Leading actors of the free world

Abstract: The European Security Strategy (ESS) developed in 2003 and the National Security Strategy of the United States of America (NSS) was issued in 2002. In this thesis these two documents are compared and analyzed with reference to the securitization theory. The comparison focus on identified threats and how they aim to refute them. The choice of documents is partly based on, them being the first security strategies developed in the post-9/11 world, the terrorist attacks that consequently changed the focus for security strategy. Both documents make similar observations of the world and the possible threats. The manners in which the threats are defined however differ and consequently so does the means presented to refute them. The ESS doesn’t mention war in the struggle against terrorism; instead define a ‘fight against global terrorism’. The NSS, however, as the initiator of the term, identifies a ‘war on terror’. This reflects how the two documents are used differently as political tools, and further reveals a divide in security culture of soft and hard power between the EU and US.