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Security qua existential surviving (while becoming otherwise) through performative leaps of faith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2020

Badredine Arfi Open the ORCID record for Badredine Arfi [Opens in a new window]
Badredine Arfi*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: barfi@ufl.edu
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Abstract

This paper analyzes the idea of ‘ontological security’ to make three arguments: (a) that to be secure in one's being is paradoxical in the sense that to be is to survive while always becoming otherwise, (b) that to survive is to be anxious, and (c) that to get attached to such a security of one's always becoming otherwise is to engage in performative leaps of faith in the security of one's existence. This framework is used to suggest a new interpretation of the security dilemma.

Keywords

security dilemmaontological securityperformative leap of faithbecomingsurvival
Type
Symposium: Anxiety, Fear, and Ontological Security in World Politics: Edited by Catarina Kinnvall and Jennifer Mitzen
Information
International Theory , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , July 2020 , pp. 291 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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