Croatian International Same Old (Macro-) Relations Review — Securitization? A Comparison CIRR — XXV (84) 2019, of Political Reactions to Major 6-35 — Terrorist Attacks in the United DOI 10.2478/ cirr-2019-0001 — States and France UDC 323.28:327.8(73:44) — Elena Dück University of Passau, Germany
[email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-2624-0083 Robin Lucke
[email protected] Abstract Key words: After the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, the French government macro-securitization; reacted swiftly by declaring a state of emergency. This state of securitization; emergency remained in place for over two years before it was ended terrorism; Global in November 2017, only after being replaced by the new anti-terror War on Terror; legislation. The attacks as well as the government’s reactions evoked France. parallels to 9/11 and its aftermath. This is a puzzling observation when taking into consideration that the Bush administration’s reactions have been criticized harshly and that the US ‘War on Terror’ (WoT) was initially considered a serious failure in France. We can assume that this adaption of the discourse and practices stems from a successful establishment of the WoT macro-securitization. By using Securitization Theory, we outline the development of this macro-securitization by comparing its current manifestation in France against the backdrop of its origins in the US after 9/11. We analysed securitizing moves in the discourses, as well as domestic and international emergency measure policies. We find extensive similarities with view of both; yet there are differing degrees of securitizing terrorism and the institutionalisation of the WoT in the two states.