Securitization, history, and identity: some conceptual clarifications and examples from politics of Finnish war history

Abstract

This article shows how we can use the securitization framework to study extreme history politics. Securitization refers to a speech act or discursive process in which an actor makes a claim that some referent object, deemed worthy of survival, is existentially threatened. If successful, securitization justifies the use of extraordinary measures to counter the threat. After introducing the concept of securitization in detail, the article presents three ways in which history and securitization can be connected: history can serve as a facilitating condition of securitization; history can be explicitly used to strengthen a securitizing move; or history, or a particular interpretation of it, can be the referent object of securitization. The second half of the article is devoted to a discussion on the role of history in the securitization of national identities. Historical myths are the standard building blocks of national identities; challenging these myths can be presented as threats to the survival of the nation. The article also discusses potential forms of resistance against securitization of history/national identities. Illustrative examples from the political use of WWII history in Finland will be used to show the practical consequences of various conceptual choices.

Keywords:

• securitization
• national identity
• history politics
• Finland
• WWII

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Alexander Astrov, Julie Fedor, Suvi Keksinen, Cristian Norocel, Markku Kangaspuro, Jussi Lassila, Karen Lund Petersen, Maria Mälksoo, Ulrik Pram Gad, Trine Villumsen, Ole Wæver, Maja Zehfuss, and the two anonymous reviewers for encouraging and constructive comments on various versions of the manuscript.

Notes

1. Throughout the article, you can find references to international relations works that use this framework to study the securitization of identities. In this journal, only Popov and Kuznetsov (2008) and Sakwa (2010) have used the securitization framework, and in Nations and Nationalism, besides a brief mention by Simhandl (2006), no one has used the concept.

2. The politics of Finnish war history usually stay within the realm of “normal politics.” This case cannot be used to study large-scale emergency measures that often follow successful securitization, but we can use it to illustrate the implications of various conceptual choices, and it also illustrates the difficulty of securitizing history. One could find more successful cases of securitization from, for example, the politics of the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, or the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States.

3. For a presentation of current debates on securitization, see Balzacq (2011).

4. The report was published in Finnish in September 2011 and translated into English in 2013.

5. Jyrkin päiväkirja, 12 December 2008: “Talouden talvisota,” http://www.kokoomus.fi/jyrkin-paivakirja/talouden-talvisota/.

6. Individual memory is also more problematic than just “recall of earlier states of activity and experience.” The present has significant influence on how we remember the past (see e.g. Zehfuss 2007, 175–220). Even though individual memories are not ”objective,” they can still serve as a site of resistance against collective myths.

7. The name Perussuomalaiset translates literally as the Basic Finns. The party previously used True Finns as an unofficial translation and has now adopted The Finns as the official English name. I will use the True Finns here because it is a better translation of the Finnish name and because with The Finns, it would be a bit difficult to avoid the categories of practice and analysis conflation.

8. All the documents and transcripts of the parliamentary debate are available in Finnish at: http://www.eduskunta.fi/triphome/bin/vex3000.sh?TUNNISTE=LA+54/2011.

9. Helsingin Sanomat, 25 November 2010, http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Thorsin±uhkailusta±syytetty%C3%A4±suututti±kiitos-paidan±h%C3%A4p%C3%A4isy±televisiossa/1135262232549.

10. Iltalehti, 16 November 2011, http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2011111614761314_uu.shtml.

11. I also have anecdotal evidence of the power of this argument from my conversations with various national-conservatives, especially at a public sauna in Helsinki, but that is a long story with low generalizability.