Existential-threat framing is a standard political device, not a special case.

Evidence

However, the construction of such an existential threat is by no means unprecedented, for as Schmitt taught us, this threat is integral to the concept of the political, to the distinction between enemy and friend, and thus to the modus vivendi of all modern states. Yet the enemy need not present itself as a state at all. Even groups within states can be perceived to create or represent such a threat, however imaginary the perception may be. Given the subjugated status of the Palestinians and their overall incapabilities, cleansing campaigns iterate the fundamental structure of a security-based existential threat, and are furthermore grounded in a founding ideology that assigns to the Palestinians a subhuman form of existence, all the while constructing the colonizers as “God’s chosen people.” — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 433

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains Schmitt’s enemy/friend distinction as the basis of the political and how it applies to sub-state groups.