Katalin Miklóssy
We are living in a time of multiple crises. Wars, threatening clashes of superpowers, the profound transformation of the global international system and its rules of interaction create unpredictability. Discourses of insecurity reflect this uncertainty, on the one hand, but at the same time they expand a leverage for political competition over the different promises of providing security. This lecture is dealing with the competition of securitizing narratives in the Eastern flank of the European Union. Securitisation is an old theory of international relations that by accentuating threats making people feel increasingly insecure, in order to offer solutions that would require extraordinary power. Securitisation is particularly relevant in studying extremist narratives because arguably it helps to mainstream certain elements of the discourse. We will address the multilevel competition of narratives and counter-narratives, about security.
Short bio
Katalin Miklóssy is a Jean Monnet Chair and Head of Eastern European studies, working at the University of Helsinki. Her recent scholarship investigates how the evolution of the rule of law is conditioned by spatiality and historical experiences of mitigating threats in East Central and Southeastern Europe. Miklóssy also studied the relation between the contemporary authoritarian trend and academic knowledge production in the Eastern flank of the EU. She is the PI of a research group in the international project ARENAS (funded by the European Commission), analyzing the circulation of extremist narratives in the European academic environment. Miklóssy regularly comments on Eastern European political development in the Finnish, Nordic, Central European and international media, assists parliamentary committees and state administration, EU-officials and MEPs, chamber of commerce and NGOs.