International Relations Theory - zero.eik.bme.humono.eik.bme.hu/~gyorgy/IR_files/8NPE_Social_Constructivism.pdf · International Relations Theory Nemzetközi Politikaelmélet Szociálkonstruktivizmus

International Relations Theory

Nemzetközi Politikaelmélet Szociálkonstruktivizmus.György László

egyetemi tanársegédBME GTK, Pénzügyek Tanszék, Gazdaságpolitika és Gazdaságtörténet Szakcsoport

Monday, November 22, 2010

Social Constructivism Basics

• Human awareness and consciousness in IR

• Focus on ideas and beliefs and shared understandings not on material realtions

• International Society is not something ʻout thereʼ

• Alexander Wendt: ʻAnarchy is what states make of itʼ

• US based theory


Social Constructivism BasicsHistorical Developments• After Cold War setting cannot be

explained in the neorealist/neoliberal framework

• Fukuyama: ʻThe End of Historyʼ: promotion of liberal ideas

• Socialconstructivists: promotion of all kinds of ideas


Social Constructivism BasicsTheoretical Developments• Theoretical developments in other social science

disciplines: philosophy, sociology (Giddens, Vico, Kant, Max Weber)

• Structuration (Giddens, 1984): the way of analysing the relationship between structures and actors

• Giambattista Vico (18th century philosopher): the natural world is made by God, but the historical world is made by Man


Social Constructivism BasicsTheoretical Developments• Kant: we can obtain knowledge about the world, but it is

always subjective• Max Weber: human beings rely on ʻunderstandingʼ each

others actions and assigning ʻmeaning to themʼVERSTEHEN• Is a pat of another personʼs face a punishment or a caress?


Definition

Social constructivism: social constuctivist argue that the most important aspect of international relations is social, not material. Furthermore, they argue that this social reality is not objective, or external, to the observer of international affairs. The social and ploitical world, including the world of IR, is not a physical entity or material object that is outside human consciousness. Consequently, the study of IR must focus on the ideas and beliefs that inform the actors in the international scene as well as the shared understandings between them.


Constructivism as Social Theory

• Different levels of abstraction• Social construction of reality (no natural laws of society)

• E.g. the international system of security and defence consists of territories, populations, weapons and other physical assets. But it is the ideas and understandings according to which those assets are conceived, organized and used - e.g. in alliances, armed forces etc.. - that is most important

• Ideational view (constructivists) vs materialist view (neoliberals, neorealists)

• Are these rivalising categories? (Rather a meta-theory)• Empirical approach to IR: constructivist want to probe the

inside of the billiard balls to arrive at deeper understanding of conflicts


Constructivism as Social Theory

• Materialist view: • Driving forces: power and national interest • Power: military capability backed by economic strength• National interest: self-regarding aim for power, security

and wealth• Ideas: matter little - rationalize actions dictated by

material interest• Ideational view (Wendt):

• Realism: multipolarity as an explanation for war• Liberalism: economic interdependence as explanation

for peace• Marxism: capitalism as explanation for state forms


Ideas

• ʻIdeas are mental constructs held by individuals, sets of distinctive beliefs, principles and attitudes that provide broad orientations for behaviour and policyʼ (Tannenwald)• Ideologies or shared belief systems (Protestant ethics,

Monroe-doctrine, Manifest Destiny)• Normative beliefs: distinguishing right for wrong

(Coalition of Willing vs the Axis of Evil)• Cause-effect beliefs: more liberalization more economic

progress• Policy prescriptions: strategies, policy programs


Two Faces of Constructivism

‘Conventional’ constructivism ‘Critical’ constructivism‘Critical’ constructivism

‘truth claims’ are possible from different point of views, but no ‘final truth’ (scientist view)

‘truth claims’ are possible from different point of views, but no ‘final truth’ (scientist view)

‘truth claims’ are not possible

truth and power cannot be separated

task is to unmask that core relationship between truth and power


Wendt’s Constructivist Theory

Neorealism Constructivism (Wendt)Constructivism (Wendt)

identities and interests of states are givenidentities and interests of states are given

identities and interests of states are shaped by the interaction

• Systemic approach: Wendt, Finnemore• Wendt: rejecting the neorealist position though accepting

that states want to survive and be secure

• E.g.: • Cold War is over because the USA and the Soviet

Union decided so• Four decades of cooperation in Europe is not replaced

by power balancing because the Cold War is overMonday, November 22, 2010

Cultures of Anarchy and Degrees of Internalization (Wendt)

Hobbesian Lockean Kantian

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• National Interests in International Society, 1996• Systemic approach• Definition of statesʼ identities and interests• State behaviour is defined by identity and interest• BUT identity and interest are defined by international forces i.e. by

the norms of behaviour of international relations• Norms are transmitted to international society through international

organisations• International structure, normative context of international system

and international organizations change over time and the change will also lead to changes in state preferences and interests

• E.g.• How UNESCO has taught states to develop science bureaucracies• How states came to accept norms of warfare (International Committee of the Red Cross)• Robert McNamara - WB (??)

Finnemore’s Constructivist Theory


• Scholars focusing not on system, but on norms • Risse: how international norms have dissimilar effects in

different states (regime type, experience of civil war, existence of domestic human rights organizations)

• Katzenstein: The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, 1996• Culture, norms, identity matter also in the core area of national

security• Johnston: Cultural realism in China

• Two traditions: (1) Confucian-Mencian: cultural aversity to the use of force (2) ʻSeven Military Classicsʼ

• Idea-based strategic culture which presence can be shown across ʻvastly different interstate systems, regime types, levels of technology and types of threatʼ

Constructivist Theory Based on Domestic Norms, Culture I.


• George Kennan: The Long Telegram• Provide the philosophical and conceptual framework for

interpreting Stalin’s foreign policy• At the "bottom of the Kremlin's neurotic view of world affairs is the

traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity." Following the Russian Revolution, this sense of insecurity became mixed with communist ideology and "Oriental secretiveness and conspiracy."

• Stalin regarded the Western capitalist powers as irrevocably hostile

• The friction between the Soviet Union and America was therefore not the product of some misunderstanding or faulty communication between Moscow and Washington but was inherent in the Soviet Union’s perception of the outside world

Constructivist Theory Based on Domestic Norms, Culture II.


• Neorealist: sceptical about the importance of norms. (Such norms surely exist, but routinely disregarded if that is in the interest of powerful states) (e.g. conventional norms about sex, family and marriage)• States cannot become easily friends due to social

interaction, because of the structure of international forces

• States face anarchy and uncertainty which is disregarded by constructivist

• Deception (uncertainty about each otherʼs motives and intentions) Hitler-Stalin pact

• Constructivism does not tell us how norms are formed

Critiques of Constructivism


Documents

International Relations Theory - zero.eik.bme.humono.eik.bme.hu/~gyorgy/IR_files/8NPE_Social_Constructivism.pdf · International Relations Theory Nemzetközi Politikaelmélet Szociálkonstruktivizmus