The Two-Pathway Model of Felicity in Securitization: A Linguistic Reconstruction of the Copenhagen School and Its Application to Iran's Nuclear File

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Kurdish Language and Literature, Faculty of Language and Literature, Sanandaj, Iran

10.22124/wp.2026.34301.3693

Abstract

Copenhagen School securitization theory treats security not as an objective condition but as the outcome of a process whereby an issue is framed through language as an "existential threat," rendering extraordinary measures justifiable. However, the claim that securitization is a speech act has remained generally metaphorical in the School's classic texts, its relation to the philosophy of language never clarified. This paper asks what the linguistic mechanism of felicity is in the securitizing act, and how the "success" of securitization can accordingly be formulated in differentiated terms. Employing a rational reconstruction, it rereads the foundational Copenhagen texts alongside classic works in speech act theory (Austin, Searle, Grice) and later critiques (Strawson, Bourdieu, Derrida, Butler). Its central contribution is the two-pathway model of felicity, which, grounded in the Strawson-Austin controversy, holds that securitizing acts become felicitous through two mechanisms: an institutional-declarative pathway resting on convention and procedure, and a persuasive-assertive pathway resting on the audience's recognition of intention. Success is accordingly decomposed into four thresholds of performance, recognition, acceptance, and authorization.

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