Vocabulary Builder — Essay & Answer Writing
Securitise
To treat or frame a political, social, or economic issue as a security threat, thereby justifying extraordinary measures — such as military deployment, emergency laws, or suspension of civil liberties — that would not normally be applicable.
Derived from 'security' + -ise; popularised by the Copenhagen School of security studies (Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, 1990s)
"The editorial argued that India had systematically securitised the Manipur ethnic conflict by deploying 50,000 central forces and maintaining AFSPA, while failing to address the political grievances that had caused it — treating a governance failure as a law-and-order problem."
Important analytical term for GS2 and GS3 Mains — particularly in internal security, governance, and human rights answers. Use when discussing AFSPA in NE India or J&K (securitising ethnic/political conflicts), the Naxal/Maoist approach (securitising socio-economic grievances), or refugee and migration issues (securitising humanitarian crises). Demonstrates analytical depth: a good UPSC answer distinguishes between the short-term security need and the long-term cost of securitising political problems. Antonym 'desecuritise' is equally useful — when peace settlements move issues from security to political domain.
