Ontological security amidst fateful moments
Adjusting Hong Kong’s place in Britain’s (post-)imperial biographical narrative
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6451191 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sibei Sun (0000-0002-2707-2392, University of Macau), Weiqing Song (0000-0002-0495-443X, University of Macau) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 332-350 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Security Dialogue (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-0106 • E-ISSN: 1460-3640 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09670106251329880 |
| OpenAlex | W4410884613 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 34 |
This article examines Britain’s special relationship with Hong Kong from an ontological security perspective. By drawing on this case and revisiting key literature, it distinguishes between ‘critical situations’ and ‘fateful moments’ as different types of threats to state ontological security based on induced anxieties. In particular, it conceptualizes ‘fateful moments’ as ontological security threats that states can anticipate and adjust to before they transpire. Accordingly, two crucial events in Hong Kong’s history are examined as fateful moments: the 1997 Handover from Britain to China and the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law. An analysis of British narratives reveals that Britain’s interpretation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration’s ‘one country, two systems’ concession functions as an ontological security seeking mechanism by constructing narrative continuity between Britain’s empire and post-empire identities. Furthermore, we argue that preemptive narrative adjustments ahead of each fateful moment enabled new policy preferences, as best illustrated by Britain’s stances toward ‘British National (Overseas)’ passport holders. In addition to advancing the ontological security studies agenda, this study contributes to ongoing debates over Britain’s post-Brexit identity
Art · Literature · Narrative · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philippine History and Culture
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Brexit, existential anxiety and ontological (in)security
Modernity and self-identity
Ontological Security in International Relations
Social Theory of International Politics
China’s New United Front Work in Hong Kong
Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia
The ontological security of special relationships
Anxiety, fear, and ontological security in world politics
The unbearable lightness of being? Reconfiguring the moral underpinnings and sources of ontological security
Narrative, Ontological Security, and Foreign Policy Change
Ontological Security, Civilian Power, and German Foreign Policy Toward Russia1
To ‘educate’ Deng Xiaoping in capitalism
Women or Leaders? Practices of Narrating the United Nations as a Gendered Institution
Critical situations, fundamental questions and ontological insecurity in world politics
Beyond Diplomacy? UK Relations with China since 1997
Powellite nostalgia and racialised nationalist narratives
State personhood and ontological security as a framework of existence
Japanese revisionists and the ‘Korea threat’
Duelling Commonwealth Family of Nations Metaphors and Britain’s Post-Brexit Global Identity
Britain’s Approach to the Negotiations over the Future of Hong Kong, 1979–1982
An Analysis of Sino‐British Negotiations Over Hongkong ́s Political Reform
Global Britain and the Narrative of Empire
Mission Civilisatrice ’
Memory-Political Deterrence
Ontological Security in World Politics
Returning to the roots of ontological security
Collective memory, politics, and the influence of the past
Parameters of a national biography
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |