State Identity Lies With Rulers

As I believe I have stated in other posts, it is my feeling that IR ‘isms’ cannot by themselves explain the world but can add unique perspectives that lend themselves to an even better overall world view. Constructivism’s contribution lies in its concept of the identity of the state. I personally feel that this concept is very important to interpreting the actions of states. But a big question surrounding this concept is how does a state made up of millions have one identity and act uniformly? I believe the answer points to the elites of states. That is, the identity that a state takes on is the identity of its elites. For example look the decision to join NAFTA by the US. This was an unpopular decision among much of the labor force in the country but the US still joined NAFTA, how can that be since the state has one identity right? I think wrong, I think that it was the identity of the current US government and therefore the US state that made that decision, not the identity of the population as a whole. Another example lies in the US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent presence there. The initial invasion was protested against heavily but the decision to invade was still made, again by the powers that be, not the collective consensus of the people. Again, in 2003 before the war it was the identity of the ruling government under George Bush that became the identity of the state, and even though now most Americans disapprove of the war US troops are still there because the country’s identity lies with the pro-Iraq War government, not the populous as a whole. The actions of a state must be executed by someone and if actions are the result of a state’s perception of its identity, then a state’s identity lies with its decision-making elites. This also explains why the identities of states change over time, because the elites change over time. While Constructivism would rather point to IR as everyday practice to find the changes that are taking place that dictate state identity, I believe that it is much more worth while (and less time consuming) to look for these changes amongst the elites who rule states and control their actions.