Who speaks? Discourse, the subject and the study of identity in international politics

• Published in: European journal of international relations Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 327 - 350
• Main Author: Epstein, Charlotte
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2011; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Constructivism; Criticism; Discourse; Discourse Analysis; Epistemological doctrines; Fallacies; Geopolitics; Hunting; Identity; Identity Politics; International politics; International Relations; Lacan, Jacques; Political Discourse; Post-structuralism; Psychology; Self Concept; Social Constructionism; Social theories; Social theory; State; Subjectivity; Travel; Whales & whaling; Whaling; whaling; Jacques Lacan; psychology; subject-position; constructivism; psychoanalytic theory; social theory; levels of analysis; post-structuralism; discourse

This article aims to show the theoretical added value of focussing on discourse to study identity in international relations (IR). I argue that the discourse approach offers a more theoretically parsimonious and empirically grounded way of studying identity than approaches developed in the wake of b...