This thesis aims to understand how Sweden managed to renounce its long-held military non-alignment policy and identity to join the military alliance NATO in the aftermath of Russia`s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In order to find out how Sweden achieved this policy shift the thesis builds on social constructivism and studies on ontological security that focuses on the security of identities and adopts the case study method. To answer the research question, the ontological security maximization framework -which presents two complementary strategies that agents must achieve to be able to undertake change-making action- is applied to the selected speeches of Magdalena Andersson, Peter Hultqvist, and Ann Linde, the three leading Swedish politicians that were involved in the decision-making process of the policy change. Regarding the first strategy, the strategy of being, eight distinct identity-signifiers that enhance the Swedish self-esteem and ensure biographical continuity have been identified in the Swedish narrative. When it comes to the second strategy, the strategy of doing, the action “joining NATO” is evaluated positively in three different ways and this was done in a way that consolidates the strategy of being. Furthermore, by addressing the obstacles optimistically- most notably the issue with Türkiye- the three politicians have successfully maximised the Swedish ontological security, thus enabling the initiation of this fundamental policy change.

Since the end of the Cold War, security and security threats have transcended beyond the traditional security aspects due to changed global interactions in the facets of economic, political, diplomatic and even domestic policies of individual states. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has not only heightened defence and security concerns in Europe and globally but has also revived the Cold War security tensions in some way necessitating an understanding of how contemporary security threats and crisis preparedness are perceived by civilians in this modern day and age.  Building from Ontological Security theory which holds that when an individual's sense of self and stability is challenged, they experience enormous anxiety, this study examines the attitudes and perceptions of the youths (many of whom were born and raised in the post-Cold War era) on security threats as well as their knowledge and trust in the government's civil defence and crisis preparedness in Växjö, Sweden. The study's analysis concludes that, despite being barely informed on civil defence crisis preparedness, Växjö's youths regard the ongoing war in Ukraine as less threatening to their ontological security but rather other human security issues due to factors like the war's narrative bearing little relevance, youth's media scepticism and refraining from negative news. Furthermore, the findings present a dramatic range of trust among the youths in the government's competence to handle emergencies, reflecting on crisis preparedness knowledge among the youths in Växjö.

The crisis of Covid-19 put the world on hold. In many countries, borders were closed and businesses were shut for a long period of time. Countries depending on tourism were hit hard when tourists were no longer allowed to enter, leading to serious consequences worldwide. Costa Rica, being a famous ecotourism destination, was one of few countries to reopen the border after only 9 months, giving businesses a headstart in recovery. This brought both opportunities and challenges to managers dealing with the crisis. The relevance of examining crisis management within the ecotourism industry during Covid-19 is therefore tangible. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how managers in ecotourism businesses were affected in terms of ontological security and social networks while managing the Covid-19 crisis. A qualitative study has been performed, based on six semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were managers from different areas in tourism: four hotels, one restaurant and one tourist company. Chosen theories are the concept of ontological security, Steve Matthewman’s perspective on Covid-19 and the social network concept. The results show that social networks can influence the feeling of ontological security, which in turn may affect the crisis management during the Covid-19 crises. Uncertainty was a significant aspect when looking at the results.

In recent years, more research has been conducted to explain state behavior in relation to crises. Poland has taken a conservative turn since 2015, distancing itself from mainstream European strategies. This is explained by self-identity needs stemming from historical experiences and envisioned futures. The escalation of the war in Ukraine at the beginning of 2022 has impacted Polish ontological security, aligning Polish political goals with those of the European Union and Ukraine, while also confirming negative perceptions of Russia as an imperialist power. By conducting a case study on Poland using narrative analysis, three biographical narratives are identified. The war in Ukraine has deepened stories of Polish heroism, victimhood, and Poland as a progressive force or leader, implying that crisis does impact ontological security in this case. The theory of ontological security can therefore be argued to highlight mechanisms that traditional security perspectives overlook, providing a more complete picture of what shapes and motivates self-identity needs and state action.

This thesis seeks to examine and analyze the manifestations of the ontological security and self-identity anxiety of the Thai states through its rhetoric in relation to Thai and Malayu Muslims. The main question being posed in this thesis is how the Thai state justified the use of force during the Tak Bai Incident in 2004 and the Ratchaprasong bombing in 2015. This thesis examines the rhetoric of the Thai state through speeches and media before, during, and after in the selected cases. Such rhetoric involves the framing and constructions of "Thainess" or Thai identity in relation to the "other" or Thai and Malayu Muslims during the events. This framing is related to ethno, religious, and cultural nationalism and draws on those narratives. The theory that this research draws from is the Ontological Security theory by Jennifer Mitzen and Brent Steele which allows us to analyze the Thai state's actions and identity construction during the events. Ontological security is the security of the self, which all states strive for since it is linked to self-identity constructions. States will take actions that are at times detrimental to the physical self in order to protect ontological security because it is crucial to its survival. The methodological approach draws from Roxanne Lynn Doty's Discursive Practices Approach which allows us to examine how power and roles are constructed from rhetoric. The key results show that both the Tak Bai Incident and Ratchaprasong bombing disrupted the Thai state's ontological security and self-identity construction. In response, the Thai state engages in security-seeking behavior by reconstructing its self-identity in relation to the Thai and Malayu Muslims in order to regain its sense of ontological security. In doing so, the Thai state and media use rhetoric such as "Farang" and "Khaek" to define the Thai and Malayu Muslims as different and inferior subjects to the Buddhist majority. This enables the Thai state to justify its use of force in order to regain control over its compromised ontological security by way of military actions and violence. We see that the Thai state's perception of ontological security derived from its attachment to routines which had now been associated with the attachment to the conflict. This attachment had allowed the Thai state a sense of certainty since it knew how to act in the face of challenges. Attachment to routines thus allows the Thai state to dispel uncertainty which causes disruptions to its self-identity by creating anxiety. In analyzing the Thai state's rhetoric during these events, various identities of who is and is not Thai can be noted. These are then used to justify and legitimate the use of force by the Thai state as it seeks to protect and safeguard its ontological security. / Master of Arts / This thesis aims to understand how the construction of self-identity of the Thai state manifested in rhetoric. In particular, the Thai state's relationship towards the "other" or in this case the Thai and Muslim Malayu population in the three southern provinces of Thailand. This research attempts to understand how the rhetorics involving "Thainess," "Farang," and "Khaek" play a role in the conception of Thai identity. In particular, the way these rhetoric manifest themselves in both the media and the official channels. This research utilizes the Ontological Security Theory and the Discursive Practices Approach to analyze the rhetoric found in the two cases of the Tak Bai incident in 2004 and the Ratchaprasong bombing in 2015. This analyzed rhetoric allows us to understand the way ontological security manifests itself in the Thai state when its self-identity is challenged by the "other." The research results show that both cases present a challenge to the Thai state's self-identity construction and ontological security routines. Once disrupted the Thai state uses force to subdue the source of the challenge, which was the presence of the Thai and Malayu Muslims. We see that this examined rhetoric by the Thai state created an environment and conditions, which enables the justification of force to protect its sense of self-identity and ontological security. Lastly, this research is important since it allows us to understand how states, such as the Thai state, behave and justify force against minority groups. It further enables us to see a state's behavior from a physical security standpoint and an ontological security one. It shows that language can be the window to the behavior of a state and regime that feels insecure by its encounter with the "other."

During the past ten years, European politics experienced a rise of far right-wing parties because of intensified levels of insecurity among the public (Falasca & Grandien, 2017). These parties organize their political discourse around topics of nationalism and a strong opinion against immigration, the Euro and the European Union (Breeze, 2019; Häusler, 2018). One of these parties is the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which celebrated a major success in the federal elections in 2017 where it became the third largest party in the German Bundestag.   The present study aims to analyze the campaign posters of the AfD as one element of their strategic political communication for the 2017 election period in the context of the party’s growing popularity among German society. To accomplish that goal, the qualitative method of multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is applied. The MCDA analyzes written and visual content. The study seeks to identify the narratives implemented by the party and analyze them by drawing on the concept of nationalism. Furthermore, the analysis aims to identify the frames created around the main issues addressed in the party’s political agenda by discussing them in relation to the concepts of ontological security and existential anxiety by Giddens (1991) and the framing theory by Goffman (1974).   The study reveals that the AfD highlights in its political communication one main conflict: The German public versus the immigrants. The immigrants are framed as the threatening strange other whose cultural values, and religious beliefs contradict with those of the Germans who are depicted as the victims. This is achieved through the posters which seek to elicit fear and hatred towards the strange new to increase the insecurities perceived by the public. The party, on the contrary, represents itself as the savior of the German nation, its traditions, and values which they aim to maintain and protect from Muslim influence.

Despite the well-established consensus within the Swedish parliament regarding the benefits of trade with China while at the same time promoting democracy, an unexpected change arose in June 2023, when a united Swedish parliament adopted a report that identified China as a threat to Swedish interests. Consequently, this thesis seeks to address the research question: Can the Swedish political elite's changed attitude towards China be understood through the theory of ontological security? Employing a framework established in Robert J. Steele's interpretation of the ontological security theory, this thesis aims to understand this shift in attitude through a discourse analysis. By analyzing parliamentary bills, documents, and speeches delivered by the Swedish political elite, the analysis reveals a gradual transformation in the attitudes of Swedish Members of Parliament. This transformation is traced back to the prolonged imprisonment of Gui Minhai and the appointment of a new Chinese ambassador in 2017. The findings suggest that Sweden's altered stance towards China serves the purpose of reinforcing biographical narratives and safeguarding Swedish ontological security. In conclusion, this thesis presents one possible understanding of why Sweden adopted a harsher attitude against China.

Ontological security theory has served the field of international relations well by providing a theoretical lens through which the continuous behaviours of states can be understood. This study aims to contribute to furthering the development of ontological security theory by demonstrating its explanatory power even in the context of altered state behaviour. Employing a narrative methodological approach the study investigates the coexistence between states' ontological security pursuits in the form of identity continuity on one hand and political policy change on the other. This is achieved by examining political discourse surrounding a case of political policy change, the Swedish shift in stance towards NATO. The analysis of the study reveals that a pursuit of identity continuity and hence ontological security has coexisted with the political policy change, facilitated by narrative adaptations.These narrative adaptations entail making the political change compatible with the already established state identity. This allows for change in certain aspects while preserving continuity in areas necessary to fulfill the state's need for ontological security.

This thesis explores the role of hope within the Biden administration’s biographical narrative during the year after the Capitol attack on January 6th. The thesis provides for both an exploration of the case and how hope within national identity representations can be analyzed, as well as the value of hope after a disruptive event with consequences for the nation’s self-understanding. Previous research has focused mainly on fear of the outside or internal anxiety as drivers of state identity representations while implicitly assuming the occurrence of universality or a stable identity within the state. Instead, the theorizing on hope proposed by the thesis suggests that the American subject is unfinished and incomplete within its identity representations and requires hope to move forward, while also immunizing notions of fear and anxiety. While a complete identity can never be reached, American identity representations are sustained by manifesting hope for the future. Even though the American collective subject may never reach its desired unity, the hope that it someday might allow for the continuation of identity representations of the striving subject.

This thesis contributes to the existing literature by exploring the intersection between collective memory theory and ontological security theory within East Asia’s autonomous entities. It explores how varying degrees of political autonomy shape the construction of collective memory in history textbooks, navigating the dynamics in the pursuit of ontological security. Drawing from ontological security, collective memory, and autonomy literature, this thesis posits that the level of political autonomy within an entity influences the divergence or alignment of its collective memory from that of the central state in its process of ontological security seeking. The theoretical assumption for this thesis is that entities with greater political autonomy tend to construct a more distinct and independent collective memory, while those with lesser autonomy align their narratives closely with the central state. The findings suggest that Taiwan with the highest autonomy, forms the most distinct narratives from the central state, presenting Japan in a relatively positive light and depicting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a negative role. This distinct narrative reflects Taiwan’s assertion of its ontological security. Conversely, Macau with the lowest political autonomy, closely parallels the Mainland Chinese narrative, focusing predominantly on Chinese victimhood and celebrating the CCP’s heroism. Macau’s limited autonomy results in aligning its narrative closely with the central state to affirm ontological security through securing a positive relationship with the central state. Hong Kong, enjoying a comparatively higher autonomy than Macau, adopts a more nuanced approach, acknowledging Japan as a perpetrator while incorporating positive postwar Japanese imagery. Additionally, it portrays the CCP negatively in the context of war, differentiating its narrative from Mainland China. Thus, this thesis sheds light on how varying degrees of political autonomy shape ontological security pursuits, influencing the construction of collective memory.