Providing ontological security through analogies and metaphors: A leader approach

Abstract This article provides a leader-centred account of how ontological insecurity is managed in foreign policy. Building on Jim Marlow’s work and following a Lacanian-inspired understanding of the Self as fragmented and anxiety as a permanent condition of political life, it conceptualises ontological insecurity as a key driver of leadership agency rather than a problem to be resolved. Also investigated is how analogies and metaphors work as micro-narrative mechanisms, as a key part of leaders’ repertoire when triggering insecurity while projecting futures of continuity and renewal. By lending fluidity to storytelling, analogies and metaphors make unfamiliar situations intelligible to domestic and international audiences. Using interpretive narrative analysis, the illustrative case study of El Salvador’s populist leader, Nayib Bukele, is then turned to. The analysis reveals how leaders rely on analogies and metaphors to amplify collective anxieties while offering reassurance, thereby stabilising political authority without eliminating insecurity. By integrating ontological (in)security scholarship with leader-centred approaches in foreign policy analysis, the article demonstrates how narrative stability reflects not ontological security being achieved but ontological insecurity becoming governable. Thus, it contributes to a more process-oriented and agency-focused understanding of leaders, narrative, and ontological insecurity in the foreign policy domain.