Creating Space for Africa in International Relations? Contesting Ontological Security through Space Exploration

This article provides original insights into why and how space exploration offers a romantic trigger for the wider contemplation and reimagining of global power relations and ontological security, in terms of our sense of identity and being-in-the-world. We demonstrate how the rapid expansion of African space programs provokes new conversations about African roles and status in international politics, forcing us to reconsider how we understand African agency. Narratives of African solidarity and renaissance have long been central to the way African actors rationalize and enact their international agency. However, the conceptual lenses developed in ontological security studies (OSS) have not been applied to theorize African agency, while OSS has overlooked African cases in its own conceptual innovations. To address these gaps, we offer a novel contribution to OSS by conceptualizing how ontological security-making can be understood at three interwoven and co-constitutive levels: continental, state, and individual. Drawing on 43 key informant interviews with scientists and policymakers at the heart of space science initiatives, we demonstrate how space exploration is being harnessed by a range of African actors across these levels—from AU leaders to national politicians and student scientists—to forge positive narratives about Africa that challenge pathologies of continental deviancy and backwardness. However, global inequalities of power and knowledge production limit African agency and render this ontological security only partially realized and precarious.