Ontological security, crisis and political myth: the Ukraine war and the European Union

ABSTRACT The paper’s aim is two-fold. First, it wants to explore if and how the war in Ukraine has exposed tension in the EU’s foundational myth as a political community forged in crisis with the aim to bring peace and stability to Europe. Second, it highlights how the war reveals that the EU ultimately fails to be an ontological security provider for member states and Europeans. The paradox of the EU’s myth of crisis is that it, like all foundational myths, is supposed to lead to a more secure sense of self and continuity. However, the war in Ukraine is a crisis that cannot be addressed without putting into discussion the other part of the foundational myth of how integration leads to peace and how this may help to explain limits to how much the EU can do to guarantee peace and stability.