Historical Construction, International Relations Theory, and Foreign Policy

Abstract

As one distinctive factor shaping national interests and inclinations in foreign and security policy, the concept of historical domestic construction may relate to other theoretical approaches in international relations and foreign policy in a variety of ways. With respect to constructivist thought in these areas, this book emphasizes a particular kind of domestic construction that is tied to a particular source: dominant interpretations of the meaning and implications of historical experiences. This formulation of historically constructed elements of national role and purpose connects to other strands of research and theorizing about roles and national role conceptions (NRCs), but also diverges from them. Historical domestic construction is compatible with classical realism’s frequent emphasis of the importance of history and of domestic politics. With various other realist and liberal approaches, furthermore, it may be complementary or competitive, or connect with particular strands in these intellectual traditions in other ways. Its relationship with the factors, historical forces, or causal connections prominently emphasized by other intellectual perspectives in international relations and foreign policy analysis thus is not uniform, but depends on the specific research question and the particular analytic focus.