Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Casting the Other as an Existential Threat: The Securitisation of Sectarianism in the International Relations of the Syria Crisis

Darwich, M.; Fakhoury, T.

Casting the Other as an Existential Threat: The Securitisation of Sectarianism in the International Relations of the Syria Crisis Thumbnail


Authors

M. Darwich

T. Fakhoury



Abstract

With the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Sunni–Shiite divide came back to the fore in regional politics. In this context, sectarian identities have now acquired a security dimension, as actors have started framing each other as existential threats. This article aims to examine the process by which sectarian identities become security issues and sources of conflict. We claim that primordial and instrumentalist and rationalist approaches to identity cannot capture the complexities of sectarianism in Middle East international relations. Instead, we draw on securitisation theory to examine the speech acts and narratives leading to the construction of sectarianism as a security issue in the Middle East. We examine Hezbollah’s and Saudi Arabia’s speech acts towards the Syria crisis as revelatory cases in the securitisation of the Sunni–Shiite divide in the post-2011 order.

Citation

Darwich, M., & Fakhoury, T. (2016). Casting the Other as an Existential Threat: The Securitisation of Sectarianism in the International Relations of the Syria Crisis. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought, 6(4), 712-732. https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2016.1259231

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 17, 2016
Online Publication Date Jan 12, 2017
Publication Date Oct 1, 2016
Deposit Date Nov 3, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought
Print ISSN 2326-9995
Electronic ISSN 2043-7897
Publisher Bristol University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Issue 4
Pages 712-732
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/23269995.2016.1259231

Files




You might also like



Downloadable Citations