Security research provides an important theoretical framework for the various topics in the field.
On the one hand, critical security research means adopting an expanded concept of security that no longer defines security solely as the absence of military threat/violence for a nation state. Rather, such a concept includes risks and vulnerabilities from an economic, ecological and humanitarian perspective in regional, international and global dimensions. On the other hand, critical here means repeatedly asking the question of what security means with regard to a specific situation, why this is defined as a security situation and what consequences such a classification has in the field of security, including with regard to the measures taken to remedy a threat, a risk or a vulnerability.
While there are various theoretical approaches in critical security research, the theory of securitization is one of the most prominent representatives. Securitization refers to the fact that a certain group or a certain situation becomes a security problem. Security problems are therefore not objective conditions, but are constructed in a social interaction process.
Contact: PD Dr. Eva Herschinger and Lisa Erlmann M.A.