NATO and the collective securitisation of COVID-19: discourse analysis of the construction of a threat.

Abstract This article seeks to analyse nato’s role as a security actor during the covid-19 pandemic by studying how the organisation paved the securitising discourse constructing the covid-19 pandemic as an existential threat between March and May 2020. We correspondingly apply collective securitisation theory in conjunction with discourse analysis of a selection of nato statements. This enabled observations of an attempt to enlarge nato’s role in the International System, comprising matters beyond high politics and culminating in actions including the coordination of rescue missions for civilians and the usage of scientific means to aid in responding to the pandemic.