ABSTRACT
The chapter will undertake the identity approach to analyze international relations from the Constructivist perspective. This insight might bring new understanding of the nature of the international reality and make it possible to explain it better. The special emphasis will be put on the process of identity construction perception as well as on the impact of third parties’ perception on identity construction. Two-level analysis will be taken: on the one hand identity as a concept within Constructivist paradigm (its origins, validity and methodological challenges) and on the other the impact of third party perception on one’s identity construction.
Constructivist paradigm, which became popular among scholars from the 1980s, gives an opportunity to study international relations from a different perspective than Neorealist or Neoliberal paradigm. As its matter of concern is to analyze nonmaterialistic but ideational elements of social and political reality, it gives tools to search for the hidden motives and cognitive insights into political and international actions.
The chapter will be an attempt to show the Constructivist way of explaining international relations with special emphasis on the identity issue as one of the fundamental explaining categories for Constructivism.
