Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy
The complex constitutional relationship between Greenland and Denmark has had no clearer manifestation than the last decade’s juridical and political wranglings over the control for uranium. In the article, we argue that the quarrel between Nuuk and Copenhagen found in their diverging uranium polici...
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Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet
2017
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ftsbaarhusojs:oai:ojs.tidsskrift.dk:article/97183 2023-10-29T02:34:33+01:00 Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard Merkelsen, Henrik 2017-10-02 application/pdf https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183 dan dan Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183/145968 https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183 Copyright (c) 2017 Forfatteren og Tidsskriftet Politik har sammen rettighederne til materiale publiceret i Politik http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Politik; Årg. 20 Nr. 3 (2017): Politik Politik; Vol. 20 No. 3 (2017): Politik 2446-0893 1604-0058 Arctic International Relations in a Widened Security Perspective info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftsbaarhusojs 2023-10-04T22:58:48Z The complex constitutional relationship between Greenland and Denmark has had no clearer manifestation than the last decade’s juridical and political wranglings over the control for uranium. In the article, we argue that the quarrel between Nuuk and Copenhagen found in their diverging uranium policies can be seen as what we term a ’securitization controversy’. That is, a form of negotiating process which delicately postpones securitization proper due to the entangled role of the uranium issue in the independence debate. Through narrative analysis of contemporary Danish and Greenlandic government policy documents (2008-2016) we thus demonstrate how Greenlandic documents attempt to desecuritize risks pertinent to extraction of uranium and REE while Danish government papers seek to risikfy uranium in order to keep the issue open to future securitization. In the analysis, we further show how certain risks in the policy papers are connected and constitute a narrative conflict involving identity and sovereignty. We argue, that the controversy found at policy level in turn is the result of the underlying ‘sovereignty game’ in the constitutional relationship between the two countries. The article introduces a methodological framework for studying such securitization controversies drawing on risk analysis and narratology. We argue that in order to account for the entangled and narrative nature of the discursive movements in the policy texts, structural narratology can be a viable methodological alternative to the Copenhagen School’s preferred method of discourse analysis. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland greenlandic Nuuk Aarhus University: OJS at The State and University Library Politik 20 3 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Aarhus University: OJS at The State and University Library |
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ftsbaarhusojs |
language |
Danish |
topic |
Arctic International Relations in a Widened Security Perspective |
spellingShingle |
Arctic International Relations in a Widened Security Perspective Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard Merkelsen, Henrik Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
topic_facet |
Arctic International Relations in a Widened Security Perspective |
description |
The complex constitutional relationship between Greenland and Denmark has had no clearer manifestation than the last decade’s juridical and political wranglings over the control for uranium. In the article, we argue that the quarrel between Nuuk and Copenhagen found in their diverging uranium policies can be seen as what we term a ’securitization controversy’. That is, a form of negotiating process which delicately postpones securitization proper due to the entangled role of the uranium issue in the independence debate. Through narrative analysis of contemporary Danish and Greenlandic government policy documents (2008-2016) we thus demonstrate how Greenlandic documents attempt to desecuritize risks pertinent to extraction of uranium and REE while Danish government papers seek to risikfy uranium in order to keep the issue open to future securitization. In the analysis, we further show how certain risks in the policy papers are connected and constitute a narrative conflict involving identity and sovereignty. We argue, that the controversy found at policy level in turn is the result of the underlying ‘sovereignty game’ in the constitutional relationship between the two countries. The article introduces a methodological framework for studying such securitization controversies drawing on risk analysis and narratology. We argue that in order to account for the entangled and narrative nature of the discursive movements in the policy texts, structural narratology can be a viable methodological alternative to the Copenhagen School’s preferred method of discourse analysis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard Merkelsen, Henrik |
author_facet |
Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard Merkelsen, Henrik |
author_sort |
Rasmussen, Rasmus Kjærgaard |
title |
Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
title_short |
Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
title_full |
Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
title_fullStr |
Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
title_full_unstemmed |
Post-colonial governance through securitization? A narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary Danish and Greenlandic uranium policy |
title_sort |
post-colonial governance through securitization? a narratological analysis of a securitization controversy in contemporary danish and greenlandic uranium policy |
publisher |
Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183 |
genre |
Arctic Greenland greenlandic Nuuk |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland greenlandic Nuuk |
op_source |
Politik; Årg. 20 Nr. 3 (2017): Politik Politik; Vol. 20 No. 3 (2017): Politik 2446-0893 1604-0058 |
op_relation |
https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183/145968 https://tidsskrift.dk/politik/article/view/97183 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2017 Forfatteren og Tidsskriftet Politik har sammen rettighederne til materiale publiceret i Politik http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
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Politik |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
3 |
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1781057194638180352 |