The Theory of Securitization and Its Application in Articles Published in Scientific Journals

Abstract

Introduction: The article analyzes how securitization theory is applied in a set of studies published in periodicals classified in CAPES's Brazilian Qualis system in the area of Political Science and International Relations. Securitization can be understood as the possibility of a given issue being seen as a threat to the existence of the State that will trigger an emergency state action, punctual and located outside of the common policy of everyday government. Our article argues that these studies face difficulties in empirical proof of the securitization process. Materials and Methods: We carried out a systematic survey of the topic of securitization in 276 periodicals that included the relationship between Political Science and International Relations with Qualis A and B concepts. Within these 276 journals, 30 articles were identified. The selection of articles was made based on the presence of the term securitization in the title, in the summary or in the keywords of an article. We examine the logical structure of the argumentation of each selected article through the content analysis of each of the articles. The reading of the material classified as each of the 13 articles that effectively empirically applied the concept of securitization, using categorization criteria based on the steps of the securitization process (not politicized, politicized and securitized), the indicators predicted to identify each of the stages, in addition to the agent of the securitization process. Results: We conclude that these articles face difficulties to operationalize the theory of securitization empirically. Only two of these articles presented proposals to empirically prove the securitization process. Discussion: There are two difficulties mapped to suggest empirical indicators: 1) how emergency measures are adopted to deal with threats; and 2) as a securitization agent can convince a certain audience about the need to adopt such measures.