This thesis intervenes within the current debate between both norm- and relational constructivist schools with regard to the maintenance and contestation of a state’s ‘identity.’ As to move past the exaggerated efficacy that norm- and relational scholars attribute to material and discursive factors respectively, this thesis instead argues – in accord with Critical Discourse Analytical insights – that both the material and discursive exist within a dialectic. Through arguing that the material and discursive internalize one another without being reducible to either factor, it becomes possible to gain a more nuanced understanding of how both material and discursive influence the maintenance and contestation of a state’s identity. To this end the thesis poses the question of: what discursive strategies did Abe Shinzō utilize as to overcome the restraints imposed by Japan’s ‘peace-loving’ state identity as to effect the remilitarization of Japan? This question is subsequently operationalized through a critical engagement with IR identity theory, Antonio Gramsci’s Political theory, and Critical Discourse Analysis’s insights into the realm of discourse. This allows for an enquiry into how Abe Shinzō utilized both discursive and material means as to overcome Japan’s current anti-militarist state identity.
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