Island of the Roses : A case study of the ontological threat of a micronation

Sammanfattning: The discipline of OSS’s (Ontological Security Studies) incorporation in Security Studies has helped unravel state behaviour which other IR-theories (International Relations) have struggled to make sense of. Going beyond the physical security concerns which characterise the traditional literature, OSS has up until recently consistently emphasised the psychological threat of harm to the “self” – emanating from a point of departure which renders it disembodied. Disputing this detachment of the material body, Nina C. Krickel-Choi argues the significance of embodying the self in order to visualise how ontological and physical security converge.  This case study aims to develop on Nina C. Krickel‐Choi’s (re)embodiment of the self, further problematizing by what boundaries the body is encapsulated. Additionally, it draws on Jennifer Mitzen’s seminal article on ontological security, utilising the hitherto underexplored basic trust system as a tool in uncovering anxiety-fueled state behaviour. This theoretical framework is applied to the peculiar case of the Republic of Rose Island, in order to make sense of the drastic measures taken by the Italian State in 1968-69 in response to the emergence of the independent micro-state. By disentangling the circumstances under which the course of action proceeded, this case study illustrates how the small republic outside the coast of Rimini inflicted severe anxiety to the state of Italy’s ontological (in)security, causing the military occupation and final destruction of the platform which constituted the territory of the short-lived nation. The case is made that the measures taken by the Italian state in response to the emergence of the micro-republic was a result of a rigid attachment to routines, inducing behaviour not only confirming the entwined relationship between the body and the self – but indeed, as the study will show, demonstrating an even more apposite expression of the body’s importance to a secure sense of being. Through this demonstration, the distinction between the juridical territory and the material body is problematised, as the study goes to show that the territorial borders does not firmly delineate the boundaries of the bodily self. Visualising and untangling this seemingly contradictory and transcendent imagining of the material body – as well as unfolding the connection between the proceeding and a rigid attachment to routines – aims to elaborate on existing literature on ontological security, as well as stimulate further research on the field.