Constructing security in colombia : the case of FARC

Abstract

This study introduces a new framework for critical security studies to examine the production of security issues, particularly in hybrid democracies. Like the other critical security approaches, this new framework has a constructivist ontology and an interpretivist epistemology. On the other hand, this new framework addresses the critics of the already existing approaches. As novel features, the new framework, regards the process of (in)securitization as a whole process and examines it in three phases: definition, construction, and (in)securitization-in-action; it takes both bottom-up and top-down characteristics of the process of (in)securitization into consideration and examines both macro-level decision-making processes and discursive efforts and micro-level security practices; it takes rival voices into consideration and provides a dual framework for analysis which examines nonviolent opposition and counter-(in)securitizations; it integrates new units like the opposition and sufferers; it examines the context of the process of (in)securitization by particularly focusing on the historical background and the level of democracy; it divides the security professionals into three levels: strategic, operational and tactical; it examines the insecuritizing consequences of (in)securitization as well as its process; finally, and most importantly, it eliminates the state-centric approach and it can problematize non-state actors too. In addition to these theoretical contributions, the dissertation applies this new framework to the case of dual (in)securitization of FARC and the Colombia state. By that way, it both present the functioning of the framework and examines one of the longest and deadliest internal conflicts of the last century through the lenses of (in)securitization framework.