Clive Barnett’s important critique of recent critical analyses of securitization is convincing on its own terms. Reframing his argument from within the perspective of a political economy of attention and distraction allows us to see it in a different light. Even if his critique of exclusively negative analyses of security is valid, we should not be at all reassured by it. Recent processes of securitization may indeed involve a healthier dynamic of public debate and action than has hitherto been recognized, but they can still be understood as a damaging case of collective distraction.
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