Ontological security-seeking : national identities under stress
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Ontological security-seeking : national identities under stress
（Routledge global security studies）
Routledge, 2025
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:"This book addresses a central puzzle in ontological security theory, namely the relationship between identity continuity and change, and the role anxiety plays in fostering and inhibiting change. The work argues for a more nuanced perspective on how change and threats to national identity relate, thus advancing our understanding of the role anxiety plays in shaping state choices. The case studies of Sweden and Germany show that national identity can experience highly disruptive challenges when the external security environment changes. According to extant ontological security theory, these structural challenges should lead to heightened anxiety and identity crises as national narratives become unstable and fragile. Instead, the empirical evidence shows that states turn ontological anxiety into strategies of anxiety abatement, management, and ontological innovation. The evidence also reveals that states go to extraordinary lengths to maintain existing narratives, discursively manoeuvring between the t
Contents of Works
- Germanness and Swedishness
- The rise of the civilian power narrative
- Civilian power and defense
- Sociability and egotism : a 'powerful' Germany?
- Decline and revival of neutrality
- Neutrality narrative and stress management
- Limits to defense cooperation and the (almost) collapse of the national narrative.
