Self/Other Interaction in International Relations (IR)

Abstract

As introduced in the previous chapter, in assessing the implications of community-building for regional and global order, the question of how collective identities relate to others is very important. This chapter seeks to address this question at the theoretical level. Despite a growing number of studies (for reviews, see Neumann 1996 and Hall 2001), the IR literature on self/other interaction remains mired in conceptual confusion. This is mainly because, in its conceptualization of self/other interaction, the constructivist literature in IR has drawn on diverse literatures in social theory - symbolic interactionism, poststructuralism, and social identity theory - in an unconsciously eclectic fashion, without recognizing their inherent incompatibilities. The failure to recognize the diverse roots of theorizing in IR theory has created a rather confused intellectual terrain, where the debates on the ontological foundations of self/other relationship have been conflated with the debates on the behavioral implications of the relationship. As a result, the literature forces us into an artificial choice between either disregarding the constitutive role of difference in identity formation or assuming Othering - perception and representation of the other as an identity threat.KeywordsCollective IdentitySocial Identity TheorySymbolic InteractionismCorporate IdentityInternational RelationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.