How Identity Shapes International Relations — Richard Ned Lebow

11. 1. 2024

This episode of The IR thinker explores the role of identity and identification in international relations with Professor Richard Ned Lebow, examining how memory, self perception and corporate identity shape state behaviour and political order. The discussion engages with constructivist theory and its critics, considers non Western perspectives on identity, and reflects on the implications for conflict management and institutions such as the United Nations.

Richard Ned Lebow

Professor Richard Ned Lebow is Emeritus Professor of International Political Theory in the War Studies Department at King’s College London, Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His work spans international relations, the causes of war, decision making, conflict management and both ancient and modern political theory, with a particular focus on the politics and ethics of identity.

Publications:

National Identities and International Relations

A Cultural Theory of International Relations

The Politics and Ethics of Identity

Constructing Cause in International Relations

Content

00:00 - Introduction
02:23 - Unravelling Identity and Identification in International Relations
15:37 - The Nexus of Identification and State Behaviour
19:56 - The Significance of Understanding Identity
21:40 - Methodologies for Investigating Identity and Identification Concepts
22:54 - Perspectives on Identity in Non-Western Scholarship
26:31 - Memory, Identity, and Self-Perception
34:30 - States’ Collective Memory and Identity
36:24 - Corporate Identity in International Context
39:46 - Political Order: Interplay with Identity and Identification
48:03 - Ned Lebow’s Constructivist Insights and Critiques
52:42 - The UN and Constructivism’s Role in Conflict Resolution