ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the historic construction of German, Polish and Finnish identity, with a focus on discourses that are most relevant to national foreign policy towards Russia. It shows that perceptions of Russia played an important role in national identity formation and that Russia was a prominent Other in national foreign policy discourses. The dominant identity discourses that constitute current German foreign policy have been constructed as a rejection of the national experience between 1871 and 1945 and of the East German regime. Meanwhile, in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the political leadership drew a thick line between the Third Reich and the newly-founded state. Official rhetoric urged GDR citizens to identify with Communist heroes and victims of the Nazi regime. Civilian powers are defined as states that actively promote the ‘civilising’ of international relations through efforts to constrain the use of force, strengthen the rule of law and promote international cooperation.
