Not being of the West; being behind the West; not being modern enough; not being developed or industrialized, secular, civilized, Christian, transparent, or democratic - these descriptions have all served to stigmatize certain states through history. Drawing on constructivism as well as the insights of social theorists and philosophers, After Defeat demonstrates that stigmatization in international relations can lead to a sense of national shame, as well as auto-Orientalism and inferior status. Ayşe Zarakol argues that stigmatized states become extra-sensitive to concerns about status, and shape their foreign policy accordingly. The theoretical argument is supported by a detailed historical overview of central examples of the established/outsider dichotomy throughout the evolution of the modern states system, and in-depth studies of Turkey after the First World War, Japan after the Second World War, and Russia after the Cold War.

‘A highly sophisticated and impressive book that provides an important contribution to the role of identity in IR. By focussing on three key ‘interstitial' states - Japan, Russia and Turkey - which have been located on the ‘inferior' side of the ‘established-outsider' organising principle of international society, Ayse Zarakol advances a novel understanding of IR that goes beyond extant constructivist and English School theories.'

John M. Hobson - University of Sheffield