Ontological Security

This article outlines the theoretical foundations and the themes covered by this special issue. By focusing on securitization of historical memory, our goal is to contribute to Critical Security studies by highlighting the potential of securitization of memory as an emerging research program in this field. A state’s history and how it is presented, interpreted, altered, and contested form an essential element of its identity. In securitized contexts, historical memory becomes a security issue when both state and non-state actors engage in “defending memory”—a situation when “our” past is viewed as misunderstood by “Others”, and it becomes critical to defend “our” memory, which is seen as essential for the survival of “our” state. Employing the notion of “defending memory” enriches the study of crises in international relations, allowing us to conceptualize them as engines of new discourses. These theoretical insights are tested by case studies of memory politics in Germany, Azerbaij...

This paper examines Turkey's efforts to establish itself as a legitimate actor of the international order through an analysis of visits to Turkey by the heads of state of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Transjordan in the Republic's first decade. It argues that these diplomatic encounters functioned as tools of status seeking, through which early Republican elites sought to stage, affirm and legitimize Turkey's position within a hierarchical international order structured by distinctions between Western and non-Western modernities. Drawing on archival documents and newspaper coverage, the article analyzes how these visits were instrumentalized as tools of public diplomacy, conceptualizing them as choreographed spectacles deploying spatial transformation, institutional transformation and socio-cultural transformation to communicate Turkey's desired civilizational alignment with Western modernity. By foregrounding the symbolic and performative dimensions of diplomatic practice, the article contributes to debates on public diplomacy and status, demonstrating how modern identity was staged during periods of state transformation.

Antarctica is characterized as environmentally hostile, where human existence is entirely artificial and transient. This paper examines how the continent’s roughly 90 recognized Historic Sites and Monuments (HSMs) function as psychological and geopolitical anchors that stabilize the scientific identity of its researcher communities. Drawing on Jane Grenville’s (2007) concept of heritage as a psychological ‘bulwark’ and Filip Ejdus’s (2017) notion of ‘ontic spaces’, the study argues that the preservation of material culture, ranging from the thrilling wooden huts of the ‘Heroic Age’ to technological ruins; provides the ontological security necessary to inhabit an extreme environment. A critical component of this analysis is the framing of the HSMs under the Antarctic Treaty System as a ‘heritage of reconciliation’ emerging from the Second World War. By tracing the trail of the secret British mission Operation Tabarin (1944) and its subsequent transformation into a scientific regime, it demonstrates how the infrastructure of conflict was repurposed into monuments of peace, such as Port Lockroy (HSM 61). The paper also explores the legacy of the Japanese Antarctic Expedition (1910–1912) led by Nobu Shirase and monuments like the Fukushima Cairn (HSM 2), arguing they provide a ‘lineage of capability’ that challenges Western domination. Finally, the study positions these sites as ‘Monuments of the End of the World’ within the Anthropocene. As climate change destabilizes Antarctic ice, the act of caring for decaying heritage becomes a form of essential hope and resilience. The paper concludes that the Antarctic model of international stewardship offers a primary blueprint for the future management of human heritage in outer space.

This article analyzes the continuation of anti-Armenian sentiments and irredentist narratives in post-2020 Azerbaijan through the lens of the Ontological Security Concept. Despite achieving military gains and territorial control in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s national identity construction policy continues to rely on portraying Armenians as the primary ‘Other’. This study highlights how persistent conflict, state rhetoric, and redefined pseudohistory-based irredentist narratives serve as tools for internal cohesion and addressing ontological anxieties for state elites. The article argues that Azerbaijan’s policy is fundamentally rooted in identity and ontological concerns, affecting prospects for sustainable peace in the region.

Prevailing models of loneliness treat it as a deficit of social contact, a problem of proximity, quantity, or social skill. This paper proposes a categorically different framework: the Perceptual Mirror Theory, which argues that for a significant and underserved subset of the population, loneliness is not a social condition but a perceptual one. Its origin is not the absence of people but the absence of people with sufficient perceptual range to confirm what is actually there. The central claim of the theory is this: loneliness at its deepest level is what happens when the self loses its sense of being real to others, and therefore begins to lose its sense of being real at all. Not merely unseen. Unconfirmed. The theory draws a precise distinction between three forms of loneliness, social, emotional, and perceptual, and argues that perceptual loneliness operates through a distinct mechanism, produces distinct neurological signatures, and requires categorically different conditions for resolution. It cannot be solved by adding more people. It requires people of sufficient range. Drawing primarily on the body of work of Carl Jung, including Psychological Types, Memories Dreams and Reflections, The Red Book, and the Collected Works, the theory maps its core claims onto four Jungian concepts: the introverted intuitive type as the profile of the chronically unconfirmed; individuation as the drive that cannot complete without an adequate mirror; the Persona as the contraction mechanism through which the complex self makes itself legible at the cost of accuracy; and the Wounded Healer as the paradoxical figure who gives fluently what they have been given almost never. Jung's own life is examined as the theory's most thoroughly documented case study. Six additional historical cases, Tesla, Van Gogh, Nietzsche, Dickinson, Turing, and Weil, are examined for the precision with which they illustrate different responses to the same underlying condition. The paper addresses the question of resolution directly and honestly: what genuine confirmation requires, what it feels like when it occurs, whether it accumulates, and what becomes available to the self that stops making its forward motion contingent on a world not yet equipped to receive it. The Perceptual Mirror Theory does not derive from the existing literature on loneliness. It proposes a framework the literature has not yet assembled: one visible in Jung's work, in the historical record, and in the interior experience of a population that has lacked both the diagnosis and the language for what it has been living with.

This monograph posits a fundamental ontological shift in the architecture of contemporary information-exchange systems, theorizing that the modern cognitive economy has reached a terminal state of extractive hyperreality. By deconstructing the Representational Fallacy, a condition in which the symbolic simulation of value is systematically privileged over the underlying physiological and ecological substrate, this research demonstrates how current organizational communication strategies function as parasitic apparatuses that modulate the human nervous system. We argue that these mechanisms, by prioritizing attention-capture heuristics, have induced a state of chronic cognitive alienation, effectively fracturing the human subject from their own capacity for eudaimonic resonance.
To address this structural instability, the work introduces a normative framework for the reclamation of cognitive sovereignty through a synthesis of 4E cognition (Embodied, Embedded, Enacted, Extended), complex systems theory, and phenomenological inquiry. Central to this theoretical intervention is the concept of Meaning-Capital, a multi-scalar metric of systemic vitality that measures an entity’s capacity to support nervous system regulation and foster genuine human flourishing rather than abstract, commodity-bound desire.
The research establishes a Living Systems operational model, which challenges the traditional, siloed methodologies of communicative theory by treating organizational identity as a dynamic, responsive organism deeply coupled with its social and ecological niches. By operationalizing frameworks that bridge Western critical theory and Eastern philosophical praxis, the study provides a robust scaffold for the transition from extractive communication to regenerative resonance. This intervention aims to fundamentally alter the discourse of information exchange, positioning it as an ethical project rather than a commercial utility, and establishing the necessary conceptual foundations for researchers and practitioners dedicated to constructing cognitively resilient environments in a post-hyperreal landscape.

The Kurdish Initiative, led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed to integrate the Kurds who constitute the majority in many provinces of the Southeast but are considered a minority within the national framework of the Republic of Türkiye into the system and to reduce the influence of organizations like the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), which has been a source of conflict in the country for thirty years. However, in later stages, the AKP administration pursued a rational actor approach on behalf of the Republic of Türkiye, ultimately seeking to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state, whether through cross-border operations in Syria or occasional targeted operations against high-ranking PKK leaders in Northern Iraq.

As global discourse increasingly frames humanity as "hackable biological algorithms" and seeks to govern the digital age through rigid, emotionless cryptographic matrices, a critical ontological gap emerges: the omission of the human conscience. This paper critiques the phenomenon of "algorithmic intoxication," wherein technocratic models prioritize pure Intellect (I) and computational Power (P) without the moral grounding of the Heart (H), inevitably leading to systemic entropy (I + P - H = Entropy). In response to the growing threat of automated legal systems and digital dictatorships, this paper introduces the "Heartware" architecture—a novel ethical paradigm rooted in Abai Kunanbaev’s philosophy of the "Tolyq Adam" (Complete Human). By establishing the equation I + P + H = Human Excellence, the study argues that true ontological security cannot be achieved through code alone. Instead, it posits Eastern wisdom as the "Third Teacher" necessary to harmonize modern artificial intelligence with human morality. The Heartware framework offers a conceptual blueprint to ensure that technological advancement serves to elevate the human spirit rather than enslave it to an algorithm.

As global discourse increasingly frames humanity as "hackable biological algorithms" and seeks to govern the digital age through rigid, emotionless cryptographic matrices, a critical ontological gap emerges: the omission of the human conscience. This paper critiques the phenomenon of "algorithmic intoxication," wherein technocratic models prioritize pure Intellect (I) and computational Power (P) without the moral grounding of the Heart (H), inevitably leading to systemic entropy (I + P - H = Entropy). In response to the growing threat of automated legal systems and digital dictatorships, this study introduces the "Heartware" architecture—a novel ethical paradigm rooted in Abai Kunanbaev’s philosophy of the "Tolyq Adam" (Complete Human). By establishing the equation I + P + H = Human Excellence, this paper argues that true ontological security cannot be achieved through code alone. Instead, it posits Eastern wisdom as the "Third Teacher" necessary to harmonize modern artificial intelligence with human morality. The Heartware framework offers a conceptual blueprint to ensure that technological advancement serves to elevate the human spirit rather than enslave it to an algorithm.

Contemporary autonomous weapons and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems lack a mathematically rigorous framework capable of embedding ethical constraints as intrinsic geometric properties of their decision logic rather than as posthoc software filters. This paper introduces Axiomatic Dynamic Conscience (ADC)—a formal logic architecture that unifies (i) a vector-based streaming inference engine (Stream Function), (ii) an
immutable Mathematical Constitution acting as an axiomatic boundary space, (iii) a Dynamic Conscience Operator that projects every candidate action onto the constitutional manifold, (iv) an entropic decay mechanism (Logical Evaporation) providing natural knowledge management, (v) a Reflexive Defense Layer for nonlethal autonomous survival, and (vi) an Axiomatic Purge Protocol for ontological self-preservation against adversarial capture. We state and prove five foundational theorems governing constitutional safety, completeness, traceability, graceful degradation, and axiomatic
inviolability. The framework is applied to a UAV border-security scenario and evaluated through a simulation of the Critical Threshold Scenario (civilian proximity engagement). ADC is shown to be constitutionally safe by construction: any action vector that violates the Mathematical Constitution is mapped to NULL (the logical impossibility space), rendering it physically un-executable at the hardware level. This work opens a previously undefined sub-field of formal logic lying at the intersection of streaming logic, constrained optimisation, and applied ethics, which we term Axiomatic Human-Centric Streaming Logic (AHCSL).

This paper examines the status of the memory of the Filipina "Comfort Women" following its appropriation into the state's biographical narrative (or history) in the 1990s. In tracing how this memory has been appropriated and expurgated by the state from its history, I exhibit that a memory's status within the state's biographical narrative is not static but rather dynamic due to changes in international structure and in the domestic dialectical community. Furthermore, I extend that though a state may attempt to expurgate such memories which it has already appropriated, it does not lead to the total erasure of such memories from the state's history. Instead, these memories still leave traces in this attempted reorganized biographical narrative, placing such memories in a status of in-between, neither memory nor history, a state of liminality. This paper therefore is an exploration towards a theory of liminal memory, through the case study of the Filipina "Comfort Women" memory.

This article reports on the lives of the remaining rent-controlled (regulated) tenants in England’s private rental sector. Although small in number, this group is central to discussions on housing precarity, as they benefit from secure tenancies and limits on the rent they pay. The article considers what it means to have security in a private rental sector that is more broadly characterised by pervasive insecurity, high costs and poor conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 regulated tenants, and their life stories were discussed in order to build effective understanding of psycho-social and ontological security. The article presents the concept of ‘uncertain refuge’ to capture the way that even protected tenants appear, in the accounts of participants, to be beset by subtle forms of anxiety, displacement pressures and the difficulty of making lifelong homes. Thus, regulated tenancies only offer partial forms of ontological security. This concept helps us to think through the difficulties of achieving deeper forms of housing security in a sector that, arguably, is ultimately not capable of offering a sense of futurity for its residents. These conclusions have wider international relevance given global concerns around insecurities in the private rental sector, and the effectiveness of regulatory controls.

This article examines the populist securitization of migration in Turkey through Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection, arguing that refugees are discursively constructed as the 'abject other,' contaminating the imagined national body. Far-right actors normalize exclusionary politics by mobilizing affects of disgust, fear, and anger to dramatize crisis, scapegoat refugees for socioeconomic grievances, and demand extraordinary measures. Drawing on discourse analysis (2011-2025), the study traces how metaphors of dirt, invasion, and purification are translated into securitizing logics. This dynamic is crystallized in the discourse of the Victory Party (Zafer Partisi) and its leader Ümit Özdağ, whose rhetoric diffuses contagiously across the political spectrum. Integrating Kristeva's psychoanalytic framework with scholarship on populism and securitization, the article theorizes how affective economies of revulsion underpin exclusionary politics. The findings reveal a paradox: farright actors in Turkey remain electorally weak yet discursively hegemonic, illuminating affect-driven populist securitization in non-Western contexts and its global implications.

This article offers a structural critique of the postmodern thesis of the "end of grand narratives," arguing that modernity is itself the most expansive and historically consequential grand narrative of all: an ontological monopoly. It develops the concept of the Onopticon to describe a form of domination that exceeds the classical Panopticon by embedding surveillance, selection, and coercion within infrastructures of circulation, access, and reproduction. It also proposes Homovictimus as a figure for the subject whose capacity for agency has been structurally compromised by infrastructural dependencies. The article analyzes how domination operates through the colonization of time (work and waiting), the subcontracting of intellectual production (critical reason as a "credentialed artisan"), and forms of infrastructural excommunication organized through mechanisms of inclusive exclusion. Rather than treating modernity as a period label, the article conceptualizes it as a material regime of closure that monopolizes the conditions of livable life and naturalizes its own historical necessity as destiny.

The debate over the crisis of the U.S.-led “liberal” international order has become central to both the study and practice of international relations. In this unfolding discourse, the main lines of argument have largely been developed from either realist or liberal theoretical perspectives. This article approaches the issue from a different and underexplored angle, grounded in a sustained engagement with imperialism. Despite their theoretical differences, both realist and liberal discourses on the liberal international order share a common starting premise: that the contemporary world is constituted by a sovereign state system that has transitioned from an earlier imperial order. This article disputes this and instead advances an alternative interpretation—namely, that imperialism continues to operate within the ostensibly sovereignty-based liberal international order. To substantiate this claim, the article first shows that territoriality—the core constitutive element of the sovereign state system—has been historically intertwined with imperialism and continues to reproduce imperial logics in the present. The article further argues that although empires as formal entities have largely disappeared, imperialism as an operating logic and set of practices persists. This condition, conceptualized as “imperialism without empire,” is then examined through the case of the United States, the principal architect of the twentieth-century liberal international order. Through a comparative analysis of U.S. administrations before and after Trump, the article demonstrates the persistence of a shared imperial “civilizing mission” that transcends partisan and ideological divides. Since 1945, imperialism has functioned as a powerful internal operating principle of the U.S.-led order, sustaining its self-identity through processes of representational reconfiguration. From this perspective, “Trump’s America” can be understood as a dialectical outcome of a liberal international order in which imperialism remains structurally embedded.

We empirically identify the considered views of the Northern Ireland public on the relative merits of two possible models of a united Ireland: an integrated united Ireland in which Northern Ireland is absorbed into an all-island polity, and a united Ireland in which Northern Ireland continues to exist as a devolved entity. We use data from a specially designed one-day citizens' assembly. We report analyses based on quantitative examination of pre-and post-deliberation surveys and qualitative analysis of the transcripts of participants' deliberation. We find that, after learning about the different two models, citizens' support for the devolved model declined, particularly among Protestant participants. We elaborate the implications of our findings for any referendum on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.

We empirically identify the considered views of the Northern Ireland public on the relative merits of two possible models of a united Ireland: an integrated united Ireland in which Northern Ireland is absorbed into an all-island polity, and a united Ireland in which Northern Ireland continues to exist as a devolved entity. We use data from a specially designed one-day citizens' assembly. We report analyses based on quantitative examination of pre-and post-deliberation surveys and qualitative analysis of the transcripts of participants' deliberation. We find that, after learning about the different two models, citizens' support for the devolved model declined, particularly among Protestant participants. We elaborate the implications of our findings for any referendum on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.

We empirically identify the considered views of the Northern Ireland public on the relative merits of two possible models of a united Ireland: an integrated united Ireland in which Northern Ireland is absorbed into an all-island polity, and a united Ireland in which Northern Ireland continues to exist as a devolved entity. We use data from a specially designed one-day citizens' assembly. We report analyses based on quantitative examination of pre-and post-deliberation surveys and qualitative analysis of the transcripts of participants' deliberation. We find that, after learning about the different two models, citizens' support for the devolved model declined, particularly among Protestant participants. We elaborate the implications of our findings for any referendum on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.

We empirically identify the considered views of the Northern Ireland public on the relative merits of two possible models of a united Ireland: an integrated united Ireland in which Northern Ireland is absorbed into an all-island polity, and a united Ireland in which Northern Ireland continues to exist as a devolved entity. We use data from a specially designed one-day citizens’ assembly. We report analyses based on quantitative examination of pre- and post-deliberation surveys and qualitative analysis of the transcripts of participants’ deliberation. We find that, after learning about the different two models, citizens’ support for the devolved model declined, particularly among Protestant participants. We elaborate the implications of our findings for any referendum on the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.

The integration of AI and predictive algorithms into global education, particularly in Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets, creates an "Ontological Crisis" characterized by algorithmic bias, cognitive conditioning, and the erosion of human agency. This process establishes the "Digital Leviathan" through the "Onopticon" regime, reducing children to "Homovictimus"—a subject stripped of political and personal agency through total data subsumption. This colonization of time produces the "algorithmic citizen" and enacts severe epistemic violence by imposing Global North-centric models that erase local knowledge and automate structural inequality. To counter this, this analysis proposes four non-negotiable educational imperatives: securing Neural and Semantic Sovereignty, mandating Epistemic Pluralism through decolonial pedagogies, implementing Fluid Human-Centric Pedagogies, and establishing Protection from Early Conditioning via the Architectural Rights Doctrine. The realization of these imperatives necessitates an urgent shift to Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) to secure infrastructural AI sovereignty and build localized AI Commons. Finally, the analysis proposes the creation of a Global AI Fluidity Alliance (GAFA) to govern this decentralized ecosystem and foster the emergence of the "Zoon Politikon 2.0"—the resilient, critically engaged civic actor of the Neural Age.

Bu bildiri, Aralık 2024’te Esad rejiminin ani çöküşünün, Rusya’nın Suriye’deki uzun süreli siyasi ve askeri angajmanında önemli bir politika kırılmasına yol açtığını ve bu gelişmenin Moskova’nın ontolojik güvenlik arayışı açısından ne anlama geldiğini incelemektedir. 2011’de Suriye iç savaşının başlamasıyla birlikte, Rusya Esad rejimini uluslararası arenada savunmuş ve 2015’ten itibaren doğrudan askeri müdahale yoluyla rejimin ayakta kalmasını sağlamaya çalışmıştır. 2020 ortalarında, çatışmaların ve gerilimlerin azaldığı, tarafların kontrol ettikleri bölgeler üzerinde anlaşmaya vardığı gözlemlenmiş; rejim ise bölge ülkeleriyle normalleşme sürecine girmiştir. Ancak, 2024 sonlarında HTŞ güçlerinin süratli ve ani askeri operasyonları sonucu Esad rejimi çökmüş; Sovyetler döneminden beri devam eden ilişkilerle Rusya’nın yıllarca inşa etmeye çalıştığı etki alanı ciddi biçimde zedelenmiştir. Ayrıca, 2015’ten beri yürütülen doğrudan askeri müdahalenin başarısızlığı ortaya çıkmıştır.

Bu durum, Rus dış politikasında başarı olarak sunulan Suriye müdahalesinin arka planında ontolojik güvenliğin sembolleri olan kimlik, aidiyet ve statü kavramlarının yeniden tartışılmasına neden olmuştur. Çalışmanın temel araştırma problemi, Rusya’nın ontolojik güvenlik perspektifinden ele alınarak Suriye politikasının neden başarısızlığa uğradığını analiz etmektir. Bu bağlamda, uzun süreli destek verilen Esad rejiminin çöküşü yalnızca jeopolitik ya da askeri bir başarısızlık olarak değil, aynı zamanda Rusya’nın kimliği ve uluslararası anlatısını tehdit eden derin bir ontolojik kriz olarak değerlendirilmektedir.

Araştırma soruları, Rusya’nın Suriye politikasının neden çöktüğü, ontolojik güvenlik ihtiyaçlarının pragmatik stratejilerin önüne nasıl geçtiği ve Moskova’nın hangi stratejik hataları yaptığı çerçevesinde şekillenmiştir. Çalışmada birincil yöntem olarak, Rusya Federasyonu’nun başlıca karar alıcıları olan Kremlin, Başkanlık kararnameleri, Dışişleri Bakanlığı ve Milli Savunma Bakanlığı’nın resmi açıklamaları ve dış politika metinleri incelenmiştir. Bu metinlerde devletin devamlılığını tanımlayan kimlik anlatısı ve tehdit algısının nasıl şekillendiği ortaya konmuştur. Böylece, Rusya’nın dış politika karar alma süreçlerinin yalnızca geleneksel güvenlik argümanlarına değil, varoluşsal meselelerine dayandığı vurgulanmıştır.

Ontolojik güvenlik yaklaşımı, devletlerin sadece fiziksel güvenliklerini değil, aynı zamanda kimliklerini ve dünya görüşlerini sürdürme ihtiyaçlarını da ön plana çıkarır. Bu bağlamda, Rusya’nın Suriye müdahalesi, büyük güç kimliğinin korunması ve Batı karşıtlığı söyleminin güçlendirilmesi açısından stratejik bir araçtır. Esad rejiminin ani çöküşü ise bu kimlik inşasını tehdit eden bir ontolojik kırılma olarak kabul edilir.

Sonuç olarak, Rusya’nın Suriye’deki politika kırılması yalnızca bölgesel bir geri çekilme değil, Moskova’nın uluslararası sistemdeki büyük güç kimliğini yeniden sorgulamasını zorunlu kılan derin bir ontolojik krizdir. Bu çalışma, uluslararası ilişkiler literatüründe ontolojik güvenlik ile büyük güç davranışı arasındaki ilişkinin anlaşılmasına katkı sağlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Ontolojik güvenlik, kimlik, Rusya, müdahale, Suriye
iç savaşı

Arap Baharı, Kuzey Afrika ve Ortadoğu'daki uzun yıllardır iktidarda bulunan yönetimlere karşı ayaklanmalar süreci olarak başlamış ve bu bölgelerde önemli etkilerde bulunmuştur. Ayaklanmalar 2010 yılından beri çeşitli ülkelerde devam etmektedir. Çoğu ülke için süreç tamamlanmış ve hükümetler halkın özgürlük, demokrasi, insan hakları gibi demokratik taleplerini ön plana alarak önemli değişiklikler yapmışlardır. Bazı hükümetler istifa etmiş, bazı liderler öldürülmüştür. Öte yandan, Suriye'deki ayaklanmalar Suriye halkı için bir kabusa dönüşmüştür. Suriye iç savaşı neredeyse on üç yıldır Suriye halkını savaş şartlarına maruz bırakmakta ve bununla birlikte de bölgede istikrarsızlık oluşturmaktadır. Suriye krizi, uzun süredir küresel güçler ve bölge devletleri için bir oyun alanı haline gelmiştir. Birçok ülke siyasi ve ekonomik güç elde etmek için bu iç savaşa doğrudan müdahil olmuş, sonuç olarak Suriye İç Savaşı Ortadoğu bölgesini etkileyen oldukça karmaşık bir duruma evrilmiştir. Dolayısıyla bu kriz, sadece bir iç savaş olarak görülmemeli, Suriye’de ve Ortadoğu bölgesinde nüfuzunu artırmak isteyen ülkeler arasında hem bir rekabet alanı hem de ontolojik güvenliklerine tehdit oluşturacak durumları engelleme mücadelesi olarak değerlendirilmelidir.

Bu bağlamda, özellikle 2014 yılında IŞİD’in bölgede hakimiyet alanını genişletmesi ile ABD’nin doğrudan askeri müdahalesi ile başlayan ve 2015 yılında Rusya’nın da doğrudan müdahalesi ile devam eden süreç, bölge dışı aktörlerin dış politika reaksiyonlarını farklı açılardan inceleme ihtiyacını ortaya koymuştur. IŞİD’in bölgede hakimiyet kurması ABD açısından fiziksel güvenlik tehdidi iken, Beşar Esad rejiminin devrilmesi ise Rusya için hem fiziksel hem de ontolojik güvenlik meselesidir. Rusya, Suriye yönetimi ile Sovyetler Birliği döneminden beri süre gelen etkisini kaybetme tehlikesi, bölgede nüfuz kaybı ve Rus genişlemesinin daralması ile Rus dış politikasının ontolojik güvensizlik duyması yüzünden doğrudan askeri müdahalede bulunmuştur. Bununla birlikte, bölgesel aktörlerden olan Türkiye ve İran, ontolojik güvenliklerini tehdit eden durumlara askeri güç kullanarak engelleme girişiminde bulunmuştur. Türkiye’nin 2016 yılından itibaren başlattığı hareketler bu duruma örnektir. Türkiye’nin en uzun sınır komşusu olan Suriye’de bir Kürt devleti kurulması, Türk dış politikası açısından bir ontolojik güvenlik meselesidir ve Türk Dış Politikası karar alıcıları tarafından bu güvensizlik durumu ise askeri güç kullanılarak engellenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu örneklere bakıldığında, Suriye krizine çözüm bulmak için bir araya gelen Rusya, Türkiye ve İran’ın; ontolojik güven(siz)lik kavramı kullanılarak barış görüşmeleri organize eden ve anlaşma sağlayan ülkeler olmasına rağmen neden gelişme kaydedilemediği ortaya koyulmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Suriye, İç Savaş, Rusya, Güvenlik, Ontolojik Güvensizlik