Securitization as a modern strategy of constructing identity : ‘negative proof identity’ in the European Union

Abstract

The present paper considers securitization a modern strategy of identity making in the European Union. It is supposed that European identity is being constructed not so much on a basis of ‘internal’ belonging of people to the community as by contradiction to ‘external’ identities and exercised by the securitization practices of creation and exclusion of the ‘other’ embodied in a figure of the ‘alien’ (terrorist, migrant, offender, et cetera). By means of the negative proof method the interrelation of security and identity concepts and practices in the EU is analysed. It is revealed that ‘other’ identities are the main solidarizing factor used for constructing European identity; therefore, securitization becomes a powerful mechanism of identification through rejection. At the same time, such an identity ‘by contradiction’, without congruous construction of identity ‘on the inside’ based on the practices of political inclusion and recognition, present a threat to the community in itself.