TY - JOUR
TI - “Vision of Itself” in Foreign Policy Analysis: From the Role of Ideas to Identity and Recognition
AU - Guzzini, Stefano
TI - “Vision of Itself” in Foreign Policy Analysis: From the Role of Ideas to Identity and Recognition
AB - 
	For Henry Kissinger, a stable international order is not only based on a balance of power, but also on a balance of identities, of “visions of itself ”. How do our observational theories of international relations come to understand this practical maxim? This article shows that rationalist theories, methodological underpinnings fall short of satisfactorily addressing the issue, while constructivism’s and post-structuralism’s social ontology and relational understanding of identity provide a better starting point. And yet, when we return from the level of explanatory theory back to foreign policy practice, constructivist theorizing, precisely for its focus on identity, risks of being abused for the purpose of nationalist apologies of the very kind that makes a balance of identities impossible.
VL - 2022
IS - Nr 6/2022
PY - 2022
SN - 2543-7046
C1 - 2544-0845
SP - 33
EP - 57
DO - 10.4467/25440845TP.22.001.16001
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/teoria-polityki/artykul/vision-of-itself-in-foreign-policy-analysis-from-the-role-of-ideas-to-identity-and-recognition
KW - foreign policy analysis
KW - constructivism
KW - rationalism
KW - ontological security theory
KW - identity
KW - methodology