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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to assess the ability of a systemic approach like social constructivism to explain security policy, in comparison to theories at the state or individual level like those in Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). Here I focus on one of the basic tenets of constructivism, the constitutive relation between identities and interests, taking the analysis of Russian security policy as a case of study. After reviewing some of the main works on this subject, I conclude that progress has been hindered by the constructivist dismissal of agency in favour of structure as well as by the ambiguity of the concept of identity. Therefore, I propose to take the role conceptions of decision-makers as the base for a convergence between constructivism and FPA’s more “traditional” approaches.