strengthens the CS analysis. Born out of the minimal group experiment, SIT
better describes groupness due to humans internalised (self)categorisations
which comes to mark the boundaries between different groups. Social identity
theory postulates, group belonging satisfies our basic cognitive and emotional
needs thus once we have conformed to a group, we start to a simultaneous
process of internalisation and externalization of the group behaviours which
continues as part of a cycle until it becomes part of our self. In this light, societies
become intersubjectively real due to this collective identity that is formed; individuals want to protect this identity as it has become part of their self. 56
With a knowledge of this psychological analysis, whereas the CS fall into
the trap of treating groups as independent social actors, SIT strengthens this
theory by treating groups as both dependent and independent variables. Hereof,
SIT convincingly allows us to de-reify societies without thereby theorising them
out of existence, to treat them as independent variables but not as independent
agents.
The key advantage therefore that SIT brings to the CS analysis is that it
more clearly defines what identity is and thus offers to the scholar of societal
security a referent object that is just as a robust and verifiable as the nation state
seen within traditional approaches. At the same time as offering a more solid
referent object, it clearly shows the importance of identity to us as individuals
and human beings and thus it validates identity as an area worthy of academic
study. This also adds valuable theoretical insight to the analytical limitations of
the CS sectors of security in silencing any ontological based issue, like gender.
The combination of psychological theories and societal security can have a
profound effect on the future of the current highly contested security issues. For
example, by drawing upon Theiler’s conclusion that, something is ‘an identity
56 Tobias Theiler, ‘Societal security and social psychology’, Review of International Studies, (2003), Vol.29 (2).
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