1. Politics of Insecurity, Technology and the Political 2. Security Framing: The Question of the Meaning of Security 3. Displacing the Spectre of the State in Security Studies: From Referent Objects to Techniques of Government 4. Securitizing Migration: Freedom from Existential Threats and the Constitution of Insecure Communities 5. European Integration and Societal Insecurity 6. Freedom and Security in the EU: A Foucaultian View on Spill-Over 7. Migration, Securitization and the Question of Political Community in the EU 8. De-Securitizing Migration: Security Knowledge and Concepts of the Political Bibliography

The act of violence of 9/11 changed the global security agenda, catapulting terrorism to the top of the agenda. Weapons of mass destruction grabbed public interest and controlling the free movement of people became a national security priority.
In this volume, Jef Huysmans critically engages with theoretical developments in international relations and security studies to develop a conceptual framework for studying security. He argues that security policies and responses do not appear out of the blue, but are part of a continuous and gradual process, pre-structured by previous developments. He examines this process of securitization and explores how an issue, on the basis of the distribution and administration of fear, becomes a security policy. Huysmans then applies this theory to provide a detailed analysis of migration, asylum and refuge in the European Union.
This theoretically sophisticated, yet accessible volume, makes an important contribution to the study of security, migration and European politics.