Part of Springer Nature. Neumann, I. Wendt, A. Constructivism can produce richer understandings of the very basic questions that construct military studies: enemy perceptions, how identity drives threat/amity/cooperation in international relations, how states and actors respond to threat and the meanings that certain types of warfare involve, the stories told about war and what it means to be secure. Consider the shared norms that define military conduct and the institutions that have evolved around military practice; from the Geneva Conventions to the classic texts on warfare that are part of military training, a process of social interaction is taking place where norms are learned, and culture and identity are shaped. 1 2. introduction "the focus of social constructivism is on human awareness or consciousness and its place in world affairs. This pivot is an interesting development in norms research for two reasons. 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. Percy, S. (2016). Today's video is the third in our IR 101 series in which we discu. The social construction of Swedish neutrality: Challenges to Swedish identity and sovereignty. Is something rotten in the state of Denmark? Constructivism and European integration. Moreover, the Geneva Convention is an example of both a regulative and a constitutive norm, in that it not only proscribes state behavior but established a new international normative order, creating expectations for international behavior. An alternative set of norm dynamics may be implicated when one seeks to understand change in norms themselves. Fierke, K. M., & Wiener, A. Shannon (2000:294) makes a sophisticated argument along these lines, claiming that due to the fuzzy nature of norms and situations, and due to the imperfect interpretation of such norms by human agency, oftentimes norms are what states (meaning state leaders) make of them. Such an interpretation of constructivist thought moves him to make a familiar argument about the split between norm-based and interest-based behavioral impulses (Shannon 2000:298302; Van Kersbergen and Verbeek 2007). In the attempt to understand when and where norms are likely to be efficacious, these authors stake out a position on the reasoning aboutreasoning through norms spectrum. Critics too began to understand social norms as static and specific and this facilitated an erroneous notion that evidence of norm-breaking behavior somehow invalidated or falsified constructivist theorizing. International norms dynamics and political change. Rather the controversies mainly focus on how far one can push one logic of action to account for observable practices and which logic dominates a given situation. In this sense, under a constructivist lens, key concepts like sovereignty and power can take on different meanings compared to how they are understood in realist frameworks or defense-oriented establishments. Post modernism // Refer political theory (section 1A) also. Haas, P. M. (2016). ), The culture of national security: Norms and identity in world politics (pp. (2019). In addition to considering how the two types of norm dynamics are related, the current norms literature brings traditional open questions in constructivism into sharp relief. International Theory, 4(3), 449468. ), The culture of national security. Schmidt, B. (1996). Ideas about whether actors reason about norms or through norms can be linked to behavioral logics, which provide conceptions of how actors and norms are linked. Initial constructivist norm studies thus tended to focus on how behavior in a community coalesces around a norm or is reconstituted when a norm emerges. For philosopher John Searle, language played an equally significant role. A similar concern motivated Risse (2000) to draw on Habermass work with communicative action and propose a new behavioral logic that would inject agency and more purposive reflection into the process of social construction. The first wave of empirical constructivist studies tended to freeze norms. He argued: If behavior in the real social world can almost always be located in some of the intermediate spaces between the corners of the triangle, one single metatheoretical orientation will probably not capture it. But a constructivist reading of the Melian Dialogue (Lebow 2001) shows how ideas rather than material factors played a role in the decision of the Melians, even if the outcome was grim (Agius 2006). Instead social norms are generic rules that allow agents to behave and get along in a wide range of situations. Constructivism is relevant to military studies in numerous ways. European Security, 27(3), 356373. Introduction by Finley, John H. New York: Random House. (Eds.). While some of the major criticisms of constructivist thought should be at the forefront when considering security and military problems through this lens, the potential to see the world in more dynamic terms is one of constructivisms leading contributions. 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. About us. The culture of national security. Tactical constructivism, method, and international relations. 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." Constructivism can explain how identity shapes interaction in the international realm for instance the assumption that when states regard each other as liberal democracies they are less likely to go to war with each other. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(4), 519535. 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. First, norms are relatively stable if they were not, it would be hard to justify or observe this analytic category. Sandholtz (2008:121) deems this to be a built-in dynamic of change whereby the ever present gap between general rules and specific situations, as well as the inevitable tension between norms, creates openings for disputes.. Steele, B. As political processes such as the 2008 economic crisis in Europe and Brexit show, theorising a polity. The logic of arguing has inspired the development of significant empirical research (e.g., Muller 2004; Bjola 2005; Leiteritz 2005; Mitzen 2005) and it is the foundation for some approaches to reasoning about social norms (the logic of consequences is also implicated in approaches that consider that actors reason about norms). 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. It brought former Warsaw Pact nations into its fold and strengthened convergence around normative issues such as human rights through social learning (Gheciu 2005; Fierke and Wiener 1999). Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. The development of and debate over logics of behavior is the foundation of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. Realist international relations theory and the military. To be specific, I navigated core tenets of constructivism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, and methodology, respectively. Risse (2000:6) captured the essence of the internal critique when he noted that the logic of appropriateness actually encompasses two different modes of social action and interaction. In one mode, appropriate actions are internalized and become thoughtlessly enacted at times as a precursor to or foundation of strategic behavior (Risse 2000:6) actors reasoning through social norms. Constructivism is a structural theory of the international system that makes the following core claims: (1) states are the principal units of analysis for international political theory; (2) the key structures in the states system are intersubjective rather than material; and. Moravcsik, A. Just as liberalism was a response to realism, economic structuralism is a response to liberalism. The Pacific Review, 28(1), 122. Wiener (2004:198) warns us that studying norms as causes for behavior leaves situations of conflicting or changing meanings of norms analytically underestimated. Certainly norms exhibit stability, as they are recognizable by the common expectations that they structure but, paradoxically, norms are also in a constant state of dynamism and flux. 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. 219227). This aspect of the literature is more focused on how actors understand the norms that constitute them and alternatively consider how actors that reason through norms can contest and reconstruct the norms that bind communities together. The second big claim of constructivism is that ideas matter with rationalist theorizing, material factors take precedence. For example, norms can challenge practices and beliefs that are seen to be no longer fit for purpose. New York: Routledge. States interactions are socially constructed. Gheciu, A. Hagstrm, L., & Gustafsson, K. (2015). 12). For March and Olsen, the logic of consequences where agents undertake actions on the basis of rationally calculating the optimal (usually materially) course of action remained an insufficient foundation for theorizing behavior in international relations. The strange career of Constructivism in International Relations" en Puchala, Do . Hegemony, entrepreneurial leadership, domestic context, framing, moral argument, and epistemic community actions figured prominently in these works as the impetus for emergence (Ikenberry and Kupchan 1990; Haas 1992; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998; Keck and Sikkink 1998; Risse 2000). International Organization, 46(2), 391425. 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. They were aware of and noted the simplifications being made caveating their work with notations about the fluid and inherently contested nature of norms. Power in the constructivist sense is less concerned with material power but sees ideas and discourses as powerful; power can be exercised in different ways. 1516). They serve as concrete foundations for the different conceptions of norm dynamics that are emerging in the current literature because they provide conceptions of how actors and norms are linked. New York: Routledge. For realists, the material structure of the world matters. 3. 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. 134). International Relations is in Social Studies, thus this study field tries to theorize a model that could explain everything that is going on between countries. On the contrary, early, empirically oriented constructivists worked to demonstrate that shared ideas about appropriate state behavior had a profound impact on the nature and functioning of world politics. This is akin to what Krebs and Jackson (2007:434) describe as implication contests where actors agree on the nature of an issue, but not the policy implications and framing contests where there is fundamental disagreement about the situation at hand. Issues such as those discussed immediately above raise the third criticism about constructivism, that "a weak or at least a controversial epistemology has become the basis for a strong pedagogic policy" (Phillips 1995, p. 11)).The primary influence underpinning much of the theoretical commitments of constructivist pedagogy was a highly influential paper written by Posner et al. Alexander Wendt's Social Theory of International Politics has been predicted to gain a status similar to that which Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics is thought to have enjoyed in the 1980s. According to constructivism the priority is for social features instead of material. Silverstone, S. (2021). They consider that actors can stand outside a normative structure to consider options. 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). Beginning with the assumption that actors reason about social norms means considering norms to be (at least somewhat) external to actors, part of their social context, but at least potentially manipulable by actors. 1999; Jacobsen 2003). Studies of norm diffusion or spread moved constructivists into the area of socialization. Constructivism has provided a broader approach to understanding international relations and security beyond rationalist frameworks. Download. Constructivism accounts for this issue by arguing that the social world is of our making (Onuf 1989). Constructivists provided empirical studies on a full range of topics important to the international relations discipline both in areas largely neglected by mainstream international relations like human rights (Klotz 1995; Risse, Ropp and Sikkink 1999), development (Finnemore 1996), and areas directly relevant to mainstream concerns like security (e.g., Legro 1996; contributors to Katzenstein 1996; Price 1997; Tannenwald 1999). Millennium, 33(3), 495521. Contemporary Security Policy, 26(2), 335355. The causes of the Iraq war. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, You can also search for this author in Subsequently, states do what they can to secure themselves, which often means resorting to military force. By the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, constructivists were engaging with both the small number of big important things that Waltz (1986:329, cited in Finnemore 1996:1) famously claimed for structural realism and the large number of big important things that other approaches ignored (Finnemore 1996:1). 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. The Constructivist Approach to Explain National Identity . (2018). Norms and regulations. I also explored the growing body of constructivist . New York: Columbia University Press. Correspondence to While constructivism has made significant inroads into IR theorizing, it does not mean that it is unproblematic or immune from criticism. Constructivists are often too fast and loose with the use of the term norm without a concomitant discussion of what the community of norm acceptors looks like and by what criteria we can identify a community of norm acceptors. One set of norm dynamics may be implied when one seeks to understand how an actor outside a normative community interacts with norms when it is the target of socialization. They are thus animated entities that strengthen, weaken, and evolve. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. International Studies Review, 4(1), 4972. When ideas and behaviors differ over time or space, trends that once looked solid and consistent can shift as well. It is especially relevant and pertinent as a tool of criticism of widely held empirical and normative theories. Moreover, for some, constructivism is problematic because it is seen as apolitical and its efforts to form a via media with rationalism bring the state back in (Weber 1999; Zehfuss 2002). For the Athenians, the refusal of the Melians the much weaker party to submit and their preference for neutrality was an affront to their power. Conventional constructivists like Wendt see similarities between constructivism and rationalist perspectives and methodologies. Holding social norms relatively constant in order to do this was deemed an acceptable trade-off. Chapter 4 Constructivism and Interpretive Theory CCRAIGPARSONS [A constructivist argument claims tear people do one thing and not anurher due co the presence of certain social construct ideas, belies, noms, idenies, or some other iterpreuire fer through which people perceive the wood. Manchester: Manchester University Press. This freezing of norms tended to make them independent from politics as variables in political behavior. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Save. Where liberals would declare that the west won, proving capitalism and democracy were the only workable ways to organize societies, in a constructivist reading, the end of the Cold War was largely down to the changes that were taking place in the former Soviet Union under Gorbachev (Risse-Kappen 1994). Only those with equal power could make such demands, and the Athenians make good on their threat to destroy the Melians, declaring that might is right and the weak suffer what they must (Thucydides 1951, pp. 55K views 2 years ago International Relations Constructivism is one of critical theories in IR criticizing the classical theories. New York: Columbia University Press. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto Scarborough, Establishing Constructivist Social Norms Research, Contestation from Within a Normative Community, Open Questions for the Current Norms Research, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.60, Inter-Organizational Relations: Five Theoretical Approaches, Challenges to Traditional International Relations Theory Posed by Environmental Change, The Practice Turn in International Relations Theory. Constructivism sees power in terms of what it does and means (Guzzini 2005); ideas have power (e.g., that democracies are good). - Checkel (1998) argues that "without more sustained attention . 331336). 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. 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. Yet the logic of appropriateness appears to cede the ground of purposeful, goal-oriented behavior to rationalist perspectives (whether it actually cedes this ground is an additional, and crucial question). 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. Intersubjective facts like social norms only exist within a community of actors that accept them. 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. Constructivisms overwhelming focus on the state and state agents obscures other actors and processes. European Security, 27(3), 374392. (1999). Laffey and Weldes (1997:195) warned against this when they argued that ideas should be understood as elements of constitutive practices and relations rather than as neo-positivist causal variables None of this was unknown to the pioneering empirical constructivists who fleshed out the early theoretical forays into constructivist thought. (1996). First, unlike realist theory which sees actors as like units which respond to external phenomena in the same way, constructivists argue that who actors think they are matters. (2019), and Kessler and Steele (2016) for recent advanced debates.) In Searles book The Construction of Social Reality, he opens with a puzzle that concerned him for a long time: that there are portions of the real world, objective facts in the world, that are only facts by human agreementthings that exist only because we believe them to existlike money, property, government, and marriagesThese contrast with such facts as that Mount Everest has snow and ice near the summit or that hydrogen atoms have one electron, which are facts totally independent of any human opinions (1995, pp. Presents a social constructivist reading of securitization theory that, besides the Copenhagen school, also includes other constructivist interpretations of security that draw on securitization and speech act theory. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. As Johnston (2001:494) clarifies, socialization is aimed at creating membership in a society where the intersubjective understandings of the society become taken for granted. These studies generally began from the perspective of a single, established norm and posited mechanisms (arguing, bargaining, persuading, and learning) for how the community of norm acceptors could be enlarged (Acharya 2004). Social Constructivism Summary Notes. 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. Social Constructivism in International Relations and the Gender Dimension . They are both based on philosophical views. But we dont call it torture! I would like to thank Alice Ba, Robert Denemark, Phil Triadafilopoulos, and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful discussions and suggestions on this essay. 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). Advance of Theory of Constructivism in IR The theory's rise is generally attributed after the end of cold war . Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance. Other scholars deemed the logic of appropriateness (as well as the logics of consequences and arguing) to be too agentic to fit well with constructivist tenets. 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. Yet this dominant view of international relations was significantly challenged by Alexander Wendt in the early 1990s with the simple premise: anarchy is what states make of it (Wendt 1992, pp. Hoffmann (2005) employs insights from the study of complex adaptation to understand how states that all accepted the norm of universal participation in climate governance came to have different subjective understandings of that norm. However, the success of this initial wave of constructivist norms studies was built on an analytic move that would engender significant debate in the 2000s. Japan and identity change: Why it matters in international relations. When interacting with external norms, the targets of socialization reason about and in some cases manipulate the social norms (international or domestic) that shape their behavior. In addition, the use of norms to study international relations directly challenged the orthodox assumption that the international realm was one largely devoid of sociality, merely a system of power calculations and material forces (a challenge also issued by the English school; see Bull 1977). 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. Theories of International Relations. A constructivist lens on PMCs, however, reveals how questions of national identity can also be central to their use. This approach challenged the rationalism and positivism of neorealism and neoliberalism. . Your current browser may not support copying via this button. 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