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The causal power of securitisation: an inquiry into the explanatory status of securitisation theory illustrated by the case of Somali piracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira
Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*
*Correspondence to: Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Defesa e Gestão Estratégica Internacional, Faculdade de Letras, Bloco C, 2o andar/ Cidade Universitária – Rio de Janeiro, 21941917, RJ – Brasil. Author’s email address: gilbertooliv@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article joins the nascent debate on the causal status of securitisation theory. Relying on critical realist’s efforts to deepen and broaden the concept of cause – defined as ‘causal complex’ – and its insights to integrate discourse and constitutive relations into a non-positivist framework for causal explanation, the article aims to explore the explanatory status of securitisation theory, without downgrading its discursive core. To illustrate this argument, the article uses the securitisation of Somali piracy as an example of how the causal analysis of securitisation can contribute to explain some of the dynamics involved in security governance. From this perspective, securitisation works within a broader empirical framework of security, significantly implicated in causal relations, going beyond the Copenhagen School’s conception of securitisation as a non-causal constitutive theory merely defined as a formal framework for analysis. The article discusses, finally, the relevance and implications of introducing causal analysis in the study of securitisation.

Keywords

Causal ComplexConstitution vs CausationGovernanceSomali PiracySecuritisation
Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , July 2018 , pp. 504 - 525
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2017 

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