- Checkel (1998) argues that "without more sustained attention . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. But norms are never static and this meaning has also changed over time for instance, with the rise of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), sovereignty as an institution has become contingent on states fulfilling certain criteria such as not committing human rights abuse. Norms and identity in world politics. Perhaps this is simply a matter of what questions are being asked. Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars . 3. 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. Wendt tends to view state identity in a singular way which can omit its complexity. / (social) constructivism [1] [ ] [2] Treating norms as generic has been at the foundation of the recent shift towards the study of contestation. For decades, the theory of International Relations was dominated by two approaches: realism and liberalism. The first is endogenous contestation actors that accept a general norm and are constituted by it nevertheless have different understandings of it or operationalize its strictures differently, leading to disputes and change in the meaning of the norm from within. 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. Rather than diminishing other major theories, according to its holders and proponents, constructivism theory provides wider illumination a larger explanation for determining the dynamic and the function of world politics. The category of social norm was not an invention of constructivism. A number of recent studies have examined just this tension and the range of empirical topics being considered from this perspective is now quite broad. European Security, 27(3), 374392. The culture of national security. 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. This realization was part of what prompted the serious focus on domestic political/normative contexts in much of this literature. The way in which issues are constructed and interpreted as threatening can also depend heavily on identity and views of the external realm. 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). 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. Sending goes so far as to claim that the logic of appropriateness is incompatible with constructivist thought because it violates the tenets of mutual constitution and does not allow for change he contends (2002:458) that in the logic of appropriateness, social structure has objective authority over actors, not allowing for the kind of reflection necessary for mutual constitution and change. While states may choose to participate in war or not for strategic or material reasons, it is often ideational justifications (i.e., related to justice, values or existential threat) that provide the compelling argument for or against war. (3) state identities and interests are in important part constructed . This reimagining is not new. Japan and identity change: Why it matters in international relations. Agius, C. (2022). Social constructivism is not among the most popular theoretical approaches used in forecasting in International Relations. Its 1999 Strategic Concept altered the organization from a Cold War alliance to something more akin to Deutschs idea of a security community that was based on common values, norms, and identity, making democracy and human rights central. Cham: Springer. The dominant belief about identities in our societies is essentialism. (Eds.). The International Affairs Forum (2020), states that constructivists use both material and non-material explanations of social constructs. 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. But for constructivists, it is social structure that is important (Farrell 2002, p. 52). 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. Norms in international relations: Some conceptual and methodological reflections. In addition, the students who took POL487 in fall of 2008 at the University of Toronto provided a wonderful sounding board and inspired feedback for the development of some of the ideas in this essay. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Ones position on this spectrum of reasoning about norms or reasoning through norms has consequences. They were aware of and noted the simplifications being made caveating their work with notations about the fluid and inherently contested nature of norms. 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. The belief that reality is socially constructed leads constructivists to place a greater role on norm development, identity, and ideational power than the other major theoretical paradigms. First, norms are relatively stable if they were not, it would be hard to justify or observe this analytic category. Pouliot and Adler draw on Bourdieu to develop a logic of practice and Hopf devised a logic of habit to reflect these concerns. 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. Special issue. 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. (1992). 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. Along with recent work on strategic social construction the idea that norms can be deployed in the service of interests (regardless of whether those interests are pre-given or socially constructed themselves) or at least shape strategic behavior (e.g., Barnett and Coleman 2004; Muller 2004; Nielson, Tierney, and Weaver 2006; Seabrooke 2006) the recent writing on compliance has made progress on questions left open by the initial wave of empirical norms research. Introduction to international relations 98% (51) 3. . This review examines the constructivist norms-oriented literature from early efforts geared at gaining acceptance in a field dominated by the neorealist/neoliberal debates, through the recent emergence of agendas focused on norm compliance and contestation. 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. Agius, C. (2006). Post modernism is relatively new in international relations. In the timeless wisdom of realist thought, the story of international relations is that the world is structured by anarchy. 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. Constructivism is an International Relations (IR) theory. 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. 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. Fierke, K. M., & Jrgensen, K. E. Anarchy is not a given of the international system. (1996). 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. The second generations focus on norms emerged in the 1990s and a third generation extends constructivisms scope to bring in critical theory, emotions, and political psychology, among other approaches(See Steele (2017), Steele et al. INRODUCTION T O INTERNA TIONAL RELA TION THEO RIES 23/10/2018. International Organization, 59(4), 701012. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. 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). 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). They are both based on philosophical views. CrossRef 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. 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. As Luke Glanville illustrates, while there were favorable conditions to ensure a successful R2P intervention (Gadaffi had made clear threats that evoked calls for genocide, the League of Arab States wanted international action and Libya had few allies), [E]ven those states that refused to endorse the resort to military forcerecognized the weight of the imperative to protect Libyan civilianseven if they disagreed over the means with which to do so (2016, p. 193). 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. 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). 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. 2. Finally, the sociology of the discipline faced by early empirical constructivist studies virtually forced constructivists to adopt a focus on static norms. Foreign Policy, 134, 5059. 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. 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). The dominant focus of traditional theories on state and distribution of . Hi!Welcome back to the King's College London International Relations Today Youtube channel. European Review of International Studies, 3(3), 713. 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. Empirical norms studies have both drawn on these debates and fueled them with empirical data supporting different claims. Social Constructivist International Relations and the Military. The traditional theories (Idealism and Realism) had diverted all focus to state and Power. The realist reading of Thucydides account of the Melian Dialogue (431BC) in the Peloponnesian War is seen as the classic illustration of power politics. While realists would argue that decision to go to war are based on rational state interests, constructivists would argue that the Geneva Convention represents the idea that war is a social and cultural practice and driven by moral considerations. When actors follow the logic of arguing, they seek common understandings through discourse and dialogue. Having made the case that norms matter and having developed a number of theoretical frameworks to show how norms emerge, spread, and influence behavior, normsoriented constructivists have begun to turn their attention to a new set of questions. The Athenians demand that neutral Melos side with them against Sparta. Just as liberalism was a response to realism, economic structuralism is a response to liberalism. (2008b). 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. Constructivists discuss questions of identity and belief. Fierke, K. M. (2001). International Theory, 4(3), 449468. 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. The goal of most norms-oriented studies in the initial wave of empirical constructivist work was to explain something about how world politics functions. 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. Adler, E. (1997). In the last decade the development of constructivist thought and empirical research has been occurring more on terms defined by constructivism itself (Checkel 2004). Wendt, A. The Sandholtz (2008:121) passage quoted above brings together the two types of normative dynamics discussed in this section. The promise of constructivism in international relations theory. In this sense, power is a social category. Assessing the effects and effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions. 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. Whose progress, which morals? 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. In discursive terms, language can convey meaning and associations, and define what is considered within and outside the norms (see Poststructuralism in International Relations: Discourse and the Military by Baumann in this volume). As political processes such as the 2008 economic crisis in Europe and Brexit show, theorising a polity. Cham: Springer. As Sandholtz (2008:101) puts it disputes about acts are at the heart of a process that continually modifies social rules. forthcoming). https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2018.1533385. 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. Introduction: Ideational AlliesPsychology, Constructivism, and International Relations . As one notable example, Keohane (1988:392) critiqued this new perspective by arguing that the greatest weakness of the reflective school lies not in deficiencies in their critical arguments but in the lack of a clear reflective research program that could be employed by students of world politics. At the forefront of the initial empirical push in constructivist research were the norms-oriented and identity approaches. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, International Studies. It is especially relevant and pertinent as a tool of criticism of widely held empirical and normative theories. Cham: Springer. 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. However, when defined as ideas or expectations about appropriate behavior for actors with a given identity (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998:891), it became an ideal conceptual tool for operationalizing processes of social construction. 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. Some preexisting knowledge of speech act theory, constructivism, and securitization theory is useful before reading this chapter . 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. What is the main argument of constructivism? This logic structured seminal empirical work that endeavored to show how ideational and normative factors could explain puzzles in world politics (e.g., Klotz 1995; Finnemore 1996). 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. 451497). 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. International norms dynamics and political change. 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). The article argues that constructivism suffers from the same limitations as any other paradigm in IR, therefore, there is no reason to exclude this theory from forecasting effort. Identity and culture can be problematic categories and distract from other factors that can explain international relations, such as capitalism or patriarchy (Kurki and Sinclair 2010). The social construction of Swedish neutrality: Challenges to Swedish identity and sovereignty. Google Scholar. Identifies the norms and ideas associated with them. Millennium, 33(3), 495521. About us. Adler, E., & Barnett, M. American Political Science Review, 95(3), 547560. 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. (1999). 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). Bjrkdahl, A. This approach challenged the rationalism and positivism of neorealism and neoliberalism. 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. Schmidt, B. 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