Lecture | Contemporary History and International Relations Research Seminar (CHIRRS)
After Securitisation: Militarisation of Governance of Migration in the EU and Implications for the EU’s identity
- Date
- Monday 18 November 2019
- Time
- Location
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conferenceroom (2.60)
Following the end of the Cold War, the EU has increasingly stressed on foreign, security and defence policy integration with a vision of becoming a crucial international actor. In this respect, one of the main instruments the EU has relied on in its external relations is projection of its values, namely democratic governance, rule of law, respect for human rights, protection of minority rights and thus multiculturalism, which commonly is referred to as ‘normative power.’ Nonetheless, migration in general and the increased numbers of people fleeing from persecution in the aftermath of the Syrian crisis in particular have posed the EU a critical challenge with regards to the management and governance of the massive influx of refugees and in relation to coherence of the member state policies, which in turn shook its projection of identity as the embodiment of a set of values. In particular, the EU’s use of the military to govern the issue has posed a dilemma given the emphasis on its normative power.
Arguing that governance of migration has been one of the key policy areas, whereby the EU (re)produces its identity through discourse and practices, this paper will unpack EU’s narrative of its identity and interrogate its inherent contradictions by focusing on the politics of EU’s migration regime with regards to the status of refugees. To this end, the paper will discuss how the ways in which migration have been securitised within the Mediterranean dimension of the EU have informed the governance practices. In this context, it will revisit the EU-Turkey refugee deal (2016) for (mis)management of the Syrian refugee crisis and increasing military involvement in the governance of migration due to the perception of migration as a ‘hybrid threat’ closely associated with human smuggling and trafficking, and terrorist infiltration.
About the speaker
Prof. Kinacioglu received her BSc. in Public Administration and Political Science from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She completed an MA in Political Science and an MA in International Affairs at Marquette University, USA as a Fulbright scholar. She received her PhD in International Relations from Bilkent University, Turkey. She was a visiting fellow at the European Institute and at the Centre for International Studies of the London School of Economics and Political Science between 2004-2007. She has published among others, on use of force, self-defense, foreign military interventions, regime change and legitimacy, European security, NATO, Turkish foreign policy and identity construction. Among her research interests are security studies, legitimacy issues and the use of force in international politics, politics of international law, international relations theory and Turkish foreign policy. Kinacioglu is currently professor of International Relations in Hacettepe University, Turkey, and a visiting fellow at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in Leiden University College.