Description
Amid growing cases of foreign interference, democratic countries are confronted not only with external adversaries but also with the question of how to involve its own population in the defence against them. As security governance becomes ever more discursively mediated, citizens have re-emerged as a central rhetorical figure. Yet, the ways in which citizen agency is framed in the official discourses remain analytically underdeveloped and empirically understudied. This paper addresses this gap by examining how British governments have discursively constructed the role of citizens in their discourse on foreign interference. Through a comparative analysis of governmental discourses employed under Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak (2022–2024) and Keir Starmer (2024–), it interrogates how communicative practices shape the normative positioning of citizens, including as those of vulnerable subjects, resilient agents, or co-producers of national security. Theoretically, the paper draws on poststructuralist perspectives on foreign policy and identity and frame theory, treating frames as ideologically embedded discursive mechanisms that structure meaning, authority, and responsibility in times of perceived insecurity. The paper contributes to broader debates on discursive legitimation, political agency, and the evolving logics through which liberal democracies seek to govern through - and with - their citizens in the face of foreign interference.
