Ontological security, the struggle for recognition, and the maintenance of security communities

Abstract

What is the role of ontological security in the constitution and maintenance of security communities? Traditionally, security community members are seen to maintain dependable expectations of peaceful change, rooted in mutual trust and a sense of ‘we-ness’. Thus, they seem ontologically secure in their collective identity. I argue, however, that security communities need not only to reinforce a sense of ‘we-ness’ but also to recognise members’ distinctiveness. Denying this recognition threatens the self, undermining trust and eroding ‘we-ness’, while intersubjective expectations and practices that routinely legitimise members’ distinctiveness allow for a stable sense of self within the community. Thus, processes of (de)legitimation of distinctiveness vis-a-vis a collective identity constitute and maintain communities or explain their breakdown. The paper makes three main contributions: First, with regard to the ontological security literature, it highlights that routinising relations with others is an ongoing struggle for recognition, a process that may in fact be highly conflictual. Second, with regard to the security community literature, it theorises the overlap and tension between members’ sense of self and their collective identity. Third, it argues that focusing on struggles for recognition and different layers of identity provides better purchase for understanding challenges to cohesion in security communities.