International identity construction and the liberal peace∗

For helpful advice and comments on earlier drafts of this paper I would like to thank Amy Gurowitz, Dick Price, Chris Reus‐Smit and Martin Wechselblatt.

Abstract

Previous explanations of the ‘exceptionalist’ character of the democratic peace have failed to present a theoretical challenge to the Realist model of international politics. This paper argues that the peace results from the construction of states’ identities in terms of similarity and difference. Identity construction proceeds not simply through the process of interaction, but through states’ own ideological legitimations and their consequent interactions in the process of international relations. The legitimising ideology of the state ‐ democratic liberalism ‐ leads it to construct other states as ‘like’ or ‘other’. By rejecting the use of violence towards like states, but opposing those which are non‐liberal with force, liberal democracies reinforce the legitimacy of their own identities. The paper concludes that this complex constructivism, focussing on the ideological and interrelational nature of identity provides a better account of the democratic peace than that offered by the rationalism of Realist theory.

Notes

For helpful advice and comments on earlier drafts of this paper I would like to thank Amy Gurowitz, Dick Price, Chris Reus‐Smit and Martin Wechselblatt.