European Security Identities

Abstract

This article undertakes a reading of political identifications in Europe from the security perspective. Who or what exist politically in Europe? This is investigated through the test of whether and how different units are able to carry out the move characteristic of ‘security’: that is, to say ‘our survival is threatened, therefore we have a right to use extraordinary measures against this particular threat’. Europe as an area is marked by a complex presence of different overlapping political subjectivities ‐ security can be carried out most importantly with nation, state, Europe or the environment as referent object. ‘Europe’ itself is a security referent in a truly original way, where integration through a security argument becomes a matter of survival for ‘Europe’. Europe, security, integration and identity have been tied together in a specific narrative. Strikingly, the seemingly purely academic term ‘security identity’ has a political appearance exactly at this intersection.