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 self‐affirming 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.

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