State identities as building blocks of the relationship, Introduction: the return of identity

The importance of state identity and of cultural/institutional constructions of national security, as well as values and norms in international relations, has gained wide acceptance in IR theory.1 The Constructivist school, in particular, espouses this view. Baruch Kimmerling also argues that the notion of state identity has been ignored by many social scientists. Kimmerling defines it as the “unique fingerprint” that distinguishes each state-society complex and is created through state-civil society interactions.2