ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explores the various ways in which threat images can take on societal salience. It includes how threats and risks are framed among public opinion and political elites. It suggests that the societal salience of threat images largely could be explained by threat politics, and that the primary feature of this is a struggle between advocates of competing problem frames. Cognition, culture and framing are three general factors of an ideational nature that generally appear to have an impact on the societal salience of threat images. Epistemic communities, bureaucratic politics, identity politics, and referent objects are four concepts considered as circumstantial factors. The circumstantial significance of epistemic communities is also indicated in Karlsson's study of how big business leaders try to influence the threat frames of governments in the Baltic Sea area.
