Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-s22k5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-05T18:33:42.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abulof, Uriel. 2015. The Mortality and Morality of Nations. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arfi, Badredine. 2012. Re-Thinking International Relations Theory via Deconstruction. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Berenskoetter, Felix. 2020. “Anxiety, Time, and Agency.” International Theory 12 (2): 273–90.Google Scholar
Culler, Jonathan. 2000. On Deconstruction. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1982. Margins of Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1989. “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority.’” Cardozo Law Review 11: 920–1045.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1994. Specters of Marx. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 2002. “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone.” In: Acts of Religion, edited by Anijadar, Gil, 42–101. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Feldman, Martha S., and Pentland, Brian T.. 2003. “Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (1): 94–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The Constitution of Society. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. 2001. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Herz, John H. 1962. International Politics in the Atomic Age. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hom, Andrew R., and Steele, Brent J.. 2020. “Anxiety, Time, and Ontological Security Theory's Third-Image Potential.” International Theory 12 (2): 322–36.Google Scholar
Huysmans, Jeff. 1998. “Security! What Do You Mean? From Concept to Thick Signifier.” European Journal of International Relations 42 (2): 226–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jervis, Robert. 1978. “Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma.” World Politics 30: 167–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laing, Ronald D. 1990. The Divided Self. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Lupovici, Amir. 2012. “Ontological Dissonance, Clashing Identities, and Israel's Unilateral Steps towards the Palestinians.” Review of International Studies 38: 809–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. Hillis. 2001. Speech Acts in Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mitzen, Jennifer. 2006. “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma.” European Journal of International Relations 12 (3): 341–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitzen, Jennifer, and Schweller, Randall L.. 2011. “Knowing the Unknown Unknowns: Misplaced Certainty and the Onset of War.” Security Studies 20 (1): 2–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumelili, Bahar. 2020. “Integrating Anxiety into International Relations Theory: Hobbes, Existentialism, and Ontological Security.” International Theory 12 (2): 257–72.Google Scholar
Steele, Brent J. 2008. Ontological Security in International Relations. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tillich, Paul. 1952. The Courage to Be. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth A. 1979. Theory of International Politics. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc.Google Scholar
Williams, Michael C. 2005. The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willmott, Hugh C. 1986. “Unconscious Sources of Motivation in the Theory of the Subject.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 16 (1): 105–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar