Ontological security, myth, and existentialism
In this summary video, authors Xander Kirke and Brent J Steele discuss the key points from their new Review of International Studies article - Ontological security, myth, and existentialism.
The paper is part of a forthcoming special issue on Existentialism. It examines the existentialist themes re-emerging in Ontological Security Studies (OSS) by proposing an under-explored and overlapping terrain regarding the function of myths and ontological security.
Want to know more? You can read the full article at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210523000335
This particular article is open access, however BISA members receive access to all articles in RIS (and our other journal European Journal of International Security) as a benefit of membership. To gain access log in to your BISA account and scroll down to the 'Membership benefits' section. If you're not yet a member join today.
Abstract
This paper contributes to this special issue by examining the existentialist themes re-emerging in Ontological Security Studies (OSS) and does so by proposing an under-explored and overlapping terrain regarding the function of myths and ontological security. What Blumenberg calls the ‘absolutism of reality’ becomes something to avoid through the process of telling, retelling, and adapting myths to suit our existential needs. The paper distinguishes our existentialist intervention into OSS from recent ones within that research community and then draws examples of the work on and of myth from the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking to the need for OSS to develop an ethical-political perspective to not only explain but also change the world, the account we develop here also provides a pathway for an alternative politics based in counter-myth. It discloses, therefore, a promising and, in the face of rising authoritarianism and anti-democratic forces, necessary moral ethos regarding prescriptive ideas about what to do and how to confront and and counter the mounting challenges of global politics in the 2020s and beyond.
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