Ontological Security and Public (Mis)Recognition of International Crises: Uncertainty, Political Imagining, and the Self

Abstract

Public narratives of unexpected international events frequently help (re)imagine uncertainty as something familiar or predictable. This process underlies social and political responses and is deeply significant in relation to identity and boundary security. I propose to read early perceptions of international crises through a reformulation of ontological security principles that find motivation for behavior in self-identity needs. Political imagining is shown to seek continuous self-concepts and to routinize new encounters within familiar and selfaffirming frames. This article suggests a new approach to ontological continuity: instead of an unchanging narrative, its security may rest in a continuously positive version of the self, with narratives of others balancing and securing the relationship. In the second half of the article, I draw on interviews about the "Arab Spring" to show how illusions of recognizing unexpected events and the political imagining this produces can be motivated by self-concepts in need of security.

The market for ontological security

“…Finally, there is the "securitisation of subjectivity", a term coined by Kinnvall (2004) to describe the unhealthy fixation of one's self on a single inflexible identity. The literature has contrasted this fixation with a healthy reflexive self, involving the acknowledgement of the fluidity and multiplicity of individual and collective identities (Kinnvall 2004, Chernobrov 2016, Browning and Joenniemi 2017.…”

“…Although pervasive, this strategy is usually considered maladaptive because it frequently leads to securitisation. Securitisation can take the form of (mis)constructing perceived cultural, religious or societal outgroups as physical security threats (Chernobrov 2016, deRaismes Combes 2017. Securitisation can also engender hostile relations between states.…”

Who is the modern ‘traitor’? ‘Fifth column’ accusations in US and UK politics and media

“…Both articles speak of Islamophobia in the context of terrorism. When faced with a threat, a society in need of security escapes into familiar and therefore controllable relationships, even if they present an unnecessary escalation or exaggeration (Chernobrov, 2016). This can motivate the 'fifth column' claim as a way to expel blame on familiar targets, those with whom the accusers may have lived side by side for years, but who retained familiar and easily identifiable elements of otherness.…”

“…In this sense, the discovery of a 'fifth column' is a symptom of a bigger crisis. Expelling parts of a community as treacherous restores the sense of security and empowerment and appeals to the community's desire to have a continuously positive view of themselves (Chernobrov, 2016). For example, the 'fifth column' scare in 1940s became widely accepted as it offered a comforting explanation for 'Nazi success, not in terms of superior military tactics, but as the result of the work of agents infiltrated as aliens' (Thurlow, 1999: 484).…”

Introduction to 2018 special issue of European Security: “ontological (in)security in the European Union”

“…Kinnvall 2004a, Croft 2012a, 2012b, Chernobrov 2016, as well as of the entire research field on statecraft, security issues, and diplomacy questioning realist, liberal and even constructivist theories of state agency and security (e.g. Mitzen 2006a, 2006b, Steele 2008, Rumelili 2015a, 2015b, Flockhart 2016, others have maintained that claims of ontological security foreclose important spaces of resistance, alterity, and ethical deliberations (Rossdale 2015, Browning 2016 or that research on ontological security conceptualises identity as singular and largely consistent patterns of behaviour (Lebow 2016).…”