The (Failed) Translation of Rogue States into Schurkenstaaten

Abstract

The reception of the threat image of rogue states in Germany was largely negative and much more cursory and passive than the process of securitization in the US, often simply reacting to US moves and/or discussing the issue implicitly in the context of specific US policy initiatives. In this sense, the threat image of rogue states never really entered German security discourse, and there was thus no real process of consistent engagement with it as compared with the US discourse. Discursive strategies to translate rogue states for the German discursive locale are limited to a few actors (within a rather small German expert and professional security community). Nevertheless, the German rogue states discourse allows us to study these (failed) moves of translation; the performative effect of the rogue states narrative on German security discourse; the effect of deliberately politicizing perceived security issues in Germany; moves of counter-securitization and resistance with regard to the rogue states narrative; and the way in which sociolinguistic moves in Germany are deeply interwoven with the particularities of this discursive setting, typically discussed in the context of a distinct German security culture understood as relatively stable patterns of German security discourse.