The normalisation of exceptional counterterrorism powers: the case of France

This thesis investigates the framing of the terrorist threat in France from 2015 to 2020 as an ‘exceptional’ challenge which requires a ‘special’ public security response. The thesis demonstrates that, in the French case, the normalisation of exceptional powers has great significance, however it is a topic that has received little or no attention in the (critical) security studies scholarship.

The thesis explores how political actors frame the terrorist threat in French political discourse from an exceptional, existential challenge to a permanent, routine threat. This thesis seeks to provide an in-depth critical discourse analysis of the French political narratives to examine the activation of the ‘état d’urgence’ – state of emergency – in the aftermath of Paris attacks in 2015. The study analyses the political discourse arising from the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015 and the Paris attacks in 2015 to March 2020, to demonstrate the evolving securitising language. The thesis explores the twin concepts of securitisation-desecuritisation through the state of emergency’s normalisation and the French political framing and (re)construction of terrorism in a French context. Oriented around the post-Copenhagen School theoretical approach, the thesis demonstrates the importance of threat framing and the securitisation of terrorism by considering the context in which it is (re)constructed. Widening the understanding of securitisation-desecuritisation and, subsequently broadening the research within Terrorism Studies to investigate the colonial settings of French counterterrorism (CT) powers, it thus demonstrates the apparently indefinite extension of exceptional powers, their routinisation and normalisation. This, in turn exposes their embeddedness in the colonial legacy of temporal structures, political language and counterterrorism power.

By investigating CT political discourse, the thesis proposes a conceptual framework that merges critical terrorism studies literature and securitisation scholarship. Subsequently, the political construction of temporality and colonial continuity of CT powers question and undermine the exceptional character of traditional approach of securitisation. The analysis demonstrates that the normalisation of the exceptional terrorist threat is not another form of desecuritisation, but rather it highlights the impossibility of desecuritising terrorism.