Dual-Use Security Applications of Language in the EU : the Strategic Role of Arabic Language

Abstract

The thesis will investigate the casual link between language and security and how language, and in particular Arabic, could be used as a dual-use instrument in this context. To do this we will first carry out a conceptual analysis of the terms, and in particular we will focus on the concept of security. The rest of the study will work out how a language security should look like by developing a theoretical framework of analysis and by looking at elements already in place that could be considered as the backbone for a language security. The data that will be utilized to research this will be taken from relevant research already done in the field, such as in the case of Garcia-Sanchez‘s research, legal materials in the treaties, and pertinent case studies where the evident link between language and security is observable. The research will be aimed at developing a pragmatic framework capable of offering a new instrument that could be used by policy makers in sensitive security issues such as terrorism and its derivative threats, radicalization to name one. The context in which the language-security causal link will be developed is that of a new security, a concept that evolved through the years to gradually include a number of new threats that were not considered as such, such as IT, biochemical, food and even information items. In this context, elements that are considered as new are often associated with dual-use instruments given that we see an evolution from non-securitarian to securitarian framing, and in our relevant case this thesis will propose that language will and/or should be considered as one of the next generation dual-use instruments.