Temporal Security in IR

Abstract

The first chapter of this book theoretically conceptualizes collective memory in international relations (IR). The link between the IR discipline and the interdisciplinary collective memory concept is provided through the framework of ontological security. The inquiry begins by extrapolating the nature of ontological security and its most essential component: state identity. It then moves on to theorize collective memory as the underlying carrier of state identity. Collective memory highlights identity’s temporal dimension and manifests it within the collective frameworks of narration. At the end, a new approach, ‘temporal security’, is developed. It combines the ontological security of being with the definition of memory as being-in-time. Security-seeking behaviour for states now implies to be temporally grounded in a consistent narrative that links past, present, and future. The reference point for this as of yet untheorized security need is collective memory. Manifesting itself in the varying forms of political strategy, public identity, state behaviour, and national values, collective memory thus navigates countries through time in IR.