Evolution of Security — Development Discourse in Spain

The idea of ‘security — development nexus’ has been used extensively in the policy documents of the leading Western countries over the last decade. However, the scholars have focused mostly on the discourse in the Anglo-Saxon countries, while the documents of other established donors have not been thoroughly examined. Spain is not an exception, and this paper aims to put an end to the inexplicable neglect of the Spanish case. The first section provides a brief overview of the Spanish development policy with a special emphasis on its strategic orientation, as well as the dynamics and the structure of aid flows, including their regional and sectoral distribution. The second section tracks the reflection of the security — development nexus paradigm in different Spanish governmental documents issued since 2000 and emphasizes that it was after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, in New York and on March 11, 2004, in Madrid that the nexus entered the Spanish political discourse. However, it evolved considerably under the influence of various factors, such as the changes of the government in 2004 and 2011, the world economic crisis and the EU debt crisis, the ‘Arab Awakening’. The final section posits a hypothesis that Spain uses the nexus as a specific instrument of securing the country’s political and economic interests abroad. The Spanish government not only seeks to enhance its national security in the name of the nexus but aspires to protect a certain global balance of power, which provides both the West in general and Spain in particular with important economic and political benefits.