Description
Ontological security research has emphasized the importance of emotions for ontological security, suggesting both that it matters in general whether or not actors feel ontologically secure and more specifically highlighting the role of particular emotions such as anxiety, shame and pride. This paper, by contrast, proposes an approach where emotions are even more central to ontological security. Specifically, we suggest that a new understanding of ontological security can be developed from the vantage point of the politics of emotion, that is that actors fight not only over material resources, power and so on, but that there is also a distributive politics concerned with who gets to feel what, when, and how, and whose feelings matter. We thus propose that actors are likely to be ontologically insecure when they do not get to feely express the emotions, they believe themselves to be entitled to or when they are subjected to unwanted emotional obligations and the need to show emotional deference to other’s feelings. These arguments are illustrated through a variety of examples from contemporary international politics, ranging from memory-related disputes, the victimization of civilians in war, and the recent burnings of the Quran.
