Ontological security-seeking: national identities under stress

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 turned the tide for many European countries when it came to their security policies. Ontological security-seeking offers a new way to understand these changes, using the case-studies of Sweden and Germany. As Regina Karp observes, both countries saw significant policy changes as a result of the invasion. Sweden abandoned a decades-long policy of military non-alignment and Germany's Zeitenwende speech was meant to mark a new era of security policy for one of the European Union's largest political powers. Using ontological security as a framework, Karp traces how these states balanced continuity with change during the Cold War and beyond. She further demonstrates how ‘ontological ambiguity’ was a useful tool for both states when faced with global structural changes (p. 2). In doing so, Karp stakes a claim about the role of structural and other external material factors in the ontological security dynamics of states, thus adding to the literature on the interplay between the material and ideational dimensions in ontological security studies. Karp argues that the interpretation of structural change determines ‘what adaptation moves are necessary and which are not’ (p. 26).

Karp begins with an analysis of German identity, and specifically the frequently cited ‘civilian power identity’, which was key for the country's transition to the post-Second World War world (pp. 29–41). She traces the civilian power narrative through the Cold War and demonstrates well how the structural environment influenced the way civilian power was articulated and performed. Her analysis of the debates about post-Cold War German identity are particularly apt and reflect the complicated position of upholding a structurally specific self-narrative in a changing international environment. Some of the discourses about the post-Cold War identity mirror the post-Zeitenwende discourses, and it would have been interesting to draw out parallels between the two to a slightly greater extent. Nonetheless, over three chapters Karp does a good job of showing how the foreign policy elite and the state structures sought to find continuity. Towards the end of the book, she links this discussion with the current situation in Ukraine in a compelling manner.

The next set of chapters revolves around Sweden's narrative of neutrality, or military non-alignment. Convincingly, Karp demonstrates how the narrative of neutrality emerged and affixed itself to Swedish identity, owing partly to Cold War politics and the perceived moral superiority of neutrality, and partly to an effort to preserve a sense of distinctiveness. Like Germany, Sweden saw significant changes after the Cold War and a tension emerged between remaining distinct and not being left behind. Neutrality further suffered from challenges associated with European Union membership, changing security dynamics and other internal and external pressures. However, the narrative for retaining non-alignment still served to preserve this policy. Karp's argument that the mythology of Swedish distinctiveness was a significant driver of the preservation of this policy is apt, but I also wonder to what extent this need to preserve distinctiveness is uniquely Swedish, or whether it may be relevant for the ontological security dynamics of other actors, such as the EU or NATO. The examples given to demonstrate the ‘durability of the national self-narrative’ are similarly well suited to capturing the importance of ontological ambiguity (p. 145).

Overall, this book makes an exciting contribution to the growing literature on how ontological security can influence foreign policy and security decision-making. While there is room for a greater comparison across the two case-studies presented in this book, examining Germany and Sweden separately in this way illustrates how ontological security dynamics unfold over time. Indeed, the insights from Karp's analysis demonstrate that meaning does not remain fixed within identity frameworks and that major structural disruptions can affect countries in various ways. As Karp notes in her concluding thoughts, despite the war in Ukraine and the panoply of other crises facing Europe, neither state has turned its back on the ‘established meaning of what it means to be German or Swedish’ (p. 159). The growing engagement with material and structural concerns within ontological security studies points to a more holistic research method, and this book offers many insights for this undertaking.