This article provides a framework for theorising ontological security-seeking in IR in an analytically complex yet non-reductionist manner. Drawing on an historical-sociological perspective, it relocates the referent object of ontological security from the state to the state–society complex, thus enabling us to elucidate the links between individual, society and the state in ontological security-seeking, and to explicate the synergism between internal and external referentiality in the constitution of self-identity. I argue that ontological security is the result of mutual reflexivity in state–society relations. Where such reflexivity is low, ontological security-seeking lapses into the securitisation of identity. This theoretical framework is illustrated in the context of Russia’s ontological security-seeking.

中文翻译：

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IR中本体安全寻求中的国家-社会复合体

本文提供了一个框架，以分析复杂但非还原论的方式将 IR 中的本体安全寻求理论化。借鉴历史—社会学的视角，将本体安全的指涉对象从国家转移到国家—社会复合体，从而阐明个体、社会和国家在本体安全寻求中的联系，阐明本体安全寻求中的个体、社会和国家之间的联系。在自我同一性的构成中，内部和外部参照性之间的协同作用。我认为本体安全是国家-社会关系中相互反思的结果。在这种反身性低的地方，本体安全寻求陷入了身份安全化。这一理论框架在俄罗斯的本体安全寻求背景下得到了说明。