Securitization Outside the Liberal Political Context: Did Cuba Matter in the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Securitization Outside the Liberal Political Context: Did Cuba Matter in the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Summary/Abstract: This article argues that the Copenhagen’s securitization theory, as the analytical tool for grasping the dynamic of security processes, has the same applicability in any socio-political context. In order to support this claim the question why one does security will be addressed. The question deals with the motivation behind the securitization speech act. By dealing with these issues this article engages in the conceptualization of security as an act of utterance, which is at the centre of the securitization theoretical framework. For determining if the securitization process can take place in non-democratic settings, the above-presented theoretical assertions are tested on the empirical case of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The article concludes with the argument that by putting an emphasis on the survival that motivates security (speech) act, the Copenhagen’s theory of securitization cannot be seen as context dependent.

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