People who share an identification are then assumed to share unique traits and attributes. However, some scholars found the mode of action where actors consciously reason about what is appropriate to be a problematic foundation for constructivist thought. Instead, practices are the result of inarticulate, practical knowledge that makes what is done appear self-evident or commensenical.. Fierke, K. M. (2001). 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. The superior military capabilities of the USA were a significant material advantage that should have compelled Iraq to avoid invasion. Some preexisting knowledge of speech act theory, constructivism, and securitization theory is useful before reading this chapter . 3536). Certainly actors are strategic, but constructivist logic dictates that the normative context defines and shapes that strategic behavior (Muller 2004). It is especially relevant and pertinent as a tool of criticism of widely held empirical and normative theories. 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. Mlksoo, M. (2018). 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. 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. Journal of European Public Policy, 6(5), 721742. Constructivists discuss questions of identity and belief. This was seen as a backward step and a challenge to the taboo norm that had developed over preceding decades. In other words, they worry that mutual constitution implies that actors have a difficult time stepping outside the bounds of their social/normative context to decide what is right to do. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. In other words, actors can never significantly remove themselves from their social structure to make independent judgments. Yet, the degree to which agents are able to independently evaluate their social context (as well as their material reality as far as that goes) and act upon it is what separates different behavioral logics and it is one way that different constructivist approaches in the current second wave (Acharya 2004) of norms research can be differentiated. How are self-understandings and identity constituted in the international realm? 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. The category of social norm was not an invention of constructivism. 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. Critical constructivists would seek to include different identities in how they understand the nation and present a more complex picture of what identity means and how it is contested and can be deconstructed (Fierke 2001). Introduction: Reconstructing epistemic communities. 1820; see also Katzenstein 1996). 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. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-saddam-idUSTRE56113O20090702. An example of this can be seen in the case of Libya in 2011, which is broadly hailed as a successful R2P intervention. Security institutions as agents of socialization? His (2000:2) logic of arguing is designed to clarify how actors develop a common knowledge and how norms and ideas can have a constitutive effect while retaining the reflection and choice Sending (2002:458) deems necessary for mutual constitution and change. This realization was part of what prompted the serious focus on domestic political/normative contexts in much of this literature. Second, at a broader level, the current norms literature is wrestling with the relationship between intersubjective and subjective reality. Rather it seeks to explore how the current reality evolved (Farrell 2002, p. 59). This means that the absence of a central power over states produces a world of perpetual insecurity, or Hobbesian state of nature (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume), with conflict and violence a constant possibility. These dual visions of normative dynamics are likely related, but the norms literature has yet to describe how. The nuclear taboo: The United States and the normative basis of nuclear non-use. (Ed.). The nuclear taboo is another example of a regulative norm (prescribing non-use), but it was also a constitutive norm (associating the taboo with the idea that civilized nations would not resort to using nuclear weapons) (Tannenwald 1999). The development of and debate over logics of behavior is the foundation of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. This dynamism, it should also be noted, may not always be positive ideas about security can also regress or become less normative or progressive. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 15(1), 923. 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). Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Both of these critiques run afoul of constructivist logic yet are legitimate given how norms were conceptualized in the initial wave of empirical constructivist work. Constructivist ideas are present when attention is turned to alliances and security communities. Mitzen, J. 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). 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. 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. Yet Saddam did not want to appear weak to enemies such as Iran (Allen 2009). 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). The focus was not on analyzing norms as much as it was using norms as a device to analyze world politics. European Journal of International Relations, 3(3), 319363. The work of Cortell and Davis (2005) and Acharya (2004) are relevant examples of this type of compliance research. 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. On the contrary, this analytic device has a deep history in the sociological and economic literatures. The traditional theories (Idealism and Realism) had diverted all focus to state and Power. 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. March and Olsen introduced the discipline to the notion of behavioral logics in delineating the logic of consequences and the logic of appropriateness, framing their discussion in terms of a rationalist-sociological debate (March and Olsen 1998). Social Constructivism is one of international relations approach. The second big claim of constructivism is that ideas matter with rationalist theorizing, material factors take precedence. 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. Hilde van Meegdenburg argues that in the case of Denmark, the use of PMSCs has been limited because it is not seen to align with Danish values. 219227). A Social Constructivist Interpretation of the Liberal Argument," European Journal of International Relations 1 (December 1995)CrossRef Google Scholar. 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. (Eds.). 6667). It was first coined by Nicholas Onuf in 1989 in his book " The World of our making " where he put. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. Constructivism in international relations: The politics of reality. Power is influenced by norms, ideas, and practices; in a constructivist reading, power depends on how it is used and what it means in the interaction of states. Hi!Welcome back to the King's College London International Relations Today Youtube channel. 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). As Sandholtz (2008:101) puts it disputes about acts are at the heart of a process that continually modifies social rules. 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. 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. Haas, P. M. (2016). Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars . For realists, the material structure of the world matters. A paradox of social norms is their dual quality. van Meegdenburg, H. (2019). Yet, Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblances helps in understanding why an essence of constructivism need not be found. talk, follow norms, create rules, etc.). The dominant belief about identities in our societies is essentialism. Global Affairs, 4, (45), 355362. Critical constructivists prefer to examine state identity in terms of its wider story (Fierke and Jrgensen 2001). (2006). (1996). ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. In this section you learn about: Realism, liberalism, constructivism, feminism and neo-Marxism as ways of explaining international relations. Does R2P matter? A constructivist lens on PMCs, however, reveals how questions of national identity can also be central to their use. Moreover, one of constructivisms strongest contributions has been in relation to the agency-structure debate, showing how mutual constitution provides a different reading of world politics and international relations but also opens the possibility for change. (2005). Post Cold War Era- Provided much diverse approach to understand and analyze international relations. This reimagining is not new. This social learning aspect differs from realisms prescriptive approach that says nations will follow the strongest militaries to develop their strength and technological prowess with the anarchic structure of the international system guiding this logic. 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. Those facts that rely on human agreement (institutional facts) differ from brute facts (like mountains, for example), which do not need human institutions for their existence. (1999). 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). The link was not copied. ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. Practice theory and relationalism as the new constructivism. 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. It was a tool for constructivists to show that ideas, norms, and morals mattered vis--vis rationalist variables in explanations of world political phenomena. Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. Norms and identity in world politics (pp. Cham: Springer. International relations require various perspectives to comprehend the complexity of the interactions that take place in the international sphere. 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. / (social) constructivism [1] [ ] [2] 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). 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. 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. The Sandholtz (2008:121) passage quoted above brings together the two types of normative dynamics discussed in this section. We unlock the potential of millions of people worldwide. From this perspective, the logic of appropriateness, as it was developed through engagement with the logic of consequences foil, allowed the socially constructed ideational/normative world to play a role by providing cues as to what behaviors were appropriate. PS: Political Science and Politics, 50(1), 7174. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. For neoconservatives, Saddam Hussein represented a threat because he was seen as an irrational actor that has been hostile toward the USA (Tun 2005). 1516). Constructivists hold that . Social constructivism is a school of thought in International Relations (IR) theory. Abstract. It then turns to a discussion of two directions currently being explored in social norms research and the open questions that remain. (1992). 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. Norms and regulations. On the learning literature more generally, see Levy , Jack , "Learning and Foreign Policy: Sweeping a Conceptual Minefield (Review Article)," International Organization 48 (Spring 1994 . From the perspective of those who work on norms, there are very good reasons to focus on static and specific norms when analyzing international relations. 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. (Wendts book is vital reading for all constructivist scholars and his ontological and epistemological position on constructivism is set out more fully here. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Of course, norms can be subjected to revision or even reversed. If the meaning of a norm can change or if different communities of actors adhere to different norms (or different versions of a norm), then norm-breaking takes on a different meaning. Instead, attempts at synthesis of constructivism and rationalism are now en vogue (e.g., Fearon and Wendt 2001; Schimmelfennig 2001, 2005; Checkel and Zurn 2005; Kornprobst 2007; Culpepper 2008; Kelley 2008). Instead, norms are general principles that must be translated into specific actions (Gregg 2003). And while the focus on norms is important, there is an overwhelming tendency to examine good norms theres often the assumption that norms are good or ethical without critically analyzing what makes them good and what they mean for international change (Erskine 2012; Kowert and Legro 1996). Arguments over the different actions feed back and alter the meaning of the original norms. Likewise, culture plays a significant role in international security. Social Constructivism posits the argumentation that academic discourse as opposed to political engagement is more fruitful in bringing about lasting and genuine change in global affairs. The initial wave of empirical norms work provided a solid foundation for the newly emergent constructivist approach, but it tended to bracket the vibrant existence of norms themselves. 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. 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