How High is High Enough? Dutch Flood Defences and the Politics of Security
Why are Dutch flood defences as high as they are? And who has made that decision? These seemingly simple questions have complicated answers because they deal with issues of security. Increasingly, historians and political scientists point to ‘securitisation’ theory to help explain how some security issues are socially constructed as a threat and thereby dramatised as an issue that needs to be dealt with urgently. This article argues, however, for a focus on ‘desecuritisation’: the process by which measures are first suggested and then adopted to prevent the security breach from reoccurring, th... Mehr ...
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Dokumenttyp: | Artikel |
Erscheinungsdatum: | 2018 |
Reihe/Periodikum: | BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review, Vol 133, Iss 4 (2018) |
Verlag/Hrsg.: |
openjournals.nl
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Schlagwörter: | Security / Securitisation / Flood / Water / 1953 / History of Low Countries - Benelux Countries / DH1-925 |
Sprache: | Englisch Niederländisch |
Permalink: | https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26625595 |
Datenquelle: | BASE; Originalkatalog |
Powered By: | BASE |
Link(s) : | https://doaj.org/article/05bec5a7c7804edab92f2b23b6f4d4bf |
Why are Dutch flood defences as high as they are? And who has made that decision? These seemingly simple questions have complicated answers because they deal with issues of security. Increasingly, historians and political scientists point to ‘securitisation’ theory to help explain how some security issues are socially constructed as a threat and thereby dramatised as an issue that needs to be dealt with urgently. This article argues, however, for a focus on ‘desecuritisation’: the process by which measures are first suggested and then adopted to prevent the security breach from reoccurring, thereby allowing for a return to ‘normal’. Experts, we suggest, play a key political role in this process, which often remains under- or unstudied because it deals with specialist subjects such as economics or physics. In this article, we analyse the choices and compromises made by the Delta Committee in the wake of the catastrophic storm surge of 1953 in the Netherlands, and the way these were then shrouded in the language of absolute scientific certainty, leading the Dutch Government and Parliament to accept the committee’s recommendations without seriously questioning their basis. Hoe hoog moet een dijk of dam zijn? En wie bepaalt dat eigenlijk? Antwoorden op die vragen hangen samen met visies op wat veiligheid inhoudt en de vraag hoe veilig iets kan of moet zijn. Historici en politieke wetenschappers die geïnteresseerd zijn in ‘veiligheidstheorieën’ doen dat steeds meer vanuit de gedachte dat bedreigingen voor die veiligheid het resultaat zijn van een politiek, intersubjectief proces waarbij een probleem tot een dringend veiligheidsvraagstuk wordt geconstrueerd. Dit artikel suggereert dat juist ook aandacht moet worden besteed aan ‘desecuritisatie’: het eveneens politieke proces waarbij maatregelen worden gesuggereerd en vervolgens goedgekeurd om herhaling van de dreiging te voorkomen en terug te keren naar de normaliteit. Dit proces vindt vaak (deels) plaats buiten de traditionele politieke arena. Hiervoor worden experts ...