Balancing Identity: The Sino-Soviet Split, Ontological Security, and North Korean Foreign Policy

Abstract

Scholarship on Ontological Security (OS) 'the security of being', reveals how national narratives delineate communities within which individuals have OS and how the corresponding self-interest in upholding these narratives influence foreign policy. A heretounexplored implication of these works is how the desire to maintain national narratives influences decisions on balancing and bandwagoning. The article uses Aron's classical realism to develop an OS theory of balancing, drawing upon what it argues are his 'early OS intuitions'. Specifically, using Aron's concept of secular religion, the article shifts the analytical focus of current ideological approaches of balancing towards the 'secular religion' of nationalism. It argues decisions on balancing and bandwagoning are made in reference to perceived (in)compatibility between national narratives and the distribution of power. The case of North Korean responses to the Sino-Soviet split demonstrates the utility of an OS perspective of balancing compared to traditional balance of power formulations. IntroScholarship on ontological security (OS), the security of being, 1 reveals how national narratives delineate communities within which individuals have OS and how the corresponding self-interest in upholding these narratives influence foreign policy. 2 The research program, however, so far has not taken on one of the core theoretical questions in international relations (IR): Why do states balance and bandwagon? This article accordingly shows the power of an OS perspective by addressing the hard case of why small states decide 1

The unbearable lightness of being? Reconfiguring the moral underpinnings and sources of ontological security

“…256 Zarakol 2017. 257 Bolton, 2021b. expand how we perceive the sources of OS by shifting focus to how the sacred and the moral order gives meaning to members of society and facilitates feelings of warmth and strength. Accordingly, OS becomes understood in relation to this religious sensibility and how actors strive to act faithfully within and towards a dynamic moral order interrelated with the sacred, with processes of revitalization allowing for varying degrees of social and political change.…”

Ontological security, cyber technology, and states’ responses

“…Third, cyber technologies challenge the state’s ability to monopolize the role of institutionalized ontological security provider (Zarakol, 2017: 49). Scholars argue that individuals’ ontological security is traditionally attained though the (nation) state, which allows “vicariously identifying with broader communities” (Browning, 2018a: 339) and thus constituting a (nation’s) biographical narrative and individuals’ sense of belonging and existential continuity (Berenskötter, 2014: 264, 270; Bolton, 2021b: 276; Marlow, 2002: 255–256; Mitzen, 2006b: 352; Krolikowski, 2008: 128; Skey, 2013: 87). Cyber technologies challenge the state’s traditional role by advancing alternative means for individuals to attain their ontological security needs.…”

“…Home, therefore, is closely related to actors’ emotions and values (Bolton, 2021b: 276). As Berenskötter (2014) notes, “spaces gain meaning and come to matter because we associate significant experiences with them” (p. 277).…”