Research Area A: Discourses About Modern Protectorates

If it is true that the long-term security culture of a democratic state is an essential component of the communicative “framework” by which the establishment and maintenance of a modern protectorate is justified, the analysis of framing strategies would have to provide explanations for the respective security culture as well as its contributions to the strategic capacity of security policy. Such work will be undertaken in Study Area A, dedicated to the analysis of discourses and frameworks.

In the discourse on security policy vis-à-vis protectorate administrations, the primary stress has been on strengthening the civil components to operations. At the same time, the actual security problem, i.e. the intensified violence, plays a subordinate role. This in fact may be the result of a framing effect. Since in German security culture it is partially a taboo to use soldiers for war-fighting, the domestic justification of a military commitment causes special problems. It would be valuable to ask whether such problems exist in other Western democracies, and whether the presence or absence of such problems of justification is actually the result of discursive phenomena or perhaps institutional factors.

to page research group “conflict generators”

to page research area B “Security cultures and institutional strategic capacity”