Sec & terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Sec & terrorism - Essay Example Historically, the U.S. identity has always been a benchmark by which threats to security are perceived. As Campbell (1998) informs, U.S. foreign policy has demonstrated that where the existence of alternative identities challenges the belief that the U.S. identity could be the ideal identity, this is often construed as a threat to security. In other words, security risks are interpreted as a means of establishing the U.S. identity (Campbell, 1998). Campbell’s conceptualization of the close relationship between U.S. identity and security is consistent with the constructivist account of international relations. For example, Wendt (1999) argues that state actors establish identities within an international social structure. How the state views its identity and how other states view the state’s identity shape and direct international politics and relations (Wendt, 1992). Using the constructivist account of international relations, this paper will argue and demonstrate the c lose connection between identity and security in U.S. foreign policy during the period of the Cold War is clearly established. However, during the detente phase of the Cold War, it appears as though U.S. security is less connected to identity but rather more closely connected to materialism. This paper is divided into two main parts. The first part of this paper provides an overview of the theory of constructivism in international relations. The second part of this paper will analyse the close connection between identity and security in U.S. foreign policy during the period of the Cold War and the fragility of that connection during the period of detente. The Theory of Constructivism in International Relations Constructivists, like neoliberal and neorealist theorists attempt to understand the drivers of state behaviour. However, constructivists are distinguished from neorealism and neoliberalism in that constructivists do not â€Å"ignore† the â€Å"content and sources of st ate interests and the social fabric of world politics† (Checkel, 1998, p. 324). Essentially, neoliberalism, neorealism and realism are juxtaposed against constructivism in a paradigm articulated as materialism vs idealism (Barkim, 2003). In this regard, constructivists reject the realist/traditional view that state behaviour is driven and explained by material power (Barkim, 2003). For the constructivists, state behaviour and international politics are both socially constructed (Alder, 1997). State behaviour is explained by a number of underlying factors that subjectively form the basis of ideas that steer state behaviour through the acquisition of state identities and interests (Copeland, 2000). Where states share the same ideas and interests, this can constrain and modify the behaviour of a state. Thus in interacting with one another, states may reconstruct their identities and interests through what is referred to as a â€Å"socialising process† (Copeland, 2000, p. 1 90). It is via the socialising process that states identify, defend and protect their identities which in turn inform their objectives and roles within the international political order (Copeland, 2000). Constructivism offers a novel and expansive method for understanding how states perceive security dilemmas as it offers tools for conceptualizing â€Å"human consciousness, national identity† and state interests (Tsai, 2009, p. 19). When constructivism is used to understand how states interpret security