Sustainable security maintains trust in society
In today’s discussions, ‘securitisation’ refers to efforts to justify exceptional measures by national security. When international conflicts, immigration, climate change, or, for example, a pandemic are framed as security issues, securitisation can lead to bypassing democratic decision-making and restricting civil rights and access to information. Securitisation extends beyond the political sphere, affecting society and culture as a whole.
The OTUDEM research project launched this autumn approaches securitisation through three crises that have affected Finnish society. Historians Minna Harjula and Heikki Kokko analyse how Finnish democracy has been constructed or constrained within the framework of national security and population threats.
“We explore how the promoting of democracy, civil rights, and access to information has provided a sustainable way out of societal crises in Finland. At the same time, the crises frame a new interpretation of the development of democratisation in Finnish society since the 1850s,” Harjula and Kokko explain.
The researchers view security as a long-term process of maintaining sustainable societal peace. Harjula and Kokko argue that sustainable security requires a relationship between the individual and society that fosters inclusion and trust.
Democracy developed during crises
The cases Harjula and Kokko research include the population catastrophe during the famine years from the mid-1800s, the threat related to both the quantity and quality of the population in the era spanning the two World Wars and the Civil War of 1918, and the demographic crisis related to the morbidity and excess mortality of the working-age population in the 1960s and 1970s.
Finland’s population catastrophe in the mid-1800s was experienced within the broader context of European revolutions, internal unrest and the Crimean War. However, the civil society and local democracy began to be shaped in the second half of the century. After the First World War and the Civil War, population policy constructed inequality and deepened a polarisation among the citizens. However, since the late 1930s, coercive measures were replaced with initiatives that promoted belonging, inclusion and equality. In the 1960s, social security was brought to the core of national security despite pressures from the Cold War and economic growth.
Alongside the success stories of national security, Harjula and Kokko highlight security solutions that have undermined people’s sense of belonging, inclusion and faith in the future.
Understanding for today’s debate and the future
The socio-historical project contributes to the examination of contemporary phenomena through a long-term lens. At the same time, the research offers conceptual support for contemplating the future.
“We assess the historical layers of national security and aim to engage in a dialogue with other current projects that are studying securitisation. In this way, historical research becomes part of shaping a security vision that will sustain democracy in the future,” the researchers say.
The research project will be presented at the Finnish Conference of History Research in Jyväskylä on 16-18 October and Social Policy Conference in Helsinki on 23–24 October.
Harjula and Kokko’s three-year project received €279,600 in funding from the Kone Foundation’s thematic grant call of Securitization and Democracy, which is part of the Foundation’s Is Democracy Eroding? programme.
The thematic call funded projects that enhance understanding the societal impact of securitisation. The projects share a concern about the effects of securitisation on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
In total, the Kone Foundation awarded €1.9 million to eight projects.
Further information
PhD, Associate Professor (Title of Docent), Minna Harjula, minna.harjula [at] tuni.fi (minna[dot]harjula[at]tuni[dot]fi)
PhD, Associate Professor (Title of Docent), Heikki Kokko, heikki.kokko [at] tuni.fi (heikki[dot]kokko[at]tuni[dot]fi)
Inclusive or securitized democracy? Finnish democratization as a counter-narrative to the securitization politics of the 2020s
