The Politics of Threat Construction: Securitisation as a Site of Contestation in Georgia’s Public Sphere

Moving beyond studies on contemporary security challenges posed by information manipulation, economic coercion, and military pressure, this article problematises the securitisation of foreign interference narratives by political leaders through the case of Georgia (2023–2025). The analysis draws on 325 social media posts by high-level officials and ten in-depth interviews with civic actors resisting state narratives. It relies on securitisation theory to (1) examine how political elites frame domestic actors as instruments of the Western interference despite the country’s constitutionally anchored pro-European orientation and overwhelming public support for EU integration, and (2) explore how counter-securitisation unfolds among civic actors. The findings reveal a structured securitising narrative grounded in sovereigntist logic, invoking historical memory, identity threats, and conspiracy framings to delegitimise civic actors as rootless and foreign aligned. However, rather than generating stable audience acceptance this securitising move triggers counter-securitisation as civic actors contest the proposed threat hierarchy, reframe Russia and democratic backsliding as primary dangers, and additionally mobilise performative resistance through street protest. The analysis highlights the agency of civic actors who simultaneously occupy the positions of securitised subjects and a segment of the audience and complements post-structuralist understandings of the securitisation as a co-constitutive and iterative rather than a linear process.