CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Cupac, Jelena |
|---|---|
| Title | Ontological Security of International Organizations: Why Did Post-Cold War NATO Decide to Intervene "Out-of-Area"? |
| Summary | This thesis represents a conceptualization exercise that sought to answer the question of whether it is possible to speak in security terms with respect to such entities of international relations as international organizations; whether international organizations can be regarded as the referent objects of security. This question has been provoked by the recent developments in the discipline of security studies that strives to “deepen” and “broaden” the concept of security so that it is no longer exclusively focused on states as referent objects and military power as threat. I have stayed on the course of this enterprise and accordingly I have developed an argument that with the help of the ontological security concept even international organizations can be seen as entities with security problems. This argument has been developed in three stages. First, I have conceived of international organization’s identity through the purpose it fulfils. Second, this entailed the conclusion that stable purpose renders international organization ontologically secure and vice verse; absent or unstable purpose renders it ontologically insecure or in other words “anxious”. In the third stage, I have made an inquiry into the nature of the behavior of the ontologically insecure organization through the combination of Jenifer Mitzen’s exogenous (“role identity”) and Brent J. Steele’s endogenous (“intrinsic identity”) accounts about identity formation. Accordingly, I have argued the behavior of ontologically insecure international organization is first and foremost identity not interest driven behavior. These propositions were then put against the case of the post-Cold War NATO. |
| Supervisor | Roe, Paul |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/cupac_jelena.pdf |
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