Although a national identity may be an elusive element of the foreign policy equation, it is crucially important when analysing any country's behaviour, to look at the intellectual and organisational environment from which the decision-makers come and in which they take their decisions. In as far as it causes a long-term, persistent and significant idiosyncrasy in the foreign policy of an individual country, it has to be factored into the analysis.

How is a nation's foreign policy – an essentially rational, strategic task – influenced by a nation's internal identity dynamics? And, inversely, how do the issues and challenges that underpin foreign policy affect and shape the collective identity of the nation? In general terms, it can be assumed that whenever foreign policy is not exclusively concerned with foreign policy objectives, but – incidentally or purposely – is part of a different or larger political process such as the consolidation of a national identity, foreign policy behaviour is inflected away from what most international relations theories would predict.