‘To what extent is the securitisation of national economic security in the UK driven by objective economic vulnerabilities - particularly energy security and trade dependency - versus the use of security framing as a political strategy to advance contested economic agendas while limiting normal oversight and contestation?’

‘To what extent is the securitisation of national economic security in the UK driven by objective economic vulnerabilities - particularly energy security and trade dependency - versus the use of security framing as a political strategy to advance contested economic agendas while limiting normal oversight and contestation?’

Politics

Solomon David Ellwood Lever

Chris Browring (Supervisor)

This project asks whether the securitisation of UK economic security is driven by objective vulnerabilities in energy and trade, or by the use of security framing as a political strategy to advance contested agendas while limiting normal oversight. It tests the question by auditing six UK policy decisions taken since 2021 against the security criteria their own public justifications invoked. Energy security is measured through availability, affordability, diversity, reliability and resilience. Trade security is measured through market access, partner diversification, exposure to unilateral discretion and stability of terms, drawing on Hirschman and on Farrell and Newman’s work on weaponised interdependence. Five of the six policies fail their own test. The ban on Russian energy imports removed a small exposure but did nothing about the mechanism that passed the 2022 price shock on to British consumers. North Sea licensing is defended on security grounds by both its supporters and its opponents, yet neither position delivers the price security claimed. The UK holds roughly 12 days of gas storage, compared with 89 in Germany and 103 in France, and this drew no significant policy response. Meanwhile the United States now supplies 76% of UK LNG imports and takes 21.7% of UK exports, a concentration that has received almost no security scrutiny. The project concludes that security language in UK economic policy works mainly as a justification attached to decisions made on alliance, environmental or domestic political grounds. It proposes that any economic security claim be accompanied by a published assessment of the exposure it addresses.

Politics, Political Security, Trade Security, Energy Security