Revealing Failed State - Transnational Crime nexus in the international security discourse - Deconstructing the failed state threat

Abstract: This paper has adopted an inductive approach in answering this paper’s research question; which discursive images does UN draw upon when addressing failed states in their international security policy discourse? Through applying Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, in combination with post-colonial framework, official and current policy UN documents have been analyzed. The documents contain an underlying ethnocentric western discourse that shapes the image of failed state in relation to transnational crime. Failed states are considered as a common signifier for three central transnational threats; organized crime, drugs and terrorism. Since failed states are considered to attract these transnational crimes, it has become a target for international security policy discourse in which preventive and intervening measures have been legitimized. The analysis revealed that the discursive image of failed states in international security policy discourse has been defined vis-à-vis an invisible failed state-transnational crime nexus. Thus, this paper argues that its association with transnational crime and vice versa determines the threat posed by failed states to international security and peace.