Constructing security policy: the world, Kosovo and religion

In this Prishtina Talks presentation, Dr. Erdoan Shipoli — an academic with a doctorate in political science and international relations, author of “Islam, Securitization and US Foreign Policy”, and part of the leadership of Istanbul and of the North American School of Lobbying — takes up in depth securitization theory and its application to Islam and to international security policy.

Shipoli begins with a summary of the Copenhagen School and the founding work of Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver, who argue that “security” is not an objective reality but a social construct: political elites determine what counts as a threat through their own discourse, and through that construction they mobilise resources, laws and public opinion. He explains how the classical school of security, realism and liberalism, treated security purely as military defence, while the constructivist approach moves the focus to the process by which a threat is produced.

In the central part, Shipoli examines the transformation of American discourse after the oil crisis and especially after 11 September 2001, when Islam was systematically securitized as an “existential threat” — the expert on religious questions gave way to the expert on the war on terror, and the strategic ally of the Cold War became the paradigmatic other. He looks at the contradictions: an evangelical Trump arguing for “Christian law”, while the same Americans who once backed the jihadists in Afghanistan now see them as an existential threat.

In the last part, Shipoli applies the frame to Kosovo — how Kosovar security policy was constructed in relation to Islam, how the relationship with the EU and the United States works, and what it implies for Albanian Muslims today. His own theoretical contribution has been to develop the different levels of securitization, from the political elite to the media to society, and to show how the process works even in a small society such as Kosovo.

Some of the points covered: 📌 Securitization as a social construct, not an objective reality 📌 The Copenhagen School: Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver 📌 Realism and liberalism as the classical approaches to security 📌 The role of elites in determining what counts as a “threat” 📌 American discourse after the oil crisis and after 11 September 📌 The securitization of Islam, and the historical contradictions 📌 An evangelical Trump, and “Christian law” 📌 The case of Kosovo: security policy and religion

📍 Prishtina Talks