The security threat for Northern Ireland: In the views of six political leaders

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines in what way Brexit is constructed as a security threat with regards to the Irish border. If the UK were to leave the EU a border would have to be installed, but installing a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would violate the Good Friday Agreement. Brexit has resulted in a prolonged process because the politicians cannot agree on a withdrawal agreement, which has created an uncertain situation with the threats to the security growing by every day. The method used to answer this was a qualitative content analysis, which created a coding table. The coding table helped assess the level of security threat Theresa May, Arlene Foster, Mary Lou McDonald, Enda Kenny/Leo Varadkar, and Donald Tusk viewed in the military, economic and political sector. The study concludes that the different political leaders highlight different concerns and on different levels, but that all of them view the Irish border the source of the biggest security threat.