48
Take for example, Claire (now Cai) Wilkinson’s work on securitisation in Kyrgyzstan prior to the ousting of President Akaev, which has done much to question the linear logic of process in securitisation. In the article, Wilkinson identifies ‘an initial securitizing move … at the local level by a number of candidates’.
Wilkinson, C., ‘The Copenhagen School on tour in Kyrgyzstan: Is securitization theory useable outside Europe?’, Security Dialogue, 38:1 (2007), pp. 5–25 (p. 17)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, opposing the ruling government, aiming to organise the fractured opposition from its supporters. Wilkinson further argues that this same initial securitising move together with counter-securitisation by the ruling government informed, indeed constructed the securitising actor, insofar as opposition leaders came together, and began echoing the initial securitising move in their own rhetoric (ibid., p. 19). Given this, Wilkinson observes: ‘securitizing moves do not exist in isolation and may be simultaneously or subsequently linked to other securitizing moves that in total contribute to a securitization even if they are individually unsuccessful’ (ibid., p. 20). My point here is not that Wilkinson is incorrect, but simply that conceptually it makes more sense to describe Wilkinson’s initial securitising move as a securitising request, while the Opposition’s speech act was the securitising move.