Hellberg U. Securitisation as a Phenomenon of Contemporary Security Policy in the European Union

The thesis presents a comprehensive research on development of security policy in the European Union in the late XX - early XXI century. Particularly, based on analysis of the theoretical findings developed by the Copenhagen School of security studies, normative documents of the EU and its member states and practical measures of security policy, the investigation on institutional, normative and social aspects and perspectives of securitisation as its defining phenomenon is accomplished. A high securitisation level in the EU has been demonstrated, which is characterised by the process of transformation of various problems into security issues, articulation and legitimation of internal and external threats, improvement and wider use of security technologies for people protection. It has been shown that the securitisation in the EU leads to strengthening of social control, interference with privacy and categorisation of society; therefore, it contradicts the values of democracy, solidarity and respect for human rights. Accordingly, the author has emphasised a need for a more effective balance between the objectives and the consequences of the security policy. With a critical approach formulated basing on the concepts of communicative action and panopticism by J?rgen Habermas and Michel Foucault respectively, the author has suggested future scenarios for the further development of the security policy depending on a role of the securitisation in the EU as well as scenarios for Ukraine's foreign policy.