Controlled Loss of Control: The Articulation of Resilience as ‘Empty Signifier’ in EU and NATO Policies

Abstract

Resilience is frequently used in EU and NATO policies; policy interventions have been designed to make subjects and objects more resilient. This article critically examines the articulation of resilience as an ‘empty signifier’ in EU and NATO policies, drawing on poststructuralist theory to problematise what resilience is represented to be. A critical methodology to policy analysis allows to question why resilience moved up the EU's and NATO's policy agenda in times of existential crises. This article contends that resilience signifies a controlled loss of control. Seemingly paradoxically, resilience stands for an unfulfilled demand. The EU and NATO frame resilience as the antidote to internal vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities have been publicly disclosed after recent exogenous shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine. The emptiness of resilience makes it a powerful discursive tool, enabling a wide range of policy interventions to materialise.