Differentiation – The Self and The Other in the Process of Constructing Identity.

The aim of this paper is to give a theoretical outlook on the construction process of identity through differentiation, based on a postmodern poststructuralist approach. Identity as an approach in examining policy and international relations works on multiple levels. It not only gives the characterisation of states domestic and foreign policy issues and strategies, but also puts into a different perspective the complicated bilateral relations of these states. With many ideas, beliefs and meanings at the backbone of the elements from which the identity consists, the concept is bound to be ambiguous, unstable and impossible to reduce to a one certain point of emergence, also mostly due to the ever-changing nature of language and the discourse in which the identity is being expressed. However, one way to get to the roots of identity construction is following the assumption that identity discourses are being constructed in differentiation to other subjects or objects identities. By describing the identity of the Other the identity of the Self is being formed in the process. Although more often the ideas and values that are being associated with the Other will be placed in opposition to the ones that determine the identity of the Self, nevertheless, one cannot exist without the other as they are in a mutually constitutive albeit sometimes antagonistic relations. The way that there are various identity discourses of the Self, there are multiple ways and levels as to how to perceive the Other. It can be viewed only as a part of the outside world, or it can be described in the identity discourse as something that is beginning to be a part of the inside society. Alternative identity discourses can be perceived in opposition or as alike, with elements and ideas that are similar or even the same. Or the identity of the Other can be constructed as an absolute threat, making it a security objective to eliminate the ideas and values that are inherent to it, from the discursive sphere of the Self.