1) Bibliographic data
Wendt, Alexander (1994), “Collective Identity Formation and the International State”, The American Political Science Review, V 88-2: 384-396.

2) Question(s) addressed by the author and working arguments
The state is often thought to solve it in domestic society by forcing or socializing people to identify with the common good, but the international relations, where each states reserves the right and the force to do as it pleases. Constructivism is a structural theory of the international system that makes the following core claims: (1)States are the principal unit of analysis; (2) the key structures in the states systems are intersubjective, rather than material; (3)States identities and interests are an important part constructed by these social structures.
Self-interest is sometimes defined so as to subsume altruism, which makes explanations of behaviour in such terms tautological. The state itself is testimony to the role of collective identity in human affairs. Collective identities vary by issue, time and place and by whether they are bilateral, regional, or global. Conflicts are intersubjective phenomena, partly in virtue or rules share by the parties but specially in virtue of share perceptions of issue and threat. The challenge is to construct measures of state identity and interest capable of sustaining inferences about change. The concept of authoritarism has a dual aspect: legitimacy and coercion.

3) Conceptual references to transnational – transnationalism

4) Conclusions or Final Remarks
The problem lies not on statism but with two other commitments that inform contemporary understandings of structural theories: realism and rationalism.