| Abstract [eng] |
Prevention of Radicalisation in France: the Case of “Stop Djihadisme” The object of the Master’s thesis is the expression of the threat of the islamic radicalization in the counter-discourse of the French government. Although terrorism is usually seen as an external threat to the security of Western European states, it is not clear whether an internal-external dichotomy is maintained in an official institutional discourse due to emergence of islamic radicalization. The aim of this Master’s thesis is to analyse the campaign “Stop Djihadisme” and to find out if the threat of radicalization is depicted as internal (by using the discursive construction of the “self”) or as external (by using the discursive construction of the “other”). The thesis raises the following question: how does the French government speak about security and how is the threat of islamic radicalization, both external and internal, constructed in their counter-discourse? The analysis revealed that the threat of the islamic radicalization is directly identified with the threat of terrorism and the danger of the terrorist attacks. According to the French government, the French identity is the reason why the state is the main target of the threat of jihadism and shows that the aspect of identity plays a major role in the process of the securitization of the radicalization. The responsibility of the radicalization that leads to violence in France is laid on the external terrorist organisations, especially “Daech”, and their discourses which means that the threat of radicalization in France is explained as external. The French residents who chose the path of the islamic radicalization are depicted as the “other” who do not take part in the French society anymore and do not share the common Republic values. The analysis of the campaign demonstrates that the government links the jihadi propaganda to the “group effect”, implying that the French residents have chosen a different identity that justifies the violence. In order to counter this group effect, the French administration proposes mobilization of the civil society, who must participate in order to prevent the radicalization. However, the campaign places a lot of importance on the repressive counter-terrorism measures. According to public surveys, these extraordinary measures that justify actions outside the normal bounds of political procedure are accepted by the public, therefore the speech act of securitization can be evaluated as successful. The thesis aims to contribute to the research on the prevention of the islamic radicalization and especially on the use of the discursive practices countering jihadi propaganda. Since the virtual presence of terrorist organisations continues to be one of the ways to maintain a link with their international audience, it is important to analyse the different forms of counter-measures in order to improve them. The results of the analysis provide valuable findings about the content of the counter-discourse which represents the official position of the French government. The analysis, for which the theoretical framework proposed by the Copenhagen School was used, has revealed that the issue of the radicalization in the case of “Stop Djihadisme” was indeed securitized through the construction of the boundaries of “self” and “other”. This leads to further question the relation between securitization and identity, not only when the threat is strictly internal or external, but hybrid as well. By highlighting the importance of the aspect of identity, the present paper suggests that it is important to reevaluate the creation of these strict boundaries in the government’s communication, as they can foster the sense of isolation in the French society. The paper also proposes to pay more attention to the civil society’s role in the prevention of radicalization, and to carry out research on the current non-institutional communication which could provide additional insights. |
