Identity politics and national security: Estonia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine compared

State leaders adopt strategic decisions that are consistent with their conceptions of the national identity, or how they want their state to be identified by other states. An identity is a cognitive tool individuals employ to process information about their nation or state in relation to another nation or state. It provides behavioral cues that actors need to respond to their environments. States do not naturally know their friends or enemies. Whether or not states will cooperate with each other, is based on the quality and density of interactions states have with one another state. These interactions, which are informed by historical myths and memories, create the basis of the national or state identities that constrain or enable state leaders in defining national interests.; When the Soviet Union collapsed, Estonia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine confronted similar national security decisions that involved Russia. However, although these countries were similarly positioned vis-a-vis Russia, they did not make similar choices. In Estonia, the mass appeal of a national identity occurred before Russia ended the country's independence in 1940. When independence was achieved in 1991, the dominant conception of the Estonian national identity was pro-West and anti-Russia. As a result, Estonia demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops and rejected membership in the CIS. In Kazakhstan and Ukraine, however, extensive ties to Russia occurred before the development and spread of a distinct national identity. Soviet rule limited the development of an anti-Russian or anti-Soviet identity in each country. Although nationalists in both countries viewed Russia as a security threat, they were not sufficiently represented in the government or parliament, and they were unable to mobilize society to embrace their identity in order to prevent nuclear disarmament, the leasing of military installations to Russia or participation in the CIS.