change Discourse In Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sanjay Chaturvedi and Timothy Doyle stress that the “climate terror” discourse is a state's tactical strategy to promote its “geopolitical” and “geoeconomic” interests rather than genuinely preventing the perils of climate change (, p. 183). For instance, Ramesh invokes the Siang river basin project to generate hydropower in the northeast region with a larger objective of its strategic and economic interests as the region provides an important link to engage with East Asian countries and counter China's claim over Arunachal Pradesh (Sahu, forthcoming). As securitization process would likely reduce the prospect of a negotiation with other parties and create a fear that the potential enemy might not let us survive (Buzan et al, ), Waever prefers desecuritization of an issue.…”

Section: Democratic Securitization (Ds) or Good Securitization (Gs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Democratic Securitization of Climate Change in India

Sahu¹

2019

Asian Politics and Policy

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The concept of democratic securitization is an attempt to revise the theory of securitization. The theory has been widely criticized due to securitization theorists' predilection for undemocratic, elite‐driven, and illegal methods for addressing urgent threats. Such methods rely on the survival of an “issue,” including climate change. Discourses of threat and elite‐driven climate change policy are the accepted norms in the Indian political establishment, but such undemocratic processes and the exclusion of certain stakeholders in the policy processes are not appropriate for a democratic country like India. The alternative concept of democratic securitization of climate change policy seeks primarily to expand the concept of “audience” in the negotiation process in the climate change discourse in India. It also demonstrates how democratic engagement and the sharing of climate change knowledge can provide valuable insights into climate policy.

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Climate nationalisms: Beyond the binaries of good and bad nationalism

Kashwan

Liu

Das

2022

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate nationalism has attracted renewed interest among scholars and analysts of international climate politics, security studies, and international relations more broadly. However, the most prominent arguments about climate nationalism follow a storyline of “good nationalism” or “bad nationalism”—a “positive civic nationalism” versus a “destructive ethnic nationalism.” In this article, we review these debates by drawing on prominent strands of scholarship on climate nationalism, mapped onto three key aspects: climate securitization, political populism, and Civic nationalism. To further ground our review in real‐world politics outside of the United States and Western Europe, we offer a snapshot of climate nationalism narratives deployed by political elites in three large countries in the Asia‐Pacific: Australia, India, and China. Our review shows that considering the multiscalar, multisectoral, and global scope of climate action, it may be futile to look for a conclusive answer to the question of whether nationalism is good or bad for fostering effective and enduring transformations suitable for a climate‐changed world. Instead, we recommend a research agenda focused on investigating the myriad ways in which political and economic elites fuse discourses of nationalism with various aspects of climate politics and climate action. A proper understanding of elite interests, discourses, and strategies, in ways that account for varied national and regional political and economic contexts, we argue is crucial for a fuller understanding of how narratives of nationalism may affect climate action. This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance Climate and Development > Knowledge and Action in Development Policy and Governance > National Climate Change Policy

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Referent object, securitising actors and the audience: the climate change threat and the securitisation of development in India

Cited by 15 publications

References 50 publications

From the Climate Change Threat to the Securitisation of Development: An Analysis of China

From the Climate Change Threat to the Securitisation of Development: An Analysis of China

The Democratic Securitization of Climate Change in India

Climate nationalisms: Beyond the binaries of good and bad nationalism

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