We are delighted to share a new discussion paper published by Saferworld and supported by FICS’ Civic Futures initiative.

View ‘The voice of the fourth pillar: How Security Council discourse drove counter-terrorism expansion at the UN’, here.

FICS launched Civic Futures in 2021 to deepen understanding about how the growth of national security and counter-terrorism policies, laws and technologies are used to curtail civic space and to develop tools to help funders to respond to and get ahead of this world-shaping phenomenon.

Our Security Playbook (2023) identified “security rhetoric” as one of three core tactics used by states to curtail civic space and democracy under the aegis of national security: the repetition of fear-based narratives and the conflation of safety and hard security measures in the media and by politicians and other public figures in order to build public and political acceptance of new restrictions and hostility toward civil dissent.

Over the past decade, Saferworld has followed the growth of counter-terrorism from a peripheral concern into a major focus of the United Nations (UN), leading ground-breaking research and engaging with the UN policy community. This new paper tracks how the institutional expansion of counter-terrorism has occurred hand in hand with shifts in rhetorical pattern at the UN Security Council. It identifies the active role that security rhetoric has played in embedding counter-terrorism as a self-sustaining agenda at the UN and highlights five key insights into this trend.

FICS hopes that this new analysis will contribute to greater transparency of the agendas driving UN priorities and their impact on civic space and offer new openings for advocacy by civil society groups.

Visit Saferworld’s website for the full report, a Q&A with the report authors, and an audio explainer.