Ontological security, cyber technology, and states’ responses

Abstract

How do interactions in the cyber domain affect states’ ontological security and how do states respond to these challenges? These are pertinent questions given the increasing influence of cyber technologies on daily life, politics, and International Relations. Over the years, state actors have faced challenges in various spheres, including security, politics, economics, and culture. However, nowadays, cyber technologies enable the emergence of effective, efficient, and powerful alternatives to the current state-system practices. This creates fundamental challenges to states’ sense of self, identity, and home, calling into question states’ dominant and ingrained narratives regarding their roles in the international arena. I suggest that the scholarship of ontological security, although rarely used in this context, provides intriguing analytical tools to explore these questions. This scholarship focuses on the actors’ ability to maintain their sense of self, allowing researchers to explore how interactions in the cyber domain challenge states’ routines, narratives, and sense of home. Furthermore, using the scholarship of ontological security to study cyber technologies can also account for states’ responses, illuminating puzzling behavior that cannot be explained fully through other perspectives.