Crisis and Ontological Insecurity

Serbia's Anxiety over Kosovo's Secession
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-3-030-20669-7
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 202 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 286 g

Reihe: Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations

This book develops a novel way of thinking about crises in world politics. By building on ontological security theory, this work conceptualises critical situations as radical disjunctions that challenge the ability of collective agents to ‘go on’. These ontological crises bring into the realm of discursive consciousness four fundamental questions related to existence, finitude, relations and autobiography. In times of crisis, collective agents such as states are particularly attached to their ontic spaces, or spatial extensions of the self that cause collective identities to appear more firm and continuous. These theoretical arguments are illustrated in a case study looking at Serbia’s anxiety over the secession of Kosovo. The author argues that Serbia’s seemingly irrational and self-harming policy vis-à-vis Kosovo can be understood as a form of ontological self-help. It is a rational pursuit of biographical continuity and a healthy sense of self in the face of an ontological crisis triggered by the secession of a province that has been constructed as the ontic space of the Serbian nation since the late 19th century.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ejdus, Filip

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Außenpolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Konflikt- und Friedensforschung, Rüstungskontrolle, Abrüstung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. Crisis, Anxiety and Ontological Insecurity.- 3. The Construction of Kosovo as Serbia’s Ontic Space.- 4. Disintegration of Yugoslavia and Serbia’s Anxiety over Kosovo.- 5. Critical Situation: Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence.- 6. Dissonance and Avoidance: Serbia’s Quest for a New Normal.- 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Filip Ejdus is Associate Professor of Security Studies in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.