ABSTRACT Constructivists have coined the phrase “ontological security”, implying that a state’s sense of national identity is as or more important than its physical characteristics in shaping its foreign policy. But what happens to foreign policy when that sense of identity changes as the result of a revolution or regime change so extreme that the previous national identity no longer holds? Using the example of South Africa after the end of apartheid, this article examines the attempts by the leaders of post-apartheid governments to create a new national identity, based on South Africa’s new status as a democratic country and as a country whose destiny is in Africa. The article finds that the governments succeeded in establishing the beginnings of the second but not the first of these new identities.

中文翻译：

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我变了，我真的变了：身份、政权更迭和本体安全

摘要 建构主义者创造了“本体安全”一词，暗示一个国家的民族认同感在塑造其外交政策时与其物理特征一样重要，甚至更重要。但是，当这种身份感因革命或政权更迭而变化如此极端以至于以前的国家身份不再存在时，外交政策会发生什么？本文以南非结束种族隔离后为例，考察了种族隔离后政府领导人基于南非作为民主国家的新地位和命运在其中的国家的新身份，试图创造新的民族认同。非洲。文章发现，政府成功地建立了这些新身份中的第二个而非第一个的开端。