Homeland security: territorial myths and ontological security in the European Union

Abstract

The EU may be a sui generis polity but it has not escaped the challenge of establishing narratives that help define its territoriality. Political narratives about territoriality, especially political myths, are important instruments for political communities to develop ontological security. The article argues that the European Union faced a dilemma in the refugee crisis in balancing its foundational values with a narrative about a territory with managed external borders. The EU’s territorial myth is not entirely successful in that it lacks some key narrative forms that are essential for widely diffused myths. Territorial myths are not just about establishing borders but also about defining the community; so long as this remains ill-defined, the paper argues, territorial myths will contribute in a limited way to providing the ontological security to address pressing challenges.

Keywords:

• Political narrative
• myth
• ontological security
• territoriality

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Kalypso Nicolaidis, Joseph Lacey, Gérard Bouchard and participants of the European Boundaries workshop for their very helpful comments.