The Copenhagen School on Tour in Kyrgyzstan: Is Securitization Theory Useable Outside Europe?

The article argues that the theoretical framework presented by the Copenhagen School is currently unsuited to empirical studies outside the West owing to two factors. First, the presence of the 'Westphalian straitjacket' has prevented explicit interrogation of the normative concepts underlying the framework: there is a presumtion that European undestandings of society and the state are universal. Second, the centrality of the speech-act for securization to the exclusion of other forms of expression, such as physical action, results in the theoretical framework producing a Westernized description of a given situation. The extent to which these factors limit the utility of the concepts of securitization and societal security in a non-Western setting is illustrated through th case of the overthrow of the fovernment in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005. This example forms an empirical critique to highlight how theorical shortcomings result in a simplified and Westrernized descripotion of the situation that does not take into account the specific local socio-political context. The article concludes that if the Copenhagen School's theoretical framework is to be considered suitablde for universal application, future theoretical developments must explicitly address the issues discussed to enable progress in escaping Internationl Relations' Westphalian straitjacket.