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SECURING THE NATION Radicalism and Security in 1790s Britain By Christopher John Gibbs Thesis submitted for a Master of Arts by Research University of York Department of History Submitted August 2013 Dedicated to the two most important women in my life: my mother, who fostered and encouraged my passion for learning and adventure; and my wife, whose love, guidance and support have made this work both possible and enjoyable. Abstract In the midst of the age of enlightenment, revolution and political enfranchisement, the English radical movement of the 1790s was an important mobiliser of lower class, liberal and radical thought, education, association, complaint and support for socio- political reform. However, the British government of William Pitt the Younger, operating in the wake of the cataclysmic French Revolution, viewed this movement first with suspicion and eventually outright hostility, and, perceiving in it a threat to the interests, institutions and prosperity of both the ruling elite and the wider nation, sought the means to repress radicalism and remove it from the active political sphere. My task in this thesis, in contributing both to the fields of security studies and the socio-political history of 1790s England, is to analyse how this was done by applying the recently conceived concept of ‘securitization’, as constructed by the Copenhagen School, to the government’s attempts to identify and combat radicalism as a threat to national security. In doing so I seek to enrich our understanding of how and why the government chose to utilise particular strategies, actions and discourses in its ultimately successful attempts to securitize and temporarily suppress radicalism, and to explore how these measures facilitated, shaped, improved, enlarged and in turn were influenced by the means of security governance employed by the state to monitor, investigate, prosecute, denigrate and repress radicalism and other perceived threats to national security. Complimentary to this I explore the radical reaction to the government’s securitization, particularly the resulting enhanced and reshaped use of the state’s security and surveillance services, and the effect this was believed to have on British society, liberty, governance and values. Finally I aim to assess the utility of the securitization framework as a tool for analysing historical and contemporary security issues in a domestic state-based context. This thesis is my own work containing, to the best of my knowledge and belief, no material published or written by another person except as referred to in the text. Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5 A Radical Awakening .................................................................................................... 7 Aims and Means ............................................................................................................ 9 Sources and Literature ................................................................................................. 10 Chapter One – The Securitization of Radicalism....................................................... 20 A Traitorous Conspiracy ............................................................................................. 24 French Principles ......................................................................................................... 45 Don’t you know we’re at war? .................................................................................... 49 Chapter Two – Defending the State ............................................................................ 52 Beginnings ................................................................................................................... 53 A Change of Pace ........................................................................................................ 57 Raising the Stakes ........................................................................................................ 65 Chapter Three – Defending the People ....................................................................... 77 Justice, Liberty and the Constitution ........................................................................... 78 Governance .................................................................................................................. 85 Morals, Values and Community .................................................................................. 92 Public and Private Spaces ............................................................................................ 97 Traditions ................................................................................................................... 103 Chapter Four – Conclusions ...................................................................................... 107 Threat Identification .................................................................................................. 107 Threat Response ........................................................................................................ 115 Threat Reply .............................................................................................................. 121 National (In)Security ................................................................................................. 126 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 128 Securing the Nation 5 Introduction ‘It is often in the name of cultural integrity, as well as social stability and national security, that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.’1 – Aung San Suu Kyi, 1994 The desire for security is one of the most fundamental aspects of human nature, a need that seeks fulfilment in all areas of life, be they personal, financial, social or political. As Hobbes wrote, the primary motivator for people to forgo their complete independence and come together to form groups of mutual interest under a governmental structure ‘is nothing else but the security of a man’s person, in his life, and in the means of so preserving life, as not to be weary of it’.2 Complete individual freedom is sacrificed in the interests of profiting from the collective strength, benefits and security of the group. Any grouping together of people will involve politics, and as Dillon argues all politics is in essence the ‘politics of security’, attempting to fulfil and maintain the fundamental reason for coming together in the first place. This has remained a truism of government throughout the ages, until, in our modern era, we beheld a world in which security became the predicate upon which the architectonic political discourses of modernity were constructed; upon which the vernacular architecture of modern political power, exemplified in the State, was based; and from which the institutions and practices of modern (inter)national politics, including modern democratic politics, ultimately seek to derive their grounding and foundational legitimacy.3 The first and foremost aim of any modern state government is to maintain national security, defending the state from external enemies and preserving peace, order and prosperity within. This is crucial to its right to rule and recognition as a legitimate member of the international order. Yet it is axiomatic that maintaining national security 1 Aung San Suu Kyi, ‘Empowerment for a Culture of Peace and Development’, in Freedom from Fear and other writings, New Ed., London, Penguin Books, 2010, p. 264. N.B. All spelling, grammar and punctuation in quotes utilised in this work has been retained as in the original sources, uncorrected and unmarked. 2 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or, The Matter, Form, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil, London, Andrew Crooke, 1651, p. 66. 3 Michael Dillon, Politics of Security, London, Routledge, 1996, pp. 12-13. Securing the Nation 6 will inevitably involve infringement upon and potential threats to the individual security and liberty of a state’s citizens. The need to uphold the law, detect security threats, maintain domestic harmony and garner the resources necessary to defend against potential enemies are all important duties of state. However they also carry inherent risks to the individual and are liable to be misused and exploited in the interests of government and/or a ruling elite. As Suu Kyi has stated, the very necessity and importance of national security, stability and integrity makes them eminently suitable devices for justifying actions that threaten and infringe upon the very things they claim to protect. History abounds with abuses of liberty, rights and security carried out by governments upon the pretext of defending national security. Conflicts have inevitably arisen between the security needs of state and citizen, nation and sub-group, national sovereignty and the global community. Therefore security is a hotly debated topic, as people of all stripes seek to provide opinions on security’s place and use in society. These issues lie at the heart of this thesis. I aim here to explore debates over who is responsible for security, what is to be secured, how it is be secured, what is to be considered a likely and/or acceptable threat to security, how security issues are to be identified and analysed, and what impact the response to such matters can have upon a society and the citizens who comprise it. Security