On April 16, 2021, the 33rd "Duyan" workshop of Institute for Central Asian Studies of Lanzhou University was held in Room 602 of Student Center. More than 20 participants from School of Politics and International Relations and School of Marxism of Lanzhou University attended the reading workshop. The three reading materials of this time were Jennifer Mitzen’s “Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma,” Ayse Zarakol’s “Ontological (In)security and State Denial of Historical Crimes: Turkey and Japan,” and Karl Gustafsson’s “Memory Politics and Ontological Security in Sino-Japanese Relations” .

First of all, Mr. Li Jiawei made a brief introduction of the author and main contents of the three articles. Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma is an important book that introduces ontological security into the academic research of international politics. Starting from the security dilemma in international politics, the author points out that there is a conflict between ontological security and material security emphasized by the existing security dilemma theory, that is, the state may choose to rely on conflict in order to maintain ontological security.

Then, the students talked about their own inspiration and confusion on these reading materials. First of all, students generally believed that although the article "Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma " is slightly obscure, the author's writing method is sophisticated, and there are innovations in the process of theoretical construction, which is worthy of learning and reference. Secondly, students discuss their own confusion about the concept of ontology security, focusing on whether the formation of ontology security relies on internal or exogenous. Is self –awareness more important or social interaction more important? Finally, Professor Zeng made response to each question and summarized the students' discussion.