Ruling Through Exception: Lawfare, Securitised Warfare and the Intermestic Logic of Authoritarianism

Abstract

This article develops an original interdisciplinary framework for analysing authoritarian regimes. It coins, for the first time, the concept of securitised warfare, theorising its conceptual foundations, and it also originates and develops an original theoretical framework synthesising securitisation, authoritarianism and structuration. Securitised warfare - defined here as the outward intermestic manifestation of lawfare - is shown to be mutually constitutive with lawfare, the strategic misuse of the legal system for political gain, with both reinforcing the consolidation of authoritarian rule. Focusing on Turkey (2015-2025), the article illustrates how the regime employed legal repression as a political instrument, particularly in the cases of Selahattin Demirta & scedil; and Ekrem & Idot;mamo & gbreve;lu. Simultaneously, the suppression of Kurdish groups in Syria exemplifies securitised dynamics shaped in conjunction with domestic politics. Using Lijphart's hypothesis-generation method and within-case process tracing, the study demonstrates how lawfare and securitised warfare function both as Schmittian exceptions and as routinised Giddensian institutional practices. The framework conceptualises the historical transition from national security state to neoliberal security state, culminating in the consolidation of an autocratic regime whose logic exceeds conventional regime security. This transformation is theorised through securitised warfare - explaining how domestic and foreign policy are increasingly governed by a unified logic of authoritarian control.