Introduction to special section: from Nordic exceptionalism to a third order priority variations of Nordicness in foreign and security policy. FBI says Saddams weapons bluff aimed at Iran. 5. 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.. Baumann, M. (2022). 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). The UK and the USA are part of NATO, so share alliance membership, but have also stood shoulder to shoulder in conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq in response to global terrorism, which both states understand to be an existential threat to their way of life. Meaning is socially constructed this epistemological claim suggests that depending on ones position and perspective, knowledge and meaning produce different interpretations (Guzzini 2005, p. 498). 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. 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). Constructivists hold that . States may join military alliances to bandwagon with stronger powers, as realists tell us. They demonstrated that constructivism consisted of more than a metatheoretical critique of rational/material approaches and could indeed be used to structure rigorous empirical investigations across the spectrum of issues in international relations. 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. (2005). In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed. Is Dewey a social constructivist? We unlock the potential of millions of people worldwide. Finally, the sociology of the discipline faced by early empirical constructivist studies virtually forced constructivists to adopt a focus on static norms. Constructivism has provided a broader approach to understanding international relations and security beyond rationalist frameworks. Discourse has power because language can shape how we view phenomena simple acts such as defining a conflict as one of terrorism, for example, then calls into effect a range of policy options associated with countering terrorism. Writing in the 1950s, Karl Deutsch differentiated between amalgamated and pluralistic security communities, with the former referring to a security community with a shared government, and the latter involving an integrated yet separated political structure. Th e article argues that constructivism suff ers from the same . 1. International relations require various perspectives to comprehend the complexity of the interactions that take place in the international sphere. A constructivist lens on PMCs, however, reveals how questions of national identity can also be central to their use. Norm-breaking behavior may be evident but is only problematic for constructivist arguments if norms are specific and static. 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. As Tannenwald says, [e]ven as states pursue their interests, they do so within a normative structure (2017, p. 17). Giddens (1984:22) argued that social rules do not specify all the situations which an actor might meet with, nor could [they] do so; rather, [they] provide for the generalized capacity to respond to and influence an indeterminate range of social circumstances. Until recently this insight was often bracketed and it was assumed that norm acceptors follow the norms that structure their community relatively unproblematically. The scope of military conduct can also be institutionalized, and constructivism provides a way to understand such processes. This criticism over methodology, it should be noted, does not wholly apply to the conventional strand of constructivism, which Wendt says can employ positivist scientific methods to verify or falsify claims (Wendt 1999); for example, to know something about a states military culture, one could look to opinion polls, regulations, training manuals, and the curricula at military academies that can provide data or information about how ideas and norms inform approaches to military organization and culture (Farrell 2002, pp. 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). Not all states interpret power in the material or hierarchical sense. Hopf, T. (1998). 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). Making sense, making worlds: Constructivism in social theory and international relations. (2006). Prominent in this part of the literature was Finnemore and Sikkinks (1998) development of the norm life cycle whereby normative entrepreneurs (see also Nadelmann 1990) work to persuade states of the appropriateness of a new norm and serve as a catalyst for a cascade of new normative understandings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. - 51.75.65.162. Under a constructivist lens, the primacy of state survival in realist thought also undergoes reconsideration. 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 A. M. Sookermany (Ed. Main Theorists. The strategic cultures of states are not the same: they are guided by perceptions, beliefs, ideas and norms that determine how states view the international system and how they use military force and priorities (Neumann and Heikka 2005, p. 6). These initial works laid the theoretical foundation for an approach to world politics that included the assumption that important aspects of politics are socially constructed, a commitment to mutual constitution as an answer to the agent-structure problem, a dedication to the importance of intersubjective reality in contrast to objective/subjective realities, and a focus on ideational and identity factors in analyses of world politics. Identities are formed through shared meanings and understandings of the world, which then brings in culture, intersubjective or shared meanings and norms and values. European Journal of International Relations, 5(4), 435450. forthcoming). In The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory, David McCourt offers a refreshing take on Constructivism by reviewing old, present, and new concepts in Constructivism and connects them pragmatically with methodological examples.Moreover, this book functions as a handbook on 'how to constructivist' in an era defined and dominated by new advances in computational social science. (1996). General norms must be operationalized or translated into specific actions for specific situations. European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341370. (2002). Treating norms as generic has been at the foundation of the recent shift towards the study of contestation. Haas, P. M. (2016). This was a vastly different kind of theorizing than was current in the mainstream of international relations that was locked in the neorealist/neoliberal debate (e.g., Krasner 1983; Keohane 1984, 1986; Baldwin 1990; Grieco 1990). 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. Kissinger's implicit embrace of constructivism might have been a thermonuclear detonation in the Great International Relations Theory Paradigm War of the 1980s and 1990s. They are both based on philosophical views. In other words, actors can never significantly remove themselves from their social structure to make independent judgments. 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. 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. Cham: Springer. 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. European Review of International Studies, 3(3), 713. Some scholars have sought a way through or out of the logic of appropriateness/logic of consequences debate by following March and Olsens (1998) suggestions about scrutinizing the relationship between the logics, especially possible temporal sequencing of the logics, theorizing that sometimes actors calculate optimal material courses and at others they reason about their normative/identity obligations (Shannon 2000; Nielson, Tierney, and Weaver 2006; see Muller 2004 for a caution on this synthesis strategy). In this regard, although posited by Wendt as a via media (1992, 1999) or middle ground (Adler 1997) with rationalism, constructivism offers a different view of key concepts like power. (1996). In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. International Organization, 52(4), 887917. Those who study compliance realize that actors are constituted by norms and cannot fully separate themselves from their normative context. Handbook of Military Sciences pp 116Cite as, 2 219227). Social Constructivism or Constructivism is a theory in International Relations which holds that developments in international relations are being constructed through social processes in accordance with ideational factors such as identity, norms, rules, etc. Similarly, treating social norms as static independent variables led to calls for constructivists to define the conditions under which normative and nonnormative influences on behavior are likely to be the most important in determining behavior (Legro and Kowert 1996; Risse et al. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. The goal was to show how a target behavior can be accounted by considering the ideational context, how ideas and norms constitute interests, or how social norms influence actors understandings of the material world. How is it that western states like the UK, for example, do not fear thousands of nuclear weapons that the USA possesses, but worries about states like Iran or North Korea, who hold far fewer nuclear weapons? B., & Heikka, H. (2005). Captured by Alexander Wendts now-famous maxim anarchy is what states make of it, social constructivism is the idea that the world out there is not given, as realists would argue, but rather, socially constructed. In doing so, social constructivism places a focus on the importance of mutual constitution: international politics is shaped by both structures, such as anarchy, or agents, such as states and other actors. Steele, B. 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. First, norms are relatively stable if they were not, it would be hard to justify or observe this analytic category. Instead, constructivism is held together by consensus on broader questions of social process its position on the agent-structure problem and the primacy of the ideational and the intersubjective aspects of social life (for overviews of constructivism see Onuf 1998; Ruggie 1998; Finnemore and Sikkink 2001; Ba and Hoffmann 2003). In the timeless wisdom of realist thought, the story of international relations is that the world is structured by anarchy. On the contrary, discursive interventions contribute to challenging the meaning of norms and subsequently actors are likely to reverse previously supported political positions. The current norm contestation literature explores processes through which actors come to understand shared norms differently, contest each others understandings, and how the contestation alters/reifies the norms that constitute a community of norm acceptors together (Hoffmann 2005; Van Kersbergen and Verbeek 2007; Chwieroth 2008; Sandholtz 2008). Similarly, rather than dismissing the more agentic logics, Pouliot (2008:276) argues that the logic of practice is ontologically prior and it is thanks to their practical sense that agents feel whether a given social context calls for instrumental rationality, norm compliance, or communicative action.. - Checkel (1998) argues that "without more sustained attention . Van Kersbergen and Verbeek (2007:221) go so far as to posit that this vagueness is actually designed into norms to facilitate maximum adherence. 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. Norms and identity in world politics (pp. Third, rather than see international relations as an anarchic realm where the lack of a central authority above states guarantees security, constructivism makes the claim that agents and structures are mutually constituted or shaped by each other. On the contrary, this analytic device has a deep history in the sociological and economic literatures. People who share an identification are then assumed to share unique traits and attributes. 6667). Critical constructivists prefer to examine state identity in terms of its wider story (Fierke and Jrgensen 2001). 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. Fierke, K. M., & Jrgensen, K. E. These dual visions of normative dynamics are likely related, but the norms literature has yet to describe how. Tannenwald, N. (1999). This recent research speaks to and is driven by broader questions of conceptualizing the relationship between actors and norms whether actors reason through or about social norms. - Ikechukwu Aloysius Orjinta - Google Books Sign in Try the new Google Books Books View sample Add to my library. 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. But for constructivists, it is social structure that is important (Farrell 2002, p. 52). Norms that challenged ideas like genocide, apartheid, the use of nuclear weapons, how to treat prisoners of war, how combatants are defined, and the role of women in armed forces emerge in opposition to existing norms. ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. 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. During the First World War, Belgium, driven by a sense of honor, chose to fight Germany even though the Belgians risked and experienced catastrophic consequences (Steele 2008b). Today's video is the third in our IR 101 series in which we discu. 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.) For neorealists, the relative material capabilities of states determine hierarchy and power in international relations. Instead social norms are generic rules that allow agents to behave and get along in a wide range of situations. The market for ontological security. Actors can see and interpret the world and approach it differently therefore, anarchy is what states make of it. For Wendt, different cultures of anarchy were possible, which meant that the neorealist idea of a self-help system was limited to just a Hobbesian version that depended on military power for security. Scholars working in this vein often begin by critiquing the analytic move to freeze the content of norms. But the existence of a norm is dependent on continual enactment by communities of actors actors thus also experience norms, at least in part, as internal rules (Hoffmann 2005). Although the theory lies more on non-material factors that govern states, it explains that politics also plays a role in international relations. Some preexisting knowledge of speech act theory, constructivism, and securitization theory is useful before reading this chapter . 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. 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. To dig deeper into what makes an agent or what structures global politics, constructivists look to norms and culture to make sense of what represents or guides behavior and how ideas of self inform that. 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. 55K views 2 years ago International Relations Constructivism is one of critical theories in IR criticizing the classical theories. 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. The second big claim of constructivism is that ideas matter with rationalist theorizing, material factors take precedence. In order to better understand compliance with and contestation over norms either in isolation or together, it is necessary to pay more attention to the prior understanding of who is in the community. Less explicit attention was paid to the alternative perspectives on socialization: processes by which groups are maintained, the manner in which the targets of socialization affect both the socializers and targets of socialization (see Acharya 2004; Ba 2006), or the socialization of reluctant powerful actors (Cortell and Davis 2006; Johnston 2008). After making the case that norms matter and developing a number of theoretical frameworks to show how norms emerge, spread, and influence behavior, norms-oriented constructivists have shifted their attention to a new set of questions, and in particular compliance with the strictures of social norms and change in norms themselves. International Organization, 46(2), 391425. What makes the UK feel safe in the matter of the USAs nuclear arsenal is that these states have a shared identity centuries of connection, friendship, shared beliefs and language, and similar cultures. International Studies Quarterly, 60(3), 475485. Altmetric. ), The culture of national security. Social constructionism is not the norm. Social Constructivism sees the whole discipline of International Relations as a social construction. Self-identity and the IR state. It was a tool for constructivists to show that ideas, norms, and morals mattered vis--vis rationalist variables in explanations of world political phenomena. This standpoint of Constructivism is contrary to the 'atomized' Second, analytic tractability is necessary and is no trivial accomplishment. Bruner (1990) and Piaget (1972) are considered the chief theorists among the cognitive constructivists, while Vygotsky (1978) is the major theorist among the social constructivists. International Studies Review, 4(1), 4972. 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). It matters if one assumes that norms are manipulable by political actors who can reason about them from an external standpoint or if norms (and social structure more generally) more fundamentally constitute actors such that they cannot stand outside the social norms that shape their interests and behaviors. 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. The Pacific Review, 28(1), 122. 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. Ontological security in world politics: State identity and the security dilemma. In his view, theories of cultures can not supplant theories of politics, and no casual theory of identity construction exists. The dominant belief about identities in our societies is essentialism. An alternative set of norm dynamics may be implicated when one seeks to understand change in norms themselves. For liberals, the belief that liberal ideas such as democracy and the free market are ideas to be shared to make the world a better place suggests a transfer of ideas rather than an exchange of ideas. The link was not copied. They were aware of and noted the simplifications being made caveating their work with notations about the fluid and inherently contested nature of norms. New York: M. E. Sharpe. 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