Introduction
Socrates once declared that the fundamental rule, which most need to follow is in regard to national character. This statement that for every group that makes a nation, it must create it’s own character, lack of this thereof means that the people must start embracing one (Moulioukova 2011, p. 3). Scholars studying the concept of identity and its relation to foreign policy is one that has been donebefore, however, more research is needed and gaps that had been present in previously available literature be addressed. Altoraifi (2012, p. 27) explains that foreign policy and national identity cannot afford to be mutually exclusive, the author emphasizes that the latter has been an important factor when it comes to understanding the concept of foreign policy and that it has further provided the course of action need to address this issue. Telhami and Barnett (2002, p. 16) support this by explaining that the study of the relationship between these two factors is crucial because it is the only way to establish conceptual clarity and distinction between them.
Boekle, Nadoll, and Stahi (2001, p. 5) describe national identity to be a country’s social construction that relates to its image in relation to the society it represents.This paper intends to reveal how this character considered as a nation’s identity is related to foreign policy. The consideration of this topic will be presented in two different forms. In the first case, it will consider how national identity can be influenced by external factors such as international relations. In the second scenario, it will focus on how a nation’s behavior is shaped by its identity and foreign relations. Russia will be the highlight of the paper, and it will empirically prove how its national identity has been affected by foreign policy over the years through focus on its transformations, particularly after the external forces that had been present at the time of the Cold War.
Kakachia and Monesashvili (2015, para 2) state that countries base their identities on regions because such prisms affect matters relating to foreign policy. They add that these factors have a significant influence on the orientation of a nation regarding behavior and decision making if traced back in line with foreign policy.
Social performance and discursive approach
In Russian nation social performance approach to foreign policy aims at protecting individuals from violation of their rights when in a different country. It motivates one make new friends and share interesting ideas such as familiarizing oneself with government structural policies and gradual changes in the ecosystem. An identity defines a person’s social relationship to others in the state. At some point, it can create conflict when foreign policies are no longer accepted in the country under the new historical law to protect the local citizens from any attack.
For social performance approach, its duty was to construct good ideas among the people locally and internationally have rights and norms protected about their interests. Distribution of a common identity was satisfactory in giving valid information about the status of the Russian state about others by comparing their tastes and preferences in social activities they performed. It was a challenging factor for any leader striving to changes in foreign policy to identity in the country. Theories of International Relations (IR) on institutionalized and constructivist were formed to determine how to solve issues regarding cultural differences between foreigners and the local members in Russia (Chul 2009 p. 5, 15).
The discursive approach was designed to mobilize steps by which cultural identity and language anthropology were manufactured and explained with an objective of formulating reasonable theories and techniques for analyzing people’s behaviors in the society. Another level of this approach is that it emphasized on the development of knowledge and exploration of diverse languages through human association and socialization at separate areas. It was based on four steps in dialogue interaction. It included one, the declaration speech that social practices are lengthily developed to enhance togetherness and unity in the community. Secondly, is the acceptance of nature around for discourse practices. Third, are individuals providing different ideas on discourse to be a social responsibility carried out by every individual. Finally was the understanding that meaning of a language is arrived at through debating with other members of the ethnic groups and knowing the real meaning of every word uttered by a person during an open discussion.
Also, this method entails standardized discussion in the code of conduct, cultural practices and its relevance to this community. In Russia for instance, foreign people had the capacity to inquire full information on particular cultural resources and its use to other neighbors surrounding the environment. The language spoken was to be flexible for an easy interpretation to foreigners in the society making them have a sense of belonging in the country. (Hawaii University 2016 p.1)
Counterinsurgency practices and implications on policy and identity
Studying and monitoring of foreigners in the past has been a major concern to the government of Russian country. Three approaches to foreign policy analysis were defined to bond the gap between foreigners and post- positivist people in the nation. The approaches include Discursive Practices approach which was used to show how some topics on subjects were drawn to make work easier in Russia in dealing with its sovereign foreigners and location of equal rights to them safeguarded by the local authority leaders. Further, it explains that foreign policy should not be offered limits with issues to making final decisions on the outcome of the insurgency operations.
Cognitive decision-making approach was used in implementing foreign policy through International Relations body to maintain a great integrity of the persons. It suggested that any matter which rose at hand needed to be solved immediately, and individuals collectively were required to work as a team towards the realization of their potentiality and talents in different fields of work. Social performance approach has implications which suggest that all analysis needs to be moved towards the problem and expanding their knowledge on the performance to the world rather than the country alone (Dotty 2014 p. 6). Counterinsurgency campaigns were used in giving support to other neighboring countries going through internal warfare problems within their jurisdiction in fighting for their freedom. Such a team work was successful through the formation of bureaucracies with both government and non-government institutions to address the cause of the war later finding neutral solutions to end the same.
Apart from counterinsurgency being a civil war, it has always been done under procedural steps with a target of achieving a particular objective in the end in most cases reconciliation (Bowie 1964 p 16). The government, on the other hand, should be willing to carry out valuable political changes concerning compensation to the affected people during the fight. One major function of the counter insurgency was to offer legal laws of political understanding and restructuring of governance system where it operates among others (Fore et al. 2009 p. 6-8). In Russia, counterinsurgency practices were aimed at resettling the individuals after the violence happened. The majority of the people also had the thought to keep under control their emotions and anger effectively despite the government’s efforts to implement the rule. Another practice was the protection of human rights by providing basic needs for them such as shelter and better healthcare facilities. Consequently, all borders of the country were to be secured and security highly restricted with those in the military to avoid terrorist insurgents from accessing the country proposition by signing an agreement with other leading powers in the Middle East (Sepp 2005). Final practice was to remove part of the remaining local population to stop supporting insurgents in the near future. It was to be achieved by targeting close family members and a specific ethnic group who were well-known insurgents not to get their recruitment (Zhukov 2010 p.8). The implication was that due to the negative domestic situations such as increasing nationalism and internal political force economic development reduced that later led to increasing demand for an energized leader to rule the country. The Russian president in his speech in the state of the nation was to discuss the country’s political challenges and economic factors. It became ironical that he only talked about the country’s foreign policy over the past years, and the administration in power is neglecting the opinions of the common citizens.
Counterinsurgency practices in Russia are political operations and can only be successful when they receive support from the state and the community citizens. Despite social identities being treated as explanatory variations for a particular environment every individual both local and foreign has a right to be recognized as part of the nation. They need to be respected without considering any political interference. Russian citizens also can draft some issues that they want the government to address after the bitter experience of counterinsurgency war.
Interpreting Foreign Policy and its Relation to identity
According to Moulioukova, “The first rule, we have to follow is that of national character: every people has or must have, a character” Jean-Jacque Rousseau. International relations and the identity of any country are two interdependent variables. They rely on each other to exist (2011, p. 3). An identity crisis in the country was brought about by the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The policy of the country has become unstable with the country being one of the main international players, but still having deviated from the current global trends. Russia remains among the nations that haveimplored serious intellectuals in an attempt to devise a national identity (Moulioukova, 2011, p. 6).
The country’s national identity has been classified into different groups, namely; Russia is an empire being the first one. Which states that there is an urgent need for the renewal of the empire state that was there before. The categories are given a state of confusion to scholars as the second one declares that the breaking of the empire will help the country attain regular status according to what current trends state as the lack of imperial demands by leaders. Another group also expounds that a revolution of the country has to be allowed to grow according to the modernization of the time. Different development stages must have their kind of policies which are compatible with the world and its needs of the time.
There are sets of factors that can be used to interpret the policies that were adopted by Russia. One of them is religion. The country is a messianic one which has the unique Orthodox religion as the mainstream worship for the people. With the church being a significant contributor to the growth and development of such policies it has molded some of them towards their beliefs (Moulioukova, 2011, p.7). The other factor originates from the fact that Russia has a complicated identification when it comes to the countries of the East and West. The location of the country acts as a bridge between the two different sides. The situation makes the country have a divide as to which side onwhich to lean. But the rule of Genghis Khan leads to significant changes in the cultural and political affiliations. Therefore, giving the country the current Asian origin of the identity of the people. It should, however, be noted that theWest also brought its kind of westernization which affected a particular group of individuals at the time and the trend has continued to the current occupants. With the nature of their identity being divided with a permanent schism where the elites and the rest are not similar in terms of their identification.
Russian being an empire is also a factor that has contributed to the identity of the country. According to Mouliokova (2011, p. 7), Ivan the Terrible captured the surrounding cities of Kazan and Astrakhan, which translated to theimportationof a vast number of people. They did not have any beliefs similar to the original Russians neither did they speak the same language. This state contributed to the incorporation of the members into an imperial identity.
In the current generation, especially during the reign of President Putin, who was seen to support an anti-American philosophy. The country has to make several changes of its identity. The leader built coalitions that were discussed as a strategy against America. For example, the frequent visits to Cuba or the grouping with China. However, the complexity of the identity of Russia makes it difficult for such countries to align themselves with it (Piontkovsky, 2006, p. 7).
Conclusion
The emergence of three different schools of thought makes it easy to understand the identity of this country. The westerners, Slavophiles, and Eurasians all give meaning to what they believe in and how it has contributed to the current relationship the country of Russia has regarding the surrounding countries. The Eurasians consider it the anger that is exerted to the West for the changes they brought into the country. The Westerners are the elite that has the money and the comfort of the situation and therefore, have no problem with it. Slavophiles, on the other hand, respond to the deplorable changes that were caused by westernization. They claim that the country as a messianic believer can heal from any challenges. And the country is placed in the middle of the Slavic slavery, they went through, the orthodox beliefs as well as communal institutions that cause the people to have different identities. Conclusively, the Russian identity depends on the relationship that they have with other countries around them.
Limitations
Matters relating to the study of foreign policy have been challenging to most scholars because of the limitations that present themselves every time an approach or educational tool is applied (Tsygankov 2014, p. 19). The reason for this difficulty is that studying foreign policy and a nation’s identity never seem to be a real situation, especially when it is undergoing a significant change or is faced with domestic uncertainty in regard to state actions. As the research got more detailed, the analytical tools applied revealed their shortcomings more.It would be better to focus more on the broader spectrum that controls the current matters relating to international policies as compared to emphasizing on the less reliable belief systems of a few of the country’s elite. The problem here remains that issues relating to foreign policy are usually determined by the social spectrums from different angles of the state, which makes the study approach an academic dilemma.
The other limitation was that presenting the right argument in the relationship between identity and matters of foreign policy, particularly regarding cultural politics was rather complicated and confusing because some experts suggest that it contradicts with the international relation theories of institutionalism and constructivism (Barnett 1999, p. 7). Connecting the core issues that relate these two factors has to be carefully considered and presented to avoid confusions. The two approaches are however rather complimentary because the aspect of the research that where one fails, the other comes in and incorporates the key points that had been missing in the other. There is an aspect of normative structure that has allowed the paper to reach an acceptable course of the argument.
References
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