In an era defined by insecurity, uncertainty, and increasing anxieties, ontological security has proven to be a fruitful lens for analyzing world politics. This Special Issue joins other recent compilations, contributing to the growing research agenda on ontological security and insecurity in world politics. The articles herein conceptualize and apply ontological security at the international, transnational, and state levels, oriented around the broad themes of conflict and community.
The authors draw on ontological security to shed critical light on the well-established IR concepts of revisionist states and security communities; on critical situations and eruptions of ontological insecurity at the collective level, and by; examining how the state and transnational affective currents play roles in ontological (in)security at the individual level.
The special issue also includes an article by Maysam Behravesh, entitled “State revisionism and ontological (in)security in international politics: the complicated case of Iran and its nuclear behavior”.