Ethics and Ontological Security

Abstract

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Interactionist role theory meets ontological security studies: an exploration of synergies between socio-psychological approaches to the study of international relations

“…In doing so, they have not only problematized earlier tendencies in the OSL to omit, especially at the empirical level, more healthy ways by which international actors may address their experienced insecurities, but also engaged more critically with the OSL’s problematic potential for normalizing harmful ontological security-seeking behaviour. Considering the former, Chris Browning (2016, 2018a, 2018b, 2019) and Brent Steele (2013, 2019), for instance, have argued that international actors, while often seeking ontological security in deeply problematic ways, such as through the rigid pursuit of routines, the securitization of others or the development (and strengthening) of (nationalist) fantasies, also have the capacity to engage with ontological security challenges in more healthy and constructive ways.…”

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). In response to such critique we maintain that any focus on ontological securities and insecurities proceeds from a view of identity and identifications as a process of becoming rather than being.…”

Countering hybrid warfare as ontological security management: the emerging practices of the EU and NATO

“…Finally, hybrid warfare meets OS at the intersection of ethical security studies (Browning 2016;Browning and McDonald 2011). Just as OS-seeking practices need to be analysed with an eye on the ethical conundrums and dilemmas they might give rise to due to the exercise of power along the way (e.g., Mälksoo 2015; Rossdale 2015), the "social turn" accompanying the hybridisation of warfare in various empirical settings, and the consequent countering attempts of hybrid warfare, require equally intent ethical attention (see Owens 2012).…”