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Although security concerns have long been embedded in the field of ethnic politics and scholarship on mechanisms of ethnic conflict resolution and management of diversity in divided societies, a combination of real-world events and increasing cross-fertilization among research fields have accelerated the field of inquiry in the past fifteen years. On the one hand, security has become a relevant sphere of governmental action with repercussions in several policy areas, including accommodation of diversity. On the other hand, following the broadening and deepening of the Security Studies agenda, many scholars have applied security concepts to investigate minority issues and ethnic conflicts, from Roe's "societal security dilemma" to research on securitization/desecuritization of minorities. A variety of approaches and theories have developed, not always in relation with each other. The goal of this paper is to provide a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of the attempts at cross-fertilization between Non- Traditional Security Studies and work on minority accommodation/conflict regulation in European countries, discussing theoretical underpinnings as well as methodological issues. Applying a Security Studies lens to the politics surrounding the governance of cultural diversity deepens and advances our understanding of minority issues and policy debates, in particular, around institutional designs in divided societies.

Situated at the junction between the field of ethnic politics, security studies, and migration, this paper analyses processes of (de)securitisation in Northern Ireland. The country is characterised by its violent past, consociational power-sharing institutions, experience with periods of political instability, and the recent arrival of several thousand people from other EU and non-EU countries. As a case study, Northern Ireland epitomises the problems of divided societies and the challenges posed by the presence of competing nationalisms in multinational and ever more diversifying countries. This paper applies the concept of (de)securitisation to analyse the extent to which past conflicts and tensions have been overcome; uncovering who or what is perceived as a threat, according to which terms, and how this affects majority-minority relations. To conduct the analysis, I adopt the Copenhagen School understanding of securitisation as a speech act. I use a qualitative methodology, examining (de)securitising discourses that emerged in the party programmes of the main political forces which won seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2017 and in previous elections since 1998. I look at the evolution and transformation of such discourses since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 to today, bringing to light the different security narratives that characterise Northern Ireland concerning the divisions and relationship among its communities and the broader issue of diversity.

AbstractSituated at the interplay between ethnic politics, migration, border, and security studies, this contribution analyzes processes of securitization of borders in South Tyrol, an Italian province bordering Austria and Switzerland with a German- and Ladin-speaking population and a past of ethnic tensions. South Tyrol is considered a model for fostering peaceful interethnic relations thanks to a complex power-sharing system. However, the arrival of migrants from foreign countries and the more recent influx of asylum seekers have revitalized debates around the borders between South Tyrol/Italy and Austria and among South Tyrolean linguistic groups. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought further complexity to the issue. I use the concept of securitization—the process through which an issue is considered as an existential threat requiring exceptional measures—in order to understand why and how borders become exclusionary and restrictive, shaping dynamics of othering. With this framework, the article explores how South Tyrolean borders have been subjected to (de)securitizing and resecuritizing moves in discourses and practices. In this way, I shed new light on debates on the articulation of borders and interethnic relations that are occurring due to recent international migration, consolidation of nationalist agendas, and the current pandemic.

South Tyrol has been referred to as a model to deal with ethnic diversity and resolving ethnic conflicts. This article explains the South Tyrol model's success by blending ethnic politics with concepts from security studies: societal security and securitization. Societal security refers to threats that emerge from the fact that humans belong to communal groups that do not correspond to defined state borders. Securitization is the process by which an issue is considered as an existential threat that requires emergency measures. The article develops a framework to identify which dynamics made South Tyrol successful, analyzing factors that sparked security concerns and processes of securitization and highlighting actions and measures that tackled these dynamics. Concurrently, South Tyrol is used as an empirical case to expand our understanding of societal security and elaborate (and test) a detailed toolkit to prevent or dissolve the violent mobilization of ethnic diversity and societal security threats.

«This timely and important book provides a critical look at borders and belonging. It illuminates the tensions and contradictions that often exist within the logic of legal and political mechanisms that define regional and national boundaries and the reality of the lives lived within these constructions. The resulting essays are instructive, thought-provoking and sometimes very moving explorations of the making and meaning of historical and contemporary borderlands.»(Roisín Higgins, Professor of History, National University of Ireland Maynooth)«This volume is a masterful combination of analyses of feelings of belonging and identities following from changing state and cultural borders in the past and present and their challenges for living together. Its chapters analyse the intersections of people, territory, institutions and law from theoretical perspectives as well as through reflexive individual experience of social identity formation from below, often with a focus on their contestation in (re-)territorialized sub-state regions.»(Josef Marko, Professor of Comparative Public Law and Political Sciences, University of Graz)Both the Brexit process and the Covid pandemic have challenged the idealistic concept that borders in Europe and elsewhere were becoming ever more permeable. The idea that the world was becoming a global village has been seriously eroded. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has once again highlighted how power politics draws borders and shapes belongings. This has necessitated analyses of the nature of human-made borders and boundaries and the consequences for individuals and collectives who experience inclusion or exclusion on their feelings of belonging and their identities. Similarly, governmental policies within states have created majorities and minorities and have caused grave implications for those groups at the receiving end of legislation and state actions.This multidisciplinary volume comprises essays from researchers and academics, located in Europe and beyond, who investigate the effects of border creation, social and legal inclusivity and exclusion on individuals and collective identities in the past and today. Combining «from above» and «from below» perspectives, the volume explores macro-political processes affecting borders and senses of belonging as well as their intersections at the microlevel, including private views and individual responses to such types of processes.

«This timely and important book provides a critical look at borders and belonging. It illuminates the tensions and contradictions that often exist within the logic of legal and political mechanisms that define regional and national boundaries and the reality of the lives lived within these constructions. The resulting essays are instructive, thought-provoking and sometimes very moving explorations of the making and meaning of historical and contemporary borderlands.» (Roisín Higgins, Professor of History, National University of Ireland Maynooth) «This volume is a masterful combination of analyses of feelings of belonging and identities following from changing state and cultural borders in the past and present and their challenges for living together. Its chapters analyse the intersections of people, territory, institutions and law from theoretical perspectives as well as through reflexive individual experience of social identity formation from below, often with a focus on their contestation in (re-)territorialized sub-state regions.» (Josef Marko, Professor of Comparative Public Law and Political Sciences, University of Graz) Both the Brexit process and the Covid pandemic have challenged the idealistic concept that borders in Europe and elsewhere were becoming ever more permeable. The idea that the world was becoming a global village has been seriously eroded. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has once again highlighted how power politics draws borders and shapes belongings. This has necessitated analyses of the nature of human-made borders and boundaries and the consequences for individuals and collectives who experience inclusion or exclusion on their feelings of belonging and their identities. Similarly, governmental policies within states have created majorities and minorities and have caused grave implications for those groups at the receiving end of legislation and state actions. This multidisciplinary volume comprises essays from researchers and academics, located in Europe and beyond, who investigate the effects of border creation, social and legal inclusivity and exclusion on individuals and collective identities in the past and today. Combining «from above» and «from below» perspectives, the volume explores macro-political processes affecting borders and senses of belonging as well as their intersections at the microlevel, including private views and individual responses to such types of processes.