ABSTRACT
This chapter consists of three subchapters, ‘Role theory literature overview’, ‘Role theory: its roots and development’ and ‘Role theory approach as an instrument for North Korean foreign policy analysis: operationalization of key concepts’. It summarizes role theory literature and the main differences between ‘first’ and ‘second’ wave of role theory are delineated. The first wave role theoretic scholars rely on the structural and material determinants as far as the origins of roles are concerned, and in general they do not pay much attention either to the role change processes or to the actual sources of this change. The second wave of role theory broadened the spectrum of possible sources of national roles whilst the scholars pay significantly more attention both to social origins of the national roles and the role change process.
