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. 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). On the contrary, the two parts of the norms literature described above tend to find themselves on different ends of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. Conventional constructivists like Wendt see similarities between constructivism and rationalist perspectives and methodologies. Does R2P matter? Two strands of research, on the relations between strategic behaviour and international norms and between rationalism and constructivism, serve as examples of promising research in constructivist international relations theory. European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341370. 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? 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. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. forthcoming). 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. Constructivism was and remains a very different approach to world politics than its erstwhile competitors. Assuming that actors reason through social norms means beginning analysis with the understanding that the very way that actors view and understand the world is shaped by social norms. 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. Whereas Morgenthaus classical realism described interests in terms of power as a truism of international relations, in empirical terms, power might not be a driver for states interests and actions. 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. Second, there is a division between what is generally called conventional and critical constructivism (Hopf 1998), largely over questions of state centricity and treatment of identity. Cham: Springer. 317356). Like its revision of anarchy as an ordering principle in international relations, constructivism also changed perceptions about the relationship between agents and structures, brought attention to how ideas matter as much as material factors, and how identity, norms, and culture shape global relations. B., & Heikka, H. (2005). [3] 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 Security, 23(1), 171200. 1. Subsequently, states do what they can to secure themselves, which often means resorting to military force. Norms, identity, and their limits: A theoretical reprise. In both cases, compliance with an international norm behaving in a way that matches the behavioral strictures of the norm is expressly theorized and variation in compliance is explained not by pitting constructivist and rationalist/materialist variables, but by examining processes by which domestic actors interpret and manipulate international and local norms. 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. This perspective states that the . Thucydides the constructivist. Whose progress, which morals? Social Constructivism is one of international relations approach. 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. Anarchy is what states make of it: The social construction of power politics. There is considerable confusion in the field on what precisely constitutes social constructivism and what distinguishes it from other approaches to international relations.1 As a result, it has become fairly common to introduce constructivism as yet another substantive theory of international rela- London: Routledge. Is Dewey a social constructivist? (2) Socialization how an extant norm or a nascent norm from one community diffuses and is internalized by actors outside that community. Early empirical studies of social norms tended to consider social norms as static and relatively specific social facts. Norms and identity in world politics. Yet, the analytic choices made had consequences for how norms were understood and these initial conditions significantly shaped both constructivist analysis and the kind of critiques of norms research that subsequently emerged. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Assessing the effects and effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions. These criticisms are predominantly about where constructivism claims to fit in IR (as the middle ground between rationalist and reflectivist approaches) and its methodological commitments. International Studies Review, 4(1), 4972. Constructivists discuss questions of identity and belief. Roennfeldt, C. F. (2022). In M. Evangelista & N. Tannenwald (Eds. In P. M. Haas (Ed. Of course, norms can be subjected to revision or even reversed. The strange career of Constructivism in International Relations" en Puchala, Do . Not all states respond to external phenomena in the same way, which invokes a need to consider how domestic and cultural factors shape the identity and interests of actors. To be clear, constructivists have been quite good at demonstrating the replacement of one norm with another. 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). 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. 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. Social Constructivist International Relations and the Military. For example, when considering what national identity means for a state like the UK, critical constructivists would include forgotten experiences or identities that make up its multicultural society, rather than just define British identity as white. It has major implications for an understanding of knowledge, including scientific knowledge, and how to achieve it. Constructivism considers these interactions as a sociological process in which its agents and structures are centered in a reciprocal constitution; a part of society can not be understood without the other ones. As we have seen in chapter 4, various factors can influence a country's interpretation of a convention. 1516). 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. 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). On the learning literature more generally, see Levy , Jack , "Learning and Foreign Policy: Sweeping a Conceptual Minefield (Review Article)," International Organization 48 (Spring 1994 . I also explored the growing body of constructivist . Save. 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 his view, theories of cultures can not supplant theories of politics, and no casual theory of identity construction exists. Haas, P. M. (2016). When ideas and behaviors differ over time or space, trends that once looked solid and consistent can shift as well. (pp. 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. Wiener (2004:191, 192) notes that this behavioralist approach operates with stable norms and is best suited to inferring and predicting behavior by referring to a particular category of norms that entail standards for behavior. While these studies unveiled how the norms they examined contributed to dynamic political processes, they tended to hold the norms themselves constant. 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. Constructivism is relevant to military studies in numerous ways. Agius, C. (2022). CrossRef Norm shift around the idea of sovereignty can be seen in the pillars of R2P that say that if a state cannot or will not stop human rights abuses within its own territory, other states have a compelling reason to intervene. But for constructivists, it is social structure that is important (Farrell 2002, p. 52). 12). Part of Springer Nature. This realization was part of what prompted the serious focus on domestic political/normative contexts in much of this literature. 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). In addition, norms-oriented research and the constructivist literature writ large has begun to concern itself more with research questions that fall out from constructivist thought independently without as much reference to competing approaches (Checkel 2004). NATO and the New Europe. Onuf, N. (2013). Social constructivism emerged out of key debates in international relations theory in the 1980s concerned with agents and structures and has come to be seen as the fourth debate in international relations theorizing, which pitches constructivist against rationalist perspectives (Fierke and Jrgensen 2001, p. 3). Identity informs preferences and interests, so to understand why certain states behave the way they do on the international stage, paying attention to how their identities drive their interests and actions matters. 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. Undoing the freezing of norms has been based on a reimagining of social norms as generic social facts that are inherently dynamic. Constructivism relies in part on the theory of the social construction of reality, which says that whatever reality is perceived to be, for the . 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. An example of this can be seen in the rationalist understanding of behavior in warfare. What if behavior was due to factors other than norms or ideas? Norm emergence studies were concerned with how ideas come to achieve normative status (e.g., Nadelmann 1990; Klotz 1995; Finnemore 1996; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) and why some ideas become norms and others do not (e.g., Cortell and Davis 1996, 2000; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998; Legro 2000; Payne 2001). Constructivism argues that culture, social structures and human institutional frameworks matter. Constructivism is the new approach to International Relations. The second big claim of constructivism is that ideas matter with rationalist theorizing, material factors take precedence. Behavioral logics are concrete expressions of how mutual constitution works and what motivates actors to behave they way that they do. 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. The first wave of empirical constructivist studies tended to freeze norms. 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. Learning Objectives. Percy, S. (2016). A key illustration here is the norm of human rights, which is widely accepted by actors (Katzenstein 1996). Wendt, A. 3536). (1996). Culture can refer to symbolic or evaluative standards that guide relations and provide meaning. (). 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). 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. Christine Agius . As states interact with other actors in the international system, their ideas and identity can change over time, which can produce a more dynamic understanding of international relations. Nordic strategic culture. 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. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 15(1), 923. Wiener (2004:203) argues that the interpretation of the meaning of norms, in particular, the meaning of generic sociocultural norms, cannot be assumed as stable and uncontested. The translation requires interpretation a subjective understanding of the intersubjective context to decide on a behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. The growth of Private Military Companies (PMCs) or Private Military Security Contractors (PMSCs) in the 1990s and their increased use in conflicts has been a consequence of a range of different factors: increasing neo-liberalization, cuts to defense budgets and a desire for states to outsource security. What if anarchy was not a given condition that ordered world politics? 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. Security institutions as agents of socialization? Rasmussen, M. V. (2005). States interactions are socially constructed. An example of this can be seen in the case of Libya in 2011, which is broadly hailed as a successful R2P intervention. Social phenomenon such as states, alliances or international institutions, are not thought to exist independent of human meaning and action. 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 realist reading of Thucydides account of the Melian Dialogue (431BC) in the Peloponnesian War is seen as the classic illustration of power politics. The norms-oriented work that followed this initial burst of activity in the 2000s built upon the success that was achieved, but also changed the trajectory of research on social norms in world politics to include broader notions of norm dynamics. Today's video is the third in our IR 101 series in which we discu. International Organization, 46(2), 391425. Constructivism is based on the general notion that international relations are socially constructed. 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. (2010). International norms dynamics and political change. New York: Columbia University Press. 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. Two types of normative dynamics can be identified: the first is endogenous contestation; the second is compliance or diffusion. Constructing institutional interests: EU and NATO enlargement. Likewise, culture plays a significant role in international security. Handbook of Military Sciences pp 116Cite as, 2 The rest of this section explores this distinction in greater detail, discussing the behavioral logics at the foundation of the about/through spectrum before examining the recent compliance and contestation literatures that are developing new ideas about norm dynamics. While this is obviously a false dichotomy and constructivist studies do not treat norms as exclusively internal or external to actors, the distinction matters for how scholars approach compliance and contestation. As Koschut (2014, p. 525) explains, this can transform the behaviour of states from a self-help manner to trust-building. Think here about realist logic at the end of the Cold War with the demise of bipolarity, NATO should have gone the same way as the Warsaw Pact. 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. Grand strategy, strategic culture, practice: The social roots of Nordic defence. This approach challenged the rationalism and positivism of neorealism and neoliberalism. Introduction: Reconstructing epistemic communities. The main empirical focus tended to be on either the development of a European polity (e.g., Checkel 2001) or on attempts at socializing Southern states into (relatively) universal international norms like human rights and sovereign statehood (Finnemore 1996; Risse et al. European Security, 27(3), 356373. International Studies Quarterly, 60(3), 475485. Constructivisms overwhelming focus on the state and state agents obscures other actors and processes. An example of this can be seen in the case of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was created in 2002 to hear cases of war crimes. (Ed.). General norms must be operationalized or translated into specific actions for specific situations. (2001). Social Constructivism in International Relations and the Gender Dimension . Journal of European Public Policy, 6(5), 721742. FBI says Saddams weapons bluff aimed at Iran. New York: Columbia University Press. Introduction. By Fizza Hameed Khan, Mahnoor Iqbal, Malaika Shahbaz, Sidra Noor, Raniya Ishtiaq. 331336). This pivot is an interesting development in norms research for two reasons. 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. 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. This is natural given that this work is still in the area of socialization. International Organization, 48(2), 185214. 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. Compliance studies tend to fall on the side of reasoning about norms, considering how actors react to external norms and attempts at socialization, while contestation studies tend to view actors as reasoning through norms, examining how communities of norm acceptors can alter the meaning of constitutive norms through their bounded interpretations of prevailing norms and actions in line with those interpretations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 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). 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. Third, critical scholars argue that constructivism is deeply flawed because it is apolitical, does not adequately analyze categories such as norms, or simply resurrects rationalist ideas. His refusal to allow the UN weapons inspectors into Iraq during the buildup to war in 2003 was seen as irrational to many in the west. or alliances (as realists would argue?). Throughout the chapter, reference will be made to constructivisms epistemological (how we know it), ontological (what we know), teleological (what is the purpose), and methodological (the tools we use to study) standing, where it is located in IR theorizing, and what it can mean for understanding military phenomena (see Philosophy of Military Science by Sookermany in this volume). Ideas do not float freely: Transnational coalitions, domestic structures, and the end of the cold war. Trust, collective identity, shared norms, and intersubjective meanings are important for alliances and security communities, helping to ensure collective vision and purpose (Adler and Barnett 1998). 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. 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. (2019). ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. It then turns to a discussion of two directions currently being explored in social norms research and the open questions that remain. Finnemore, M., & Sikkink, K. (1998). In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed. Moravcsik, A. Constructivism theory is one of the models of the progressing emergence of international relations theory. Critiques of constructivism tend to come from three areas: rationalist criticisms, issues over how constructivists see identity, and finally, criticism that constructivism is apolitical. 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. (1996). The Athenians demand that neutral Melos side with them against Sparta. Constructivists used this logic in early efforts to contrast their work with more established rationalist perspectives on world politics (see especially Finnemore 1996) because the logic of appropriateness contends that actors in world politics undertake actions that are appropriate for their particular identity. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Norm-breaking behavior may be evident but is only problematic for constructivist arguments if norms are specific and static. Lebow, R. (2001). Gheciu, A. ), Constructing international relations: The next generation (pp. Introduction: Ideational AlliesPsychology, Constructivism, and International Relations . Krahmann, E. (2018). 2. 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. Yet Saddam did not want to appear weak to enemies such as Iran (Allen 2009). Conformance how social norms as intersubjective objects stabilize expectations and even bound what is considered to be possible (Yee 1996) was a crucial area for constructivists because without evidence of conformance with the strictures of social norms, constructivists could not demonstrate that norms mattered. States may join military alliances to bandwagon with stronger powers, as realists tell us. Agius, C. (2006). Security communities. For neorealists, the relative material capabilities of states determine hierarchy and power in international relations. To conclude social constructivism believe that reality does not exist outside our consciousness, it only exists as 'intersubjective awareness' among people. 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. Springer, Cham. This is particularly relevant to military studies in terms of understanding the strategic culture of specific states: culture can have an important influence on how states see security, how they interpret threat and train and organize their military forces. American Political Science Review, 95(3), 547560. Correspondence to The development of and debate over logics of behavior is the foundation of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. Constructivisms key influences come from sociological and philosophical perspectives on the nature of reality and phenomena, which brings knowledge, language, and social relations to the fore. Comprised of a series of conventions that go back to 1864, it is now a part of customary international law, so it applies to all states during warfare. . This reimagining is not new. 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. The culture of national security. Constructing IR: The third generation. Meanings: socially constructed. [1] [3] This logic fitted well with the commitment to mutual constitution (the notion of what is appropriate for different identities is socially constructed) and it also laid the groundwork for the norms-based challenge to strictly material explanations of world politics. From this mainly structural perspective, social norms were conceptualized as an alternative to rationalist/materialist variables in explanations of world politics. To construct something is an act which brings into being a subject or object that otherwise would not exist. PS: Political Science and Politics, 50(1), 7174. Social constructivism can also help make sense of security and military phenomena, such as alliances and threat perceptions, or why states go to war. Ones position on this spectrum of reasoning about norms or reasoning through norms has consequences. 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. & # x27 ; s video is the idea that international politics and indeed human relations are socially constructed factors! Actions for specific situations norms can be identified: the next generation ( pp may be evident but only! Indeed human relations are socially constructed are socially constructed rather than given: Transnational coalitions domestic. Even reversed, 95 ( 3 ), 923 to be clear, have. Make of it: the first wave of empirical constructivist studies tended to freeze.! 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