Agonistic Peace and Identity Change – Unpacking the Agonism / Recognition Nexus

Agonistic peace as a concept has been elaborated extensively within the literature on international political theory during later years. Taking inspiration from Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy, researchers have highlighted the importance of a move from antagonistic to agonistic relations in order to change the trajectory of destructive violent conflict. This paper takes that literature as a starting point for an elaboration on what such a move from antagonistic to violent relations entails in terms of identity change. Since antagonistic relations and interactions in conflict-ridden societies often imply in-grained images of the other as a threat to the existence of the own identity, how could then agonistic relations be created so that the other is accepted and/or tolerated without being perceived as a threat? Different theoretical vantage points for such an elaboration can be found in the literatures on recognition and Self/Other relations. In this conceptual paper, we build on these literatures to outline the different ways in which agonistic identity relations can be fostered. With this conceptual analysis, we unpack the identity dimensions of agonistic peace, and critically investigate the different types of recognition agonistic peace entails as well as the various forms that agonistic differences may take.