Identity in International Conflicts: A Case Study of the Cuban Missile Crisis Written by Yu Yun Tsou This PDF is auto-generated for reference only. As such, it may contain some conversion errors and/or missing information. For all formal use please refer to the official version on the website, as linked below. Identity in International Conflicts: A Case Study of the Cuban Missile Crisis https://www.e-ir.info/2021/07/02/identity-in-international-conflicts-a-case-study-of-the-cuban-missile-crisis/ YU YUN TSOU, JUL 2 2021 Multiple IR theories have sought to understand international conflicts among states, and notably, the role of identity has gained momentum in theoretical debate (Berenskoetter, 2017). This essay compares poststructuralism, constructivism and neorealism and argues that, in understanding the role of identity in international conflicts, poststructuralism provides the most compelling account. Significantly, poststructuralism explores the constitution of a state’s identity, how identity can “make possible” for foreign policies to carry out in international conflicts and the mutually constitutive effects between foreign policies and identity (Campbell, 2013). Neorealism lacks these components, and although constructivism discusses identity, its explorations are not as comprehensive as those of poststructuralism. This paper adopts the Cuban Missile Crisis to justify its argument, as this seminal event led to “the brink of nuclear war” (Allison, 1971: 39) and caused “a higher probability that more human lives would end suddenly than ever before in history” (Allison, 1969: 689). The essay first critically explores the three theories above and then examines my empirical case study. Neorealism Neorealism believes that an “anarchic system” traps states in an “iron cage” with “unremitting competition for power” (Mearsheimer, 2013: 78, 80). As such, states living in a “self-help world” with “ceaseless security competitions” are forced to focus on the balance of power (material capabilities) to achieve their “main goal”—survival (Mearsheimer, 2013: 79, 80). In this “competitive world”, “all states are potential threats”; thus, “conflict is common” (Mearsheimer, 1990: 12). Root causes of conflicts, then, lie in the architecture of the international system rather than the nature of individual states (Mearsheimer, 1990: 12), as states are seen as “black boxes”, “assumed to be alike” (Mearsheimer, 2013: 78) and considered to be in pursuit of power. Neorealist argue that factors that determine the likelihood of war include “polarity of the system”, “power balance”, “power shifts” and “distribution of powers” among states (Mearsheimer, 2013: 84–88). When there is peace, it is due to rational actors calculating the “cost and benefits” and finding the costs to be too high to enter the war (Mearsheimer, 1990: 13). In assuming that all states are “self-interested” (Hopf, 1998: 175) and that material power is the most influential determinant of states’ behaviour (Hopf, 1998: 177), however, neorealism is problematic. With neorealism’s (neo) positivist epistemology, power is not only fixed and observed scientifically, but it is nothing more than material powers and the state’s capability to carry them out (Brooks, 1997: 447). Any ideational factors are ignored. More crucially, neorealism holds that “[the] state is ontologically prior to the international system” (Ashely, 1984: 240), and states’ interests and existence are “treated as given” (Ashely, 1984: 238), independent of any social institutions and social powers (Ashely, 1984: 243, 244). Neorealists assume that states are unitary actors with a “single eternal meaning” and “[the] same prior interests” (Hopf, 1998: 176) seeking their “intrinsic desires” (Ashely, 1984: 243). The role of identity is neglected, as all states are assumed to be self-help actors with the same purpose. Social processes are ignored (Roush, 2020) and states are taken for granted (Hansen, 2017: 167). Ashely claims that the “[p]roposition that states might be essentially problematic…is excluded from neorealist theory” (1984: 238) and in fact, “far from questioning commonsense appearance”, the “neorealist orrery hypostasizes them” (Ashely, 1984: 237). Thus, neorealism clearly excludes the role of identity in international conflicts. E-International Relations ISSN 2053-8626 Page 1/9