Origins
- 1990s (recent but significant development)
- failure to explain end of cold war
- philosophical and sociological origins
Core assumptions:
- IR is socially constructed
- ideas matter
- co-constitution
- IR is socially constructed
objects, concepts and events don’t have fixed or objective meanings:
- meaning constructed through meaning-making, social interactions -> shape actions
- state interests are perceived and constructed
- Ideas matter
criticism of only materialistic power, discourse (ideas) matter:
- power of ideas, norms, culture and language (of elites or those already embedded)
- national identity and construction of others
e. g. soft power, end of CW
- Co-constitution
structure and agency:
- structure and agency both influence each other through practice -> mutually constitutive
- =change is possible
Anarchy in constructivism
- ‘anarchy is what states make of it’ (Wendt)
- not structural’ but result of practice
- friends and enemies
Sovereignty as uncontested norm?
- contradictory to other norms (e.g. HR - R2P)
- state vs nation
Nuclear taboo in constructivism
- norm of nuclear non-use
- due to history?
What is the norm life cycle
Norm emergence (norm entrepreneur) -> norm cascade -> internalization (Finnemore and Sikkink)
logic of appropriateness (vs logic of consequences)
norm vs. cost-benefit
War on Terror in constructivism
social interaction: identity is relational (has to be connected to something else?)
-mutually constituted around a stark difference (“either you are with us or with the terrorists”)
meaning of actions constructed through specific discourses:
-coining together war and terrorism
-securitization: naming a threat justifies a suspension of normal rules
Controversies within constructivism
- state-centric or not?
- structure vs agency (what comes first)
- explanatory vs critical approach
- strategic behaviour and norms: independent of instrumental to states?
What type of theories
explanatory and critical in constructivism
