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Why do policymakers disagree on threat? This paper seeks to renew discussion on the theoretical basis for explaining variation in threat identification in international politics. While rational, behavioral, and social theories of threat identification exist and inform empirical studies, they tend to struggle with explaining variations in threat identification among actors operating in similar or identical environments. Thus, a need exists to return to the core concepts of threat and threat identification. This paper proceeds in three parts. After a critique of the current literature, it proposes a novel rule-based identity (RBI) theory that is informed by social psychology and social constructivism. This new approach posits that how individuals subjectively define their identity shapes their perceived population of possible threats, thus creating the possibility for variations in threat identification. After a thorough theoretical exposition, the article concludes with an anecdotal example of how the RBI approach can be used to analyze threat in U.S. foreign policymaking [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]