“How to Sustain National Security”: A Case Study of the Celebrations of the Slovak National Uprising as a Securitization Platform

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways in which political actors make use of historical legacies to present their own determination to sustain their country’s national security. We use the example of the annual celebrations of the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNU) to demonstrate the ways in which similar celebrations can become a platform for political actors to express requests and address their audience. Using semi-participant observation, we have analyzed six years of these celebrations (2015–2020) and the securitizing strategies and moral panic creation strategies contained in the speeches of participating politicians. Our analysis shows that securitization is taking place, and labels of threat sources are being given not only to topics that are naturally linked to the celebrated event, but also topics that are in no way related to SNU. Despite this fact, politicians use the legitimacy of the event to manifest their own attempts at sustaining security.

Post-Socialist Political Necromancy: Weaponization of Dead Bodies in Czech Culture Wars

“…The Second World War is the central point of the collective memory of not only European political communities. There is a myriad of mutually incompatible and competing interpretations of the events of the Second World War and its aftermath (Roediger et al 2019), and there are many examples of the use of the war legacy in contemporary political processes (e.g., Bernstein 2016; Biesecker 2002; Naxera and Krčál 2017; Pakhomenko and Gridina 2020; etc.). Given its prominent position within collective memory, it is the Second World War that has become a frequent subject of disputes within the culture wars (cf.…”