The Impact of Identity on foreign policy: the case of Macedonian name dispute

Abstract

The Macedonian name dispute between Greece and North Macedonia refers to a 27-years diplomatic process. In this historical ground, this research seeks to answer the question of to what extent the Greek Macedonian identity has the power to explain the Greek foreign policy actions realized during the name dispute. To conduct a theoretically correct inquiry, this research employs identity as the conceptual ground and applies the Constructivist International Relations Theory and Ontological Security Theory as the theoretical framework. From this point of view, the historical facts of the Macedonian name dispute are scientifically interpreted by using these theoretical and conceptual explanations. In the end, this research mainly proposes that throughout the Macedonian name dispute, the Greek foreign policy actions were mainly shaped by Greek security concerns consisting of ontological and physical security and fundamentally ontological security is the primary source for these security concerns. By doing so, this research aims to contribute to the Ontological Security literature as well as explain a certain period in Greek foreign policy. That is, the Ontological Security Theory mainly seeks to put the concept of ontological security beside the concept of physical security. However, this research carries the main argument of Ontological Security Theory a step further by illustrating a possibility that the concept of ontological security for actors can be in a primary position in front of physical security.