The Danish Defense's Ontological Security: How Does Denmark Secure Its Military's Identity in Times of Shifting Warfare?
2018 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In recent years, particularly after the rise of “new wars” in the 1990s and following the
Danish Defense’s shift from a national-orientated defensive military to an international-orientated so-called ‘activist’ military, Denmark has increasingly been adopting a more
joint planning and exercise of civilian and military efforts in the Danish state’s approach
to armed conflicts. As a result of this combined civil-military approach, which in common
speech goes by “the comprehensive approach”, critics often accuse Denmark of having
developed ‘militaristic’ foreign affairs and development discourses and policies. However,
is the opposite also the case then; has Denmark, on the other hand, developed ‘civilised’
defense and security discourses?
Taken that question into consideration, the overall aim of this thesis is to identify the
Danish Defense’s identical (i.e. ontological) security discourses and thereby determine,
how Denmark secure its military’s identity in times of shifting warfare; is the Danish
Defense’s ontological security, and thus its identity, for example, constructed on a civil-orientated discourse?
Through an intrasubjective discourse analysis of selected video material by the Danish
Defense, the thesis concludes that, the Danish Defense’s collective identity primarily is
shaped by a civil- and an international-orientated discourse, which constructs not only the
Danish Defense’s identity, but also Denmark’s ontological security. The analytical framework is the intrasubjective discourse analysis, that has been formed by merging the ontological security theory with Rose’s discourse analysis 1.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle , 2018. , p. 72
Keywords [en]
Comprehensive approach, Danish Defense, Denmark, Ontological security, Identity
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21455Local ID: 26062OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-21455DiVA, id: diva2:1481361
Educational program
KS GPS Peace and Conflict Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-10-272020-10-27Bibliographically approved