The Non-European Other as Undemocratic Barbarian: When the EU Talks about Security through Democracy

Partner: Center for Security Studies, Metropolitan University Prague
Event date: Nov 02, 2015
Deadline for registering: Nov 02, 2015
Venue: Room no. 205, MUP Strašnice building, Dubečská 900/10, Prague 10, Czech Republic
Category: Lecture

Lecture outline: The Arab Spring, the Libyan, Syrian and Ukrainian crises as well as the most recent refugee crisis have acutely depicted how debates on Europe’s Other remain salient and substantial. This lecture discusses the gradual and social construction of European identity, posing two interrelated research questions. What is the significance of the non-European Other for the social construction of European identity? And are democracy and security somehow associated with the process according to which we define Europeanness and its corresponding Otherness? By looking at speeches and statements of the High Representative of the EU, I argue that the current understanding of Otherness in Europe increasingly revolves around lacking a culture of democracy; and that the European Self securitises the non-European Other, stigmatizing it as undemocratic Barbarian, resulting eventually into a distinction of European, democratic Selfness and non-European, undemocratic Otherness. The lecture starts by critically engaging with existing debates on the formation of European identity. It proceeds with analysis on how the European Self defines itself contra to the democratic deficiencies of a non-European Other. The genealogical discussion of the HR’s political statements shows how the EU securitises the non-European Other because of low progress in democratisation. The concluding parts sets the agenda for further research around the topic.

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Keywords: Global Security, EU, Democracy, Human Rights, Europe