The securitization of climate change in the United States : A case-study of the Biden-Harris administration’s first hundred days in office

• Main Author: Säll, Anna
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen 2021
• Subjects: Climate change; Security; Securitization; Copenhagen School of Security Studies; United States; President Biden; Vice-President Harris; Special Envoy for Climate Kerry; Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies); Statsvetenskap (exklusive studier av offentlig förvaltning och globaliseringsstudier)
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444493

The Biden-Harris administration’s discussion of climate change is analyzed during the transformative time of the administration’s first hundred days in office. The theoretical framework of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies (CS) is used to develop the coding frame to perform a qualitative content analysis of empirical material consisting of speeches and other documents of the administration. Several securitization moves have been identified and climate change has been presented as a security issue and an existential threat by the Biden- Harris administration. A wide range of referent objects are identified, which is the people and things presented to be threatened by climate change. The whole world, ecosystems, the American people and future generations are a few of the identified referent objects. International and national solutions are presented, though the solutions are not interpreted as extreme measures as discussed by the CS. Therefore, this study supports the critique of a too narrow definition of securitization by the CS.