The Ontological Security Politics of US Naval Ship Museums

Abstract This article explores the politics of United States naval warship museums. Specifically, it investigates the role of museum tour guides in re-embodying and reinforcing, but also contesting and countering, US hegemonic narratives at these popular tourist sites. To explain the politics of these sites, this article is built around three interrelated arguments. First, insights from ontological security studies illuminate identity politics at work, calling particular attention on the routines, narratives, and expertise found throughout these locations. Second, the importance of naval power and the historical narratives at work here are more nuanced than the existing scholarship in critical security studies has considered so far. While hegemonic politics and militarized narratives are embedded, often times overtly, throughout these sites, there are also endogenous tensions within them as well. Examining the role of tour guides, curators, and directors in these settings reveals a contentious politics of US identity representation. Third, we may be witnessing a generational shift in expertise happening in real time. A new generation of experts brings with them new historical sensibilities and attitudes toward the military and US hegemony writ large. We illustrate these dynamics with three short vignettes from ship museums Iowa, Missouri, and Midway.