The war in Syria, the Ukrainian crisis, and the spread of the Islamic State – NATO secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg stated that “security threats are coming closer, both in the East and the South” and deepened security cooperation in Europe would now be more important than ever. As research on security debates in European countries has shown, each country has its particular security identity shaped by national history which leads to different threat perceptions, specific areas of interest as well as diverging policy preferences. If these national differences can be joined in a unified European approach on security is a matter of debate: Some voices claim that national frameworks will continue to serve as the main point of reference, others say that one European public sphere is already driving forward the agenda. In advocating an intermediate position between these two points of view,
I will take a closer look at the horizontal level of Europeanization, namely the interconnectedness of the debate(s) at the national level(s), to fathom out and understand current developments in European security policy.
Against the background that Germany has become the leading nation in European politics in recent times and external expectations concerning Germany’s role in international politics are raising for years, the paper at hand examines the debate on international security threats in Germany.
Next to the specific discussion of security threats at the national level, this paper is mainly interested in the opening-up of the German security debate for the perspectives (threat perception and policy preferences) of its European partner countries. The central question to be answered is therefore
to what extent and in what way the German public debate considers the perspectives of its European partners when talking about security threats.
To address this issue, a qualitative content analysis of selected articles in the three biggest daily newspapers in Germany (BILD, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) will be conducted from November 2013 (beginning of Ukrainian crisis) to the present. While exploring in detail in what way the Ukraine crisis and the spread of the Islamic state are constructed as “security threats” connected with distinct policy options through the use of linguistic means, the focus will be on the consideration of the perspectives of France, Poland and the United Kingdom within the German public debate. I will pay particular attention to (1) the level of consideration of partner positions (simple reproduction – lively discussion) and (2) the arguments concerning the evaluation of the partner positions (identity-based [e. g. close ally] – functional-based [e. g. expert knowledge or high problem solving capacity]).
By answering the above question, the paper prepares the ground for further research, e. g. the analysis under what conditions and to what extent the discussed partner perspectives have an influence on a country’s security policy or the comparison of the opening-up of the debate in different European countries over time.
