Securitization and the liberalism of fear

This article seeks to extend securitization theory conceptually and, to a lesser degree, empirically by further developing the relationship between securitization and the politics of fear. Drawing on Shklar's notion of the liberalism of fear, it argues that instead of looking at the ways in which fear can facilitate processes of securitization and the extension of security logics throughout society, the liberalism of fear allows us to see how fear can operate in ways that can actually inhibit processes of securitization. This strategy might accurately be termed 'the securitization of securitization', and the liberalism of fear calls attention to how the fear of fear can in a specific sense be seen as a desecuritizing resource – a countervailing logic against processes of intensification within both 'normal' and 'security' politics.