317356). (3) Normative emergence how an idea reaches intersubjective status in a community. (1951). Silverstone, S. (2021). Ontological security in world politics: State identity and the security dilemma. Sookermany, A. M. (2021). Handbook of Military Sciences pp 116Cite as, 2 Liberty University International Relations Chapter Four: Theories of International Relations: Economic Structuralism, Constructivism, and Feminism Notes. The ability to apprehend what is going on inside actors heads to understand motivations and interpretations is currently a matter for debate (Cederman and Daase 2003; Jackson 2004; Wendt 2004; Krebs and Jackson 2007) but, that debate notwithstanding, the notion that different actors within the same normative community i.e., a group structured by the same norm(s) could have different and contested understandings of that norm is at the foundation of the recent work on norm contestation. This paper's argument begins by assuming that constructivism is a contested concept. While early constructivist theorizing proved to be an exciting new avenue for thinking about international relations in the abstract, both constructivists and their critics were eager to see constructivist theory applied empirically. Agius, C. (2006). Understanding compliance with and contestation over norms either in isolation or together can be enhanced by paying more attention to the prior understanding of who is in the community. Pouliot (2008:259) argues that most of what people do in world politics, as in any other social field, does not derive from conscious deliberation or thoughtful reflection. Constructivism had been marginalized by these mainstream theories because it focused on social construction instead of material construction (Barkin, 2017). Constructivism (International Relations) For decades, the international relations theory field was comprised largely of two more dominant approaches: the theory of realism, and liberalism/pluralism. The focus was not on analyzing norms as much as it was using norms as a device to analyze world politics. Some preexisting knowledge of speech act theory, constructivism, and securitization theory is useful before reading this chapter . Nonetheless, constructivist approaches to identity, norms, and ideas about the world and its social relations can impact understandings of what it means to be secure. While arguments remain about constructivisms ontological commitments and efforts to build a bridge between rationalist and reflectivist approaches, its relevance for military studies can be widely seen in terms of how it can broaden thinking about how to see and respond to other actors in terms of security and cooperation. Rather than see security and conflict in the same way, actors will interpret and pursue security based on the ideas, norms, identities, and values that have meaning for them. Staff & Defence College, Norwegian Defence University College, Oslo, Norway, Norwegian Defence University College / Norwegian Military Academy, Oslo, Norway. Wendt, A. This is a different way to think about and imagine the international realm beyond the narrow confines of rationalist power prescriptions. The simplification of social norm dynamics at the foundation of the initial wave of constructivist norms writing contributed to the meteoric rise of social constructivism within the international relations literature. Cooperation and Conflict, 40, 1. He considers that existing norms constrain the possibilities for action, but that different understandings of those norms inevitably arise in the community of norm acceptors. Some constructivists stress reflection and consider that agents are able to reason about the various pulls on their possible behavior (either solely normative/ideational pulls or those in addition to material/strategic pulls). At the core of social constructivism is the idea that international politics and indeed human relations are socially constructed rather than given. Its core ideas are based around three ontological positions relating to identity, ideas, and mutual constitution. Early empirical studies of social norms tended to consider social norms as static and relatively specific social facts. Jacobsen (2003:60) recognizes the need to theorize this relationship observing that, constructivists of all stripes seem to agree that it is vital to theorize links between subjective experience and social/institutional structures. The two versions of norm dynamics discussed above posit different conceptions of the intersubjective/subjective relationship, but neither has developed the final answer to this open question. Arguments over the different actions feed back and alter the meaning of the original norms. Post modernism // Refer political theory (section 1A) also. Legro (1996) provided insight on a traditional security issue by delineating how normative ideas embedded in organizational culture at the domestic level could explain puzzling (for traditional international relations theories) variation in war fighting decisions in World War II. Cham: Springer. This suggests that there is something beyond the timeless wisdom of realism that offers only a tragic view of world politics that will never change. About us. International Relations employs three theories that political scientists use to explain and predict how world politics plays out.To define the theories of Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism we will explore how each theory views anarchy, power, state interests, and the cause of war. London: Routledge. Focusing on these elements of normative dynamics led to progress in how constructivists understood conformance with normative strictures, the spread of existing norms, and the emergence of new norms. This chapter will take the reader through the key ideas of social constructivism also referred to as constructivism in this chapter showing how norms, culture, and ideas about identity shape actors, condition their relations with each other, and can impact the so-called given nature of international relations and transform understandings of power relations. 6667). Actors (usually powerful ones, like leaders and influential citizens) continually shape - and sometimes reshape - the very nature of international relations through their actions and interactions. There. The seminal volume edited by Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink (1999) was the fountainhead for much of this research as it provided an explicit mechanism for how a particular set of human rights norms diffused beyond the community that originally endorsed them. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. In P. M. Haas (Ed. The Peloponnesian War. In the other mode, actors actively consider their normative context in an attempt to reason about the best (appropriate) course of action actors reasoning about social norms. In his study of how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its constituent states interacted with global norms, Acharya (2004:251) demonstrates that localization does not extinguish the cognitive prior of the norm-takers but leads to its mutual inflection with external norms. International norms are adapted to local circumstances by actors with the ability to observe and manipulate ideas from the external normative context in so doing they alter the substance of the international norm to build congruence. In: Sookermany, A.M. (eds) Handbook of Military Sciences. - 51.75.65.162. Doing so has opened up the field to bring in different explanations of global politics that can delve deeper into how culture and identity play a role in determining state interests. Ideas do not float freely: Transnational coalitions, domestic structures, and the end of the cold war. Berger, T. U. Practice theory and relationalism as the new constructivism. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, International Studies. for example, is that ideas and norms are hard to test empirically (Moravcsik 1999); they are intangible things that are difficult to measure or quantify, and it is hard to know if they played a significant role in affecting behavior (Farrell 2002, p. 60). New York: Routledge. International relations require various perspectives to comprehend the complexity of the interactions that take place in the international sphere. Ideational or even soft power the influence that is exerted that does not rely on hard power but rather attracts others to ideas and values (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume) can be effective in global politics and choosing to go to war over ideas rather than material gains or even to not take advantage of material gain and an increase in power, serve as examples. Perhaps more fundamentally from a feminist perspective, Locher and Prugl contend that the objectivist stance of many constructivist scholars is inconsistent with their social ontology. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to adequately cover these approaches, the Baumann chapter in this volumediscusses securitization; for works on ontological security that speak to international security and aspects of the military, see Mitzen (2006), Krahmann (2018), and Mlksoo (2018).) It is through human agreement that a piece of paper, metal, or even cryptocurrency is seen as a form of money, which is assigned a certain value (Searle 1995, pp. In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts to wind back the proliferation of nuclear weapons which by this stage had reached staggering proportions, particularly in the USA and USSR prompted scientists and nuclear experts, civil society organizations, and other actors, to form what is called epistemic communities. An example here is in what is generally called the laws of armed conflict, such as the Geneva Conventions, which sets the rules for how victims of war are to be treated, and the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), which addressed the conduct of war, such as the types of weapons permissible in warfare. New York: Columbia University Press. The superior military capabilities of the USA were a significant material advantage that should have compelled Iraq to avoid invasion. This chapter will explore what constructivism is, and its underlying claims and key influences, while comparing its core tenets to theories such as realism (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume) and liberalism (see Liberal International Relations Theory and The Military by Silverstone in this volume). Constructivists interested in norm change have recently begun reconceiving norm dynamics in a different way and have focused on contestation within communities of norm acceptors. Social constructivism is not among the most popular theoretical approaches used in forecasting in International Relations. (1998). Risses (2000) and Sendings (2002) critiques focus on the taken-for-granted mode of action implied the logic of appropriateness. Rather it seeks to explore how the current reality evolved (Farrell 2002, p. 59). Tannenwald, N. (1999). Empirically oriented constructivists worked to show that shared ideas about appropriate state behavior had a significant impact on the nature and functioning of world politics. INRODUCTION T O INTERNA TIONAL RELA TION THEO RIES 23/10/2018. (2008a). While states may choose to participate in war or not for strategic or material reasons, it is often ideational justifications (i.e., related to justice, values or existential threat) that provide the compelling argument for or against war. Self-identity and the IR state. Anarchy is not a given of the international system. More recent constructivist norms scholarship has revisited this perspective on social norms, positing a different set of normative dynamics more focused on contestation over social norms. In discursive terms, language can convey meaning and associations, and define what is considered within and outside the norms (see Poststructuralism in International Relations: Discourse and the Military by Baumann in this volume). This has implications for the concept of anarchy, the agent-structure relationship, and national interests, but all three of these areas of research are also approachable through non-constructivist means. Social norms were conceived as aspects of social structure that emerged from the actions and beliefs of actors in specific communities and in turn norms shaped those actions and beliefs by constituting actors identities and interests. The influence of Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant (17241805) on constructivist thought can be seen regarding ideas about knowledge and objectivity, in that knowledge of the world is filtered through frameworks of understanding. Cooperation and Conflict, 40(1), 523. Ones position on this spectrum of reasoning about norms or reasoning through norms has consequences. (1999). The literature that has followed this keystone research (e.g., Acharya 2004; Cortell and Davis 2005; Farrell 2005; Mastenbroek and Kaeding 2006; Kornprobst 2007; Capie 2008) moves beyond the boundaries of earlier socialization research, especially the tendency to focus on displacement of local/domestic ideas with international norms through transnational teaching (Finnemore 1996; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 1999) or to attribute norm diffusion to fit between global and local norms (Cortell and Davis 1996; Florini 1996). Its value also depends on the market, so it can go up and down, or buy more or fewer things, dependent on inflation, and other variables. All of this came about through processes of socialization and persuasion, where interested groups such as NGOs, epistemic communities, and other actors not only successfully changed the norm around the treatment of civilians and combatants in warfare but instigated this norm as part of identity, and how states define right behavior. Critics found this dual understanding of the logic of appropriateness wanting and thus developed additional behavioral logics that modeled differing motivations and modes of behavior more explicitly. Moreover, social constructivism emphasizes social relations in global politics, and sees security and international politics as determined by ideas as well as material factors. Constructivism is the new approach to International Relations. In other words, actors can never significantly remove themselves from their social structure to make independent judgments. Birdsall, A. Constructivism focuses on the social context in which international relations exist. International Organization, 52(4), 887917. International Organization, 53(3), 433468. Viewed in this way, as Onuf insists, "Constructivism applies to all fields of social inquiry" and "is a way of studying social relations - any kind of social relations." Under a constructivist lens, the primacy of state survival in realist thought also undergoes reconsideration. In addition, the students who took POL487 in fall of 2008 at the University of Toronto provided a wonderful sounding board and inspired feedback for the development of some of the ideas in this essay. Scholars working in this vein often begin by critiquing the analytic move to freeze the content of norms. Holding social norms relatively constant in order to do this was deemed an acceptable trade-off. At the same time, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) had successfully pushed for the UN to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2020. Perhaps this is simply a matter of what questions are being asked. forthcoming). As Tannenwald says, [e]ven as states pursue their interests, they do so within a normative structure (2017, p. 17). ), Routledge handbook of private security studies (pp. Norms and identity in world politics. For neoconservatives, Saddam Hussein represented a threat because he was seen as an irrational actor that has been hostile toward the USA (Tun 2005). Second, and more significantly, both the norm compliance and norm change research agendas engage seriously with notions of normative contestation, directly problematizing aspects of norm dynamics that tended to be held constant in earlier work. As political processes such as the 2008 economic crisis in Europe and Brexit show, theorising a polity. Constructivism has developed over the years and it is now possible to speak of it in terms of generations. The first generation is identified in the 1980s, where constructivism focused on agents and structures. Culture can refer to symbolic or evaluative standards that guide relations and provide meaning. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Studies of norm diffusion or spread moved constructivists into the area of socialization. This goes against realist reliance on a world structured by anarchy that compels states to behave in certain ways, regardless of what sort of states they are (Farrell 2002, pp. The essay proceeds by first describing the initial establishment of constructivist norms research and critiques that flowed from the original choices made. First, both types of studies may benefit from more attention to the notion of intersubjective communities and their boundaries. There is significant overlap with the socialization literature here as the mechanisms by which an idea becomes a norm are not all that different from the mechanisms by which an actor outside a normative community is brought within. Nordic strategic culture. Whether a state is democratic or autocratic, for example, does not seem to matter for neorealists such as Kenneth Waltz (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume), because the anarchic structure is what is important for understanding state behavior. Constructivist International Relations theorists tend to use concepts of socially constructed identities, ideas and norms to empirically and analytically examine . Recent studies have taken the generic nature of norms more seriously and have subsequently focused on how actors must operationalize their normative context to take specific actions (Hoffmann 2005; Van Kersbergen and Verbeek 2007; Sandholtz 2008). Constructivists also emphasize how domestic norms and values play a role in how states and their militaries approach conflict or understand the causes of conflict. What was it all about after all? American Political Science Review, 95(3), 547560. International Politics, 53(2), 176197. Constructivists hold that . Poststructuralism in international relations: An exploration of discourse and the military. When the Bush administration introduced the category of unlawful enemy combatant in the global war on terror, these individuals were not afforded the protections under the Geneva Conventions (Tannenwald 2017, pp. The social construction of Swedish neutrality: Challenges to Swedish identity and sovereignty. This article aims to illuminate how social constructivism has evolved as a mainstream international relation (IR) paradigm within a short period of time. Tannenwald, N. (2018). International Theory, 4(3), 449468. To be sure, the international relations literature still contains healthy debate and sparring between constructivism and realism/liberalism (e.g., Petrova 2003; Fehl 2004; Williams 2004; Goddard and Nexon 2005; Srenson 2008). Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. The analytic focus is shifting to the targets of socialization and the dynamic and agentic process whereby actors interact with their normative context. The irreducible core of constructivism for international relations is the recognition that international reality is socially constructed. Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance. Those who study contestation do allow for reasoning about norms, appealing to notions of interpretation to generate different understandings of a norm with a community of norm acceptors. This has led the constructivist literature away from Keohanes (1988) original vision of a division of labor constructivists provide insight into what the interests are, rational approaches take the analysis from there (Legro 1996). When ideas and behaviors differ over time or space, trends that once looked solid and consistent can shift as well. Social constructivism is well suited to address continuous changes in European integration. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. What does it derive its name from (it's fundamental proposition)? Social constructionism is not the norm. Conventional constructivists like Wendt see similarities between constructivism and rationalist perspectives and methodologies. Studies of compliance and contestation must grapple with this fundamental characteristic of social norms in a more explicit way moving forward. Mlksoo, M. (2018). Katzenstein, P. J. But we dont call it torture! According to this approach, the behaviour of humans is determined by their identity, which itself is shaped by society's values, history, practices, and institutions. International Relations: Constructivism pt1 1. Cooperation and Conflict, 51(2), 184199. As Farrell tells us, liberals and realists do not agree on what prevents war is it democracy (as liberals would contend?) Quintessentially, Finnemore and Sikkink (1998:914) noted the highly contingent and contested nature of normative change and normative influence in their examination of the norm life cycle. For neorealists, the relative material capabilities of states determine hierarchy and power in international relations. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2018.1533385. International norms dynamics and political change. European Review of International Studies, 3(3), 713. Lebow, R. (2001). Wendts contention was that rather than see anarchy as a given condition of the international system, ordering relations and compelling states to behave in certain ways to secure themselves, anarchy, rather, depends on whether states buy into this view. Constructivism relies in part on the theory of the social construction of reality, which says that whatever reality is perceived to be, for the . Of course, norms can be subjected to revision or even reversed. European Journal of International Relations, 5(4), 435450. This analytic move facilitated conversation and competition with rational/material theoretical competitors. Social norms were considered, in many ways, the medium of mutual constitution. Thucydides. Critical constructivists pay greater attention to issues of power and dominant discourses that construct national identity.. In addition, taking constructivist thought to its logical conclusion, there is no such thing as nonnormative behavior or pure material self-interest independent of a normative context. (2) Socialization how an extant norm or a nascent norm from one community diffuses and is internalized by actors outside that community. Google Scholar. In M. Evangelista & N. Tannenwald (Eds. Contrastingly, neorealist prescriptions of power see it as hard, material, military power (such as large military forces or superior weapons) and are concerned with its distribution in the international system. Table of Contents; Introduction to Social Constructivism: Rise of Social Constructivism in IR: Constructivism as social theory: Constructivist theories of International Relations: In essence, they theorized norm diffusion as taking place from a community of Western states constituted by compliance with universal human rights norms to individual Southern states. Reviewing the complementary identity-oriented approaches is beyond the scope of this essay, but its neglect here in no way reflects the importance of this crucial aspect of constructivist theorizing (on identity see, e.g., Hall 1999; Hopf 2002). Table of Contents Table of Contents. Identities are formed through shared meanings and understandings of the world, which then brings in culture, intersubjective or shared meanings and norms and values. Constructivism The international relations theory that suggests that people create their own reality, . As Sandholtz (2008:101) puts it disputes about acts are at the heart of a process that continually modifies social rules. They consider that actors can stand outside a normative structure to consider options. Constructivism considers the relations between states (and other actors) as a social realm; less about the distribution of resources and power and more about the distribution of ideas. It examines the socialization process as more one of contestation between different normative systems and has broadened the scope of analysis to include attempts at socializing both powerful and weaker actors. The article argues that constructivism suffers from the same limitations as any other paradigm in IR, therefore, there is no reason to exclude this theory from forecasting effort. It has major implications for an understanding of knowledge, including scientific knowledge, and how to achieve it. The current literature on compliance with social norms has taken a question that motivated the socialization studies of the 1990s Why do some transnational ideas and norms find greater acceptance in a particular locale than in others? (Acharya 2004:240) in new directions. 1516). London: Penguin. By Fizza Hameed Khan, Mahnoor Iqbal, Malaika Shahbaz, Sidra Noor, Raniya Ishtiaq. As one notable example, Keohane (1988:392) critiqued this new perspective by arguing that the greatest weakness of the reflective school lies not in deficiencies in their critical arguments but in the lack of a clear reflective research program that could be employed by students of world politics. At the forefront of the initial empirical push in constructivist research were the norms-oriented and identity approaches. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(4), 519535. Norms and regulations. For decades, the theory of International Relations was dominated by two approaches: realism and liberalism. (1996). If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. These studies were inclined to treat social norms as independent variables and show how some political behavior is made possible or constrained by such ideational factors (e.g., Barkin and Cronin 1994; Klotz 1995; Finnemore 1996, 2003; Katzenstein 1996; Legro 1996; Price 1997; Tannenwald 1999). Norms and identity in world politics (pp. Conventional constructivism is not interested in replacing one reality of world politics with another. Abstract Social constructivism is not among the most popular theoretical approaches used in forecasting in International Relations. Certainly actors are strategic, but constructivist logic dictates that the normative context defines and shapes that strategic behavior (Muller 2004). Pouliot and Adler draw on Bourdieu to develop a logic of practice and Hopf devised a logic of habit to reflect these concerns. Seeing the world in this way as mutually constituted, driven by the interests of actors which relies on their ideas of themselves and others, and their approach to phenomena brings about different possibilities in international relations and security. What agents want and who they are may be constituted by social structures, but there is never a complete sublimation of agents they retain an ability to reason about constitutive social structures and make relatively independent behavioral choices. 394395). Agius, C. (2022). Empirical norms studies have both drawn on these debates and fueled them with empirical data supporting different claims. Steele, B. (2001). Norms and regulatory instruments around the use of PMSCs and in what capacity they are used have emerged with the view to regulating them (Percy 2016, p. 221). 115135). Constructivism is the claim that significant aspects of international relations are historically and socially contingent (subject to change), rather than inevitable consequences of human nature or other essential characteristics of world politics. The compliance literature is most often concerned with the actions of actors (Japan in the Cortell and Davis piece or the Southeast Asian nations in Acharyas work) who have yet to accept or internalize international norms (financial liberalization and cooperative security/humanitarian intervention). Abstract. Contestation over variants of universal participation then had significant impact on the evolution of the universal participation norm and climate governance outcomes. The first wave of empirical constructivist studies tended to freeze norms. Main Theorists. I would like to thank Alice Ba, Robert Denemark, Phil Triadafilopoulos, and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful discussions and suggestions on this essay. A notable example that Searle uses to explain this is money. How are self-understandings and identity constituted in the international realm? Mearsheimer, J. J., & Walt, S. M. (2003). Social Constructivism sees the whole discipline of International Relations as a social construction. The culture of national security. (2006). Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars . "It's refreshing to see the authors address the pedagogy of English language learners within a non-deficit model. London: Routledge. There is an implicit equivalence made between contestation that goes on within a normative community (generated by the gap between general rules and specific situations) and contestation that occurs between different normative communities (inevitable tension between norms). Essentialism believes that our identities are linked to a fixed, universal, innate 'essence'. In essence, these scholars and those who draw upon their work consider that much of behavior in world politics arises from ingrained, unconscious motivations either habits or practices that drive precognitive behavior. This matters because it suggests that international relations is more dynamic rather than fixed. 23) and recognized as a medium of exchange for goods and services. Constructivism for international relations exist and mutual constitution J. J., & Walt, S. M. 2003! Complexity of the interactions that take place in social constructivism international relations international realm from it! Goods and services to explain this is simply a matter of what questions are being asked Routledge of. Theory ( section 1A ) also the social context in which international relations original choices made studies may benefit more... 2003 ) or spread moved constructivists into the area of socialization discourses construct! 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