Non-traditional security: Mexico and the framing of transnational organized crime by Felipe Calderon

Abstract

My overall objective in this thesis has been to shed light on non-traditional security issues and their implications. In this specific research project the focus has been on transnational organized crime and particularly on the case of Mexico. By relying on the theoretically flexible framework of Critical theory and on the methodological tools provided by Speech act theory and Critical discourse analysis I have analyzed the framing of transnational organized crime by the Mexican president Felipe Calderon. The primary analytical interest has been the produced social meaning of security and its connection to transnational organized crime. The used research material comprises of all the organized crime-related speeches, statements and interviews given by Felipe Calderon in 2010.

The arguments made in this paper are twofold concerning the theoretical debate over the meaning of security as well as the possibility to perceive transnational organized crime as a relevant part of this debate. I have wished to introduce a wider perspective to security and expand the security mindset towards multiple referent objects, more comprehensive conceptualizations and integrative ways of producing security. I have also explained how contemporary transnational organized crime is connected to the asymmetries of globalization and how it affects the security and well-being of collectivities even if it doesn't appear as an existential threat to states per se. Theoretically speaking these arguments rely on the ideas of the Welsh school, the Copenhagen school and the human security perspective which expand security beyond the concerns over existential survival, militarism and state-centrism.

Throughout the theory chapter I use Critical theory in comparison to the hegemonic traditional theories and in parallel with more specialized conceptualizations that provide their own suggestions for the management of transnational organized crime. The methodological tools are also derived from social constructivism and Critical theory. However, in this regard the notion of securitization as promoted by the Copenhagen school has been replaced by an idea of an intersubjective security framing that perceives utterances not only as performative acts but as elements of discourses which build social meaning. Analytically speaking the focus has thus been on those elements that reflect discursive conventions or transformation in terms of security and transnational organized crime.

Based on the analysis, the social meanings that Felipe Calderon promotes in his discourses represent some kind of ‘a twilight zone' between conventional state-centric thinking and more collective security-oriented thinking. On an ontological level Calderon clearly acknowledges the relevance of transnational organized crime as a major source of insecurity as well as its connection to the lack of human emancipation. Human security and transnationality are perceived as relevant dimensions of security and become tied to a notion of shared responsibility across multiple sectors and levels of action. From the perspectives of horizontally broader and vertically deeper security Calderon's argumentation succeeds in gaining the approval of certain foreign state leaders. This in turn increases the impression of intersubjectivity of his discourses. In regard to the provision of security, however, Calderon's approach is more conventional and state-centric. The rhetorical emphasis is primarily on inter-state cooperation and the role of the private sector remains unrepresented. Also especially in the national context Calderon builds rather sharp barriers for any alternative representations of reality and underlines the relevance of reactive actions as a necessary addition to proactive initiatives. This action-oriented part of his argumentation represents a more militarized approach but interestingly the involment of the army is still approved by a great majority of Mexicans.

In sum it could be said that the outcomes of the research are inevitably shaped by the limitations that the nation-state creates for Calderon as a representative of a sovereign-bound entity. Despite the many unconventional aspects, the link between human security, emancipation, national security and transnational organized crime remains somewhat unsolved. It is difficult to say whether the inclusion of human security and emancipation is based on a genuinely normative goal-setting that is oriented towards collective security, whether it stems from the transnational nature of organized crime or serves some justification purposes of the security paradigm. This issue would thus benefit from further research.