Description
The field of Ontological Security Studies (OSS) has seen a proliferation of innovative analytical frameworks exploring the relationship between emotions, identity, and international policies. Yet, the literature remains predominantly anchored in subject-centred approaches. Indeed, the scholarship residually echoes Giddens' influential conceptualisation of ontological (in)security as a sense of continuity and order, integral to the self and social identity emanating from a subject whose agency is geared towards seeking or avoiding it. This can be problematic because, by presupposing the subject, one can foreclose and repress emerging subjectivities, eventually imposing the means through which a stable self can be achieved. This panel explores alternative formulations and critical approaches to OSS that challenge the Giddensian idea of subject. It builds on emerging literature that has found inspiration in Deleuze, Lacan, and Melanie Klein to explore the psychic forces shaping world politics decentring approach to subjectivity. In doing so, this panel contributes to a more pluralistic approach to IR, thereby shedding light on the psycho-emotional dynamics shaping the international system.
