Abstract
This paper focuses on the ways in which political actors make use of historical legacies to present their own determination to sustain their country’s national security. We use the example of the annual celebrations of the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNU) to demonstrate the ways in which similar celebrations can become a platform for political actors to express requests and address their audience. Using semi-participant observation, we have analyzed six years of these celebrations (2015–2020) and the securitizing strategies and moral panic creation strategies contained in the speeches of participating politicians. Our analysis shows that securitization is taking place, and labels of threat sources are being given not only to topics that are naturally linked to the celebrated event, but also topics that are in no way related to SNU. Despite this fact, politicians use the legitimacy of the event to manifest their own attempts at sustaining security.
Highlights
The issue of sustainability is discussed throughout the scientific field and throughout individual scientific disciplines from the natural to social sciences
We focused on issues that were framed as sources of danger
It is logical to start with the topic of Nazism and fascism as threats to Slovakia, as the Slovak National Uprising (SNU) was led against the regime of the Slovak State and its subjugation to Nazi Germany
Summary
The issue of sustainability is discussed throughout the scientific field and throughout individual scientific disciplines from the natural to social sciences In the latter, the issue has resounded in a whole number of approaches and research topics, from discussions on environmental sustainability to economic sustainability and the sustainability of the democratic nature of a given regime. Security studies (or critical security studies) are a specific field, as they deal with the ways in which politicians intend to “sustain security”, often in reaction to the changing nature of the world. The subject of our research is the use of the legacy of the Slovak
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