Description
‘The West’ today comprises an assortment of select nation-states, bound together by shared narratives that maintain the ontological security of ‘Western’ identity. Moments of intra-Western crisis, however, can reveal how these narratives strategically conceal contradictions and tensions within ‘the Western Self’. The 2018 U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is one such internal crisis in a series of critical events reverberating within the so-called West today. This crisis ruptured ‘Western’ autobiographical narratives linked to global leadership, multilateralism and liberal values, provoking ontological questions within ‘Western’ nations. The UK, as a major producer of ‘Western’ discourses – particularly through its news services – globally disseminates and normalises narratives about the ‘Self’ and ‘Others’. But how do news narratives of British national identity converge with ‘Western’ identity amidst a backdrop of internal crisis and uncertainty? This paper applies a Kleinian approach to Ontological Security Studies to understand how anxiety about the collective Selves – national and civilizational – is managed in the British press through Kleinian defence mechanisms such as idealisation, splitting, and projection. The position of ontological (in)security reveals how autobiographical narratives in British news can both separate British identity from a broader ‘Western’ identity, while simultaneously reinforcing its connection to it.
