Talk:
“A History of Threats: Investigating the Construction of Security Threats in National Strategy Documents”
by
Professor Andrew Neal
Professor of International Security
Director of Postgraduate Research Programmes
School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/andrew-neal
Andrew.Neal@ed.ac.uk
Date and Room Info:
Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 4:00 p.m.
A-130
Abstract:
This paper presents a genealogical analysis of how security threats are constructed in national security and defence documents from 115 countries over the past 30 years. Combining computational text analysis (CTA) with qualitative interpretation, we aim to denaturalize dominant security narratives and reveal the complex power dynamics that shape threat constructions in international politics. Our approach leverages natural language processing and large language models to identify semantic similarities and discursive patterns across a diverse corpus of 600 documents. By tracing how certain threats emerge, circulate, and gain traction, we challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about what constitutes a security issue and highlight the historical contingency of threat construction. Findings suggest that while some documents frame threats in existential terms, there is a wider spectrum of threat language that defies binary distinctions between “existential security” and the “merely political.” We also uncover significant variations in threat prioritization across different countries and regions, complicating Eurocentric and US-centric narratives of international security. This research contributes to ongoing debates in security studies by offering a novel, empirically-grounded perspective on the social construction of threats. It demonstrates the value of integrating CTA with critical security theories to investigate the discursive foundations of global security dynamics.
Short Biography
Andrew Neal is Professor of International Security and Director of Postgraduate Research Programmes in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on critical security studies, including topics such as parliamentary security politics, securitization, the security implications of Scottish independence, and the works of Michel Foucault. Prof. Neal leads an ongoing project analysing national security and defence documents globally. He is also co-lead on a project examining technology, security and infrastructure protection in the North Sea. His most recent book is Security as Politics: Beyond the State of Exception (Edinburgh UP, 2019).