From Hobbled to Flow: Reconstructing Ontological Security Scale and Anticipating China Policy Preferences in Germany, Japan, India, and the United States

Ontological security (OS) has emerged as a significant factor shaping political perception. However, existing OS models suffer from three issues: methodological incoherence, limited policy relevance, and insufficient cross‐cultural applicability. These issues are impeding a quantitative transformation of OS studies within the field of international relations. This research challenges the perception of OS as empirically fragmented, asserting instead that it constitutes an emergent, unified, and cross‐cultural form of self‐security. By revising prior models, it introduces a 19‐item Integrative Scale of Ontological Security (ISOS). Beyond examining the relationship between OS and threat perception, the study investigates the link between OS and policy preferences across cultural contexts. The findings elucidate the complexities and contradictions within the OS‐threat‐policy nexus, contributing to OS studies by offering a unified, measurable model and advancing security studies by unraveling threat psychology through an OS framework.