Browsing by Author "Clifton, Robert"

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    Ill-fated Mission: Canada’s Franklin Expedition and its Role in Arctic Securitization
    (2025-02) Clifton, Robert; Huebert, Rob; Sayers, Anthony Michael; Rice, Roberta L.; Huebert, Rob
    In 1845, Sir John Franklin and his crew went missing while in search of a Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The shipwrecks were discovered in 2014 and 2016 (respectively) with the first, The HMS Erebus, discovered under the administration of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2006-2015). Employing discourse analysis of qualitative research interviews and primary documents, and the process tracing method, this thesis investigates the role the Franklin Expedition searches and discoveries played in the Harper government’s Canadian Arctic securitizing move. This thesis tests the original Copenhagen, and Second Generation, Securitization theories for applicability to the Harper-era Franklin searches and communications in the context of Canada’s Arctic security policy. It finds mild support for the relevance of Second Generation theories over the original Copenhagen theory from which later theories of securitization evolved. Given analysis of theoretical underpinnings and after deep qualitative analysis, this study finds that the Franklin searches and discovery did not play a central role in Prime Minister Harper’s prior securitization of the Canadian arctic.