Constructing National Interests

Abstract

While the concept of `the national interest' has long been central to theories of international politics, its analytical usefulness has also been seriously challenged. I argue that, to be useful in accounting for state action, this concept should be reconceptualized in constructivist terms. I begin with a brief discussion of the conventional, realist notion of the national interest, lodging two criticisms against it. Then, starting from Wendt's recent constructivist interventions, I provide a constructivist reconceputalization of `the national interest'. I argue that national interests are produced in the construction, through the dual mechanisms of articulation and interpellation, of representations of international politics. This process of national interest construction is illustrated with a sketch of the production of the US national interest during the so-called `Cuban missile crisis'.