Publication

This paper discusses two visions of national security that compete in forming asylum policy: one that links national security to broader human security, and another conceptualizing internal security at odds with distinct external threats. According to the author, a comparison of US and European policies reveals a second dichotomy in conceptualizations of security threats, between the narrow US focus on terrorism and the broader European fear of disruption of social, economic and cultural norms. The author concludes that the security strategy implemented in US asylum policy since 11 September fails to promote the human security goals for which the international political asylum system was founded.