This thesis analyzes how the need for ontological security (OS), the ‘security of being’,impacts the foreign policy decision-making of states. Traditional security studies focus primarily on physical threats to the state. By contrast, an OS framework argues individuals feel secure when they are able to maintain communal narrative. This narrative in turn becomes the lens through which policymakers, and thus states, analyze events, while also becoming a potential source of conflict if challenged. Therefore, while physical security is still important, one is better positioned to account for perceptions of physical (and non physical) threats, and subsequent policies seemingly contradictory to traditional security studies, by employing an OS framework. While this will be explored within the context of the DPRK, the applicability of such a framework is far greater, holding key insights for International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). DPRK narrative formed out of the postcolonial nationalism of Japanese occupation, culminating into the hyper-nationalist ideology of Juche. North Korea’s seemingly ‘abnormal’ behavior might in turn be indicative of its unique national narrative and history of colonization and humiliation, leading to a different set of behavioral expectations than states whose narratives do not encompass such stories or reference points. While not all states are expected to act in the same manner as North Korea, the framework would expect them to defend and promote their respective national narratives. Moreover, while narratives can double as sources of legitimacy, as seen increasingly in the DPRK, this in no way detracts from, and merely compounds, the emphasis on narrative maintenance. Examining the historical record, it is argued the OS framework is consistently better at accounting for DPRK policies than traditional security studies. Therefore, more broadly in FPA, by taking seriously group narrative as a key component of OS, one can better account for perceptions and foreign policy decision-making.

This dissertation aims at exploring and analysing the effects of Japan&rsquo / s trust-based relations in the region of East Asia in the post-Cold War period within the framework of its anti-militaristic state identity and outlook. The main research question is based on how the Japanese policy makers constructed the meaning of the post-Cold War period, opening the ways and ideas to solidify the anti-militaristic state identity and posture. In this sense, Japan provides a significant case study for examining ontological security. The main argument of dissertation is based on building up Japan&rsquo / s ontological security structure in the regional context. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan has pursued an anti-militaristic state identity and posture. This attitude has been the guiding principle of Tokyo&rsquo / s foreign and security policy. In this dissertation, for the continuance of anti-militaristic identity successfully in the post-Cold War period, Japanese policy decision-makers have both configured and further sustained the country&rsquo / s trust-based relations with neighbouring countries in the region. This dissertation was analysed under the five main headings except the introduction chapter: (1) The historical background telling the story of anti-militaristic identity and posture of Japan, (2) Japan&rsquo / s emerging human security agenda in the Post-Cold War period, (3) Japan&rsquo / s cooperative initiatives at the regional level by focusing in particular on APEC and ARF. (4) Japan&rsquo / s relations with the significant others for its identity preservation. (5) The conclusions.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain why China put so much emphasizes on the Taiwan issue in their relations with the U.S. This will be explored by looking at what elements are affecting the commitment to the Taiwan question in Sino-American relations and how this can be explained by using ontological terms such as "rooted identity" and "significant others". Two key elements has been identified to analyze this; victimization and legitimacy. To evaluate the subject two research questions will be used; how can legitimacy and victimization explain China’s commitment to the Taiwan question when it comes to Sino-American relations? What is the connection between legitimacy, victimization and the PRC’s rooted identity? Policy-statement and official documents will be used to sheed light on the Taiwan-questions affects on Sino-American relations from an ontological security theory perspective. The thesis will argue that the PRC’s early history has great effects on their commitment to this issue and that legitimacy and victimization is affecting China’s commitment to Taiwan to the extent that it cannot accept an independent Taiwan. Hence this issue will continue to have great impact on China’s foreign relations, especially with the U.S. However, despite strong rhetoric’s China does not necessarily need to achieve unification with Taiwan in the near future.

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Background: Housing continues to be one of the most significant unmet needs for many people living with HIV/AIDS in British Columbia. While there has been a focus on documenting the material aspects of housing and housing extremes (i.e., homelessness), there are important gaps in our understanding of the complex relationship between housing and health for people living with HIV/AIDS. The aim of this research was to identify what “home” meant for people living with HIV/AIDS across a continuum of housing/living situations, the ways in which people living with HIV/AIDS construct meanings of home, and how these factors interact with their (physical, mental, and emotional) health and wellbeing. Methods: This thesis reports on a secondary analysis of individual interviews from the Positive Living, Positive Homes (PLPH) community-based research study. For the PLPH study, community-based research approaches were used to explore a variety of lived experiences across a continuum of housing situations, while promoting collaborative inquiry among community and academic research team members. For this analysis, a purposively selected sample of 10 transcripts was drawn from 53 semi-structured qualitative interviews with people living with HIV/AIDS in Greater Vancouver (GV). Transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, adopting constant comparative and other coding techniques from a grounded theory approach to explore how people constructed the meaning of home, and how people living with HIV/AIDS perceived the various elements of their home environment to interact with their health and wellbeing. Descriptive thematic coding was augmented with higher-level conceptual coding to further develop over-arching conceptual themes. Some participatory analysis elements, including involvement of a community advisory committee (CAC), were included in the analysis process to allow for collaborative inquiry, and to augment and confirm results. Results: The participants (5 Caucasians, 3 Indigenous persons, 1 Chinese-Canadian and 1 African refugee; 5 females, 1 trans-female, and 4 males) lived in a range of housing situations (market rental, subsidized, supportive, and precarious housing). Results from a thematic analysis showed that even when people had access to four-walled housing structures, they didn’t necessarily feel that their living environment was safe, secure, or conducive to having their health and social needs met. Emerging themes highlighted how people define home and their conditions for this designation revealed the ways in which people manage their living spaces to foster feelings of autonomy, security, constancy, and opportunities to strengthen their identity. Discussion: Understanding the distinction between housing and home, and the meaningful dimensions of peoples’ living environments, can help improve options for appropriate housing by moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Furthermore, collaborative inquiry may help address the action-oriented needs of the research findings through community-academic partnerships, knowledge sharing, and knowledge translation activities. / Graduate / 2019-04-23

This study explores how the concept of security is presented in current American action movies.This study will use the movie Zero Dark Thirty as an illustrative example to examine the concept ofsecurity during the ’War on Terror’-era. The study will use qualitative content analysis in order toexamine the concept of security.

The concept of ontological security has grown extensively in the International Relationsliterature, owing to the new explanations it generates for states’ security- and identity-relatedbehavior. In the process, however, the concept has become sprawling, vague and incoherent,due to the multitude of different understandings of the concept. To improve the concept’sadequacy, counter the risk of conceptual stretching, and provide the foundation for a commonresearch agenda, this essay constructs a typology to divide and classify the ontological securityliterature in IR. The typology’s main contribution is the dimension of ontological insecuritymechanisms, understood as the different ways that the ontological security of an agent can bethreatened, and the different types of existential anxieties that follow. To test and illustrate thistypology, the essay conducts an empirical case study of Russia’s engagement in the conflict inSyria since 2015. The results strongly indicate the presence of all ontological insecuritymechanisms, thus clearly implying that Russian behavior in Syria is driven by ontologicalsecurity concerns. The findings also demonstrate the typology’s usefulness and fruitfulness inmore closely specifying the nature of the ontological insecurity in particular cases.

To fully acknowledge the complexity of the climate change, responses to climate change needs to be redefined, taking into consideration social aspects.  In this study, I explored the social aspect of ontological security defined as a lens to understand high emission lifestyles. The aim of this study was to explore how ontological security helps to explain high emission lifestyles and explore what ontological security suggest in terms of policies addressing climate change emissions directed at high emission lifestyles. The study was conducted as a case study with a qualitative method where eight interviewees living in a high emission lifestyle region were selected from a combination of convenience and snowball sampling. The interviews were then analyzed based on the ontological security lens that was created before the interviews. The findings illustrate that being ontologically secure for people with high emission lifestyles could mean being attached to a lifestyle that is threatening the climate and that this attachment makes it hard to move away from unsustainable behaviours since that would risk reducing their ontological security. This indicates that their behavior is a cultural trait and ontological security show that the required change on individual level requires more than them just changing by individual choice. Based on the findings of the study, I argue that ontological security provides valuable insights within the social field of climate change and valuable insights in policy development.

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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Tattoos, a permanent body modification that has frequently been associated with deviance and lower class sub-cultures, have become increasingly popular in the United States since the early 1990’s. In my thesis I examine the shared worldviews of individuals who obtain tattoos by conducting an analysis of six internet communities that promote this sub-culture in order to understand how cultural influences provide the impetus to create self-identity through inscribing the body. I will argue that individuals who commit to a permanent tattoo may be motivated by the need to create self identity.