Constructivism

Question 1

The Rise of IR Constructivism

Answer 1

End of the Cold War - a theory was “missing” the biggest events in global politics, so a theory has to be evolved for alternative ways to understanding

• Giddens (1984) concept of structuration): analyzing the relationship between structures and actors, structures don’t determines actors actions, they do interact and can transform by acting in new ways
• ideas, perceptions, and relationships are created through social interaction, change can occur through deliberate agency

Question 2

Construction as a social theory & Core concepts

Answer 2

-general theory or approach) about the social world, social action, and the relations between structure and actors, can contain many more theories

• International social system, materialism, identities and interests, norms, socialization)

Question 3

International Social System

Answer 3

Politics is characterized by interactions among people and groups and is thus inherently social
- intersubjectivity: who we are can only be understood in relation to others
- identities and roles mediate the world: recognition, status, authority, power

Question 4

Challenging materialism

Answer 4

• Prominent IR theories see material capabilities as tangible and measurable
• constructivists: social beliefs define the meaning of material things
• Social belief defined by material things and the perceptions of material power are socially constructed
• Actors are differentiated by identities, not material capabilities (distribution of ideas -> behaviours and outcomes

Question 5

Identities & Interests

Answer 5

Who we are shapes what we want and how we act
- challenge to rationalism: logic of consequences vs. logic of appropriateness
- identities are not inherent or obvious but socially constructed, changeable

Question 6

Norms

Answer 6

Constitute identities create categorical of recognition, who counts as an actors i.e. “civilized” v. “Rouge”, “refugees” v. “Migrants”

Regulate behaviour guides for action: permit, direct, prohibit i.e. ban on threat of force, declarations of war

Question 7

Socialization

Answer 7

Changing identities, interests, and behaviours via social interactions

Question 8

Constructivism

Answer 8

• constructivists share a critique of materialism and rationalism
• international relations are socially constructed
  Conventional v. Mainstream (social ontology & positivist epistemology) socially constructed world can be analyzes using standard scientific method, Middle ground theory, often empirical
  Critical/radical :social ontology & social epistemology: criticizes conventional cont.ism for inconsistently be ontology and epistemology, hypothesis cannot be tested w.o proper data

Question 9

Critique of Anarchy

Answer 9

• many constructivists accept that the int’l system is formally anarchical but different implications

Wendt, Alexander. 1992. “Anarchy Is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics.” International Organization 46 (2): 391–425.
➢ Material conditions do not determine the social system
➢ Int’l system is created and transformed by social processes
➢ Different “cultures of anarchy” possible: competitive, individualistic, cooperative
➢ Self-help and conflict are not an inevitable consequence of anarchy

Question 10

The Nuclear ‘Taboo’

Answer 10

Tannenwald, Nina. 1999. “The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Normative Basis of
Nuclear Non-Use.” International Organization 53 (3): 433–68.

• the puzzle of restraint, the limitations of realists explanations: Realist explanation(s) for non-use: (a) weapons weren’t necessary (utility) or (b) power balance (deterrence)
  ➢Material properties of weapons and state power cannot explain observed patterns of behaviour (non-use)
• alternative explanation, social taboos and socialization: changing beliefs, problematizing ‘weapons of mass destruction’

Question 11

Norm localization

Answer 11

Acharya, Amitav. 2004. “How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism.” International Organization 58 (2): 239–75.

• Acharya provides “a dynamic explanation of norm diffusion that describes how local agents reconstruct foreign norms to ensure the norms fit with the agents’ cognitive priors and identities.” (abstract)
• Norms aren’t static things that actors simply accept “off the shelf;” rather, as social phenomena, norms are subject to interpretation, interrogation, adoption, transformation, and rejection
• “Localisation” = processes through which actors “build congruence between transnational norms… and local beliefs and practices.” (241)

Question 12

Constructivist Research Agenda

Answer 12

1. Agency and structure
2. Mechanisms of socialization and change
3. Psychology and norm emergence and change
4. Norms and power
5. Agency: contestation, interpretation, resistance
6. Agency: ‘non-western’ actors and norms
7. International laws and norms
8. Norms and securities
9. Norms and human rights