Description
In the International Relations literature, ontological security provision and seeking are primarily discussed as a domain of modern states, which provide order and stability to their citizens in an insecure world. As Huysmans (1998) argues, the legitimacy of the state is based on this very responsibility. This article will attempt to illustrate how responsibilities that are directly linked to the legitimacy of a state's agency are not solely bound by its sovereign territory. It concentrates on the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a non-western country that attempts to reconcile its agency of a modern state with the revolutionary mission of protecting the rights of the oppressed beyond national borders.
The study will demonstrate that the legitimacy of the Iranian state and, accordingly, its ontological security are tied to this double responsibility. It will look into the concept of Umm al-Qura that encompasses this notion and tries to reconcile the potential contradictions between protecting national interests and pursuing revolutionary ideals. In this way, the paper will show how seeking and providing ontological security are carried out by a non-western actor that socializes in the international order and at the same challenges some of its key tenets.
