The art of constructing (in)security: probing rhetorical strategies of securitisation

Abstract

Scholars advocating a sociological view of securitisation have criticised the Copenhagen school for its overemphasis on the grammar of security and its neglect of the social situatedness of securitisation. Accordingly, these critics have also pointed to the relevance of rhetorical strategy, that is, how agents tailor their securitising moves to specific audiences and contexts. This article advances our knowledge of rhetorical strategies of securitisation in two ways. First, it introduces the four rhetorical appeals of authority, fidelity, presence, and emotionality as text-level factors that facilitate the success of securitising moves. Second, the article focuses on rhetorical assemblage and argues that narrative theory enables us to gain a nuanced understanding of how securitising actors seek to create the four rhetorical appeals by selecting and combining discursive resources. To illustrate the added value of this theoretical framework, I use the documentary movies Countdown to Zero and Nuclear Tipping Point. These documentaries are securitising moves that seek to persuade a public audience in the United States of the existential threat that nuclear weapons pose and to mobilise this audience to support the cause of disarmament.