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The Securitisation of Development Aid: A critical discourse analysis of EU development policies

Målberg, Ella LU and Törnblom, My LU (2025) STVK12 20251
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Development aid is distributed globally to fight the growing inequalities and challenges faced by the world’s poorest. Despite its altruistic connotations, questions have been raised of whether aid always contributes to positive change, with increasing criticism of its usage for the donors’ egoistic motives. Security is one donor motive that has been researched by scholars seeking to better understand how aid may be used to further the donors’ geopolitical security concerns. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the European Union’s development aid is being securitisied by looking at changes in between its development policies. The data used for this purpose are the 2006 European Consensus on Development and the 2017 New... (More)
Development aid is distributed globally to fight the growing inequalities and challenges faced by the world’s poorest. Despite its altruistic connotations, questions have been raised of whether aid always contributes to positive change, with increasing criticism of its usage for the donors’ egoistic motives. Security is one donor motive that has been researched by scholars seeking to better understand how aid may be used to further the donors’ geopolitical security concerns. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the European Union’s development aid is being securitisied by looking at changes in between its development policies. The data used for this purpose are the 2006 European Consensus on Development and the 2017 New European Consensus on Development, as well as the constructive responses and opinion documents of the European Economic and Social Committee and Concord. Through the lens of securitisation theory, this thesis will explore whether there is evidence of a securitisation process. Critical discourse analysis will guide the data collection and analysis through its division of the analysis into the text and discursive practice. The main findings reveal that there has not been a process of securitisation, rather there is evidence of both securitising moves and de-securitising moves. (Less)
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author
Målberg, Ella LU and Törnblom, My LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20251
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
European Union, EU, securitisation, critical discourse analysis, policy, development aid
language
English
id
9189620
date added to LUP
2025-08-07 16:28:35
date last changed
2025-08-07 16:28:35
@misc{9189620,
  abstract     = {{Development aid is distributed globally to fight the growing inequalities and challenges faced by the world’s poorest. Despite its altruistic connotations, questions have been raised of whether aid always contributes to positive change, with increasing criticism of its usage for the donors’ egoistic motives. Security is one donor motive that has been researched by scholars seeking to better understand how aid may be used to further the donors’ geopolitical security concerns. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the European Union’s development aid is being securitisied by looking at changes in between its development policies. The data used for this purpose are the 2006 European Consensus on Development and the 2017 New European Consensus on Development, as well as the constructive responses and opinion documents of the European Economic and Social Committee and Concord. Through the lens of securitisation theory, this thesis will explore whether there is evidence of a securitisation process. Critical discourse analysis will guide the data collection and analysis through its division of the analysis into the text and discursive practice. The main findings reveal that there has not been a process of securitisation, rather there is evidence of both securitising moves and de-securitising moves.}},
  author       = {{Målberg, Ella and Törnblom, My}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Securitisation of Development Aid: A critical discourse analysis of EU development policies}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}