This thesis examines the manner in which some environments, such as ‘ethnic’ conflict situations, provide fertile ground for securitization process to develop into a more institutionalized form. Once institutionalized, securitization is no longer limited to the typical unidirectional top-down (i.e. elite-driven) path, but rather it becomes subject to bottom-up and horizontal forces, creating what is termed in this thesis ‘horizontal’ and ‘bottom-up’ securitization. These horizontal and bottom-up forces lead to ‘involuntary’ acts at the actor and audience levels, which in turn contribute to the perpetuation and further institutionalization of an already securitized environment. Within this framework the audiences have a much more active role in the development and perpetuation of security narratives and threats than they do in the ‘mainstream’ reading of the theory. The Cyprus conflict, as an intractable ‘ethnic’ conflict, is used to test the abovementioned arguments. Empirical evidence from the case study demonstrates that the social context dominating such environments contributes significantly to the development of institutionalized, horizontal and bottom-up securitization, obstructing desecuritization and subsequently also the prospects for conflict resolution
