Securitization in asia: Functional and normative implications

Among the main objectives of the Ford-IDSS project on Non-Traditional Security Issues in Asia is the development of a conceptual framework which could be used to analyse the dynamics of securitization in the non-Western world. As stated in the introduction, the original work of the Copenhagen School, while providing an excellent start for our investigation, is marked by a number of limitations. Among them is its failure to address why securitization occurs, as opposed to how it occurs. A consideration of the ‘why question’ requires us to pay attention to a number of conditions which may facilitate or impede securitization, including the nature and identity of securitizing actors, the concept of security which is assumed or used by these actors, the process of securitization itself (which remained underspecified in the Copenhagen school) and the outcome of the process, which involves the degree of securitization and the impact on the issue area or the ‘threat’.