Identity Change and Ontological Security: Challenges of Conflict Resolution

At the individual, societal, and state levels, identities become ingrained in frameworks of ontological security, and thereby become integral to stability and continuity of Being. Therefore, identity change is a process that is necessarily fraught with anxiety and ontological insecurity, which foster attachment to established identities and resistance. This paper seeks to explain how identity change nevertheless occurs despite these ontological security concerns. I argue that ontological security concerns render identity change to be a gradual and negotiated process of adaptation rather than a rupture. Conflict resolution often brings with it an expectation of identity change, from enemy identities to more peaceful identities of rival or friend. However, identity change has generally been assumed to follow from the resolution of disputes, and how actors negotiate their old and new identities have not been systematically analyzed. This paper analyzes the nexus of identity change and ontological security in order to identify the various stages and forms in which the process of identity change unfolds.