On the contrary, this analytic device has a deep history in the sociological and economic literatures. How strong is the nuclear taboo today? For neorealists, the relative material capabilities of states determine hierarchy and power in international relations. 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. Does R2P matter? 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. The Sandholtz (2008:121) passage quoted above brings together the two types of normative dynamics discussed in this section. 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. 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. How are self-understandings and identity constituted in the international realm? (2016). This suggests that there is something beyond the timeless wisdom of realism that offers only a tragic view of world politics that will never change. Constructivism focuses on the social context in which international relations exist. In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed. To construct something is an act which brings into being a subject or object that otherwise would not exist. First, both types of studies may benefit from more attention to the notion of intersubjective communities and their boundaries. 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. 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). Is something rotten in the state of Denmark? Constructivism and European integration. Social constructivism primarily seeks to demonstrate how the core aspects of the international relations are contrary to the assumptions of Neorealism and Neoliberalism within the frame of social construction, taking up forms of ongoing processes of social practice and interaction. Glanville, L. (2016). 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. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. Tactical constructivism, method, and international relations. 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. (2019), and Kessler and Steele (2016) for recent advanced debates.) 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. 5. Hoffmann (2005) employs insights from the study of complex adaptation to understand how states that all accepted the norm of universal participation in climate governance came to have different subjective understandings of that norm. (A vital critique of conventional constructivism that uses the case study of Germany and the debates to join in military interventions outside the NATO area). 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. This pivot is an interesting development in norms research for two reasons. 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. 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. Some preexisting knowledge of speech act theory, constructivism, and securitization theory is useful before reading this chapter . 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. New York: Columbia University Press. New York: M. E. Sharpe. Norm contestation during the US War on Terror. I would like to thank Alice Ba, Robert Denemark, Phil Triadafilopoulos, and the anonymous reviewer for their helpful discussions and suggestions on this essay. In Searles book The Construction of Social Reality, he opens with a puzzle that concerned him for a long time: that there are portions of the real world, objective facts in the world, that are only facts by human agreementthings that exist only because we believe them to existlike money, property, government, and marriagesThese contrast with such facts as that Mount Everest has snow and ice near the summit or that hydrogen atoms have one electron, which are facts totally independent of any human opinions (1995, pp. Norms are also expectations about behavior (these are called regulatory norms because they define acceptable behavior). This chapter will concentrate on some of the main elements that have relevance for military studies. Schmidt, B. (2010). After all, these were Cold War institutions whose purpose was now over with the end of superpower politics. In R. Abrahamsen & A. Leander (Eds. Yet, Wittgenstein's notion of family resemblances helps in understanding why an essence of constructivism need not be found. WEEK 4 . (2018). In addition, taking constructivist thought to its logical conclusion, there is no such thing as nonnormative behavior or pure material self-interest independent of a normative context. Download. How shared culture and identity matters in international security can be illustrated with the example of nuclear weapons. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(4), 519535. Early constructivist work in the 1980s and early 1990s sought to establish a countervailing approach to the material and rational theories that dominated the study of international relations. 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. Assessing the effects and effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions. Steele, B. 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). 317356). Social Constructivism in International Relations and the Gender Dimension . 134). We unlock the potential of millions of people worldwide. While constructivism has made significant inroads into IR theorizing, it does not mean that it is unproblematic or immune from criticism. Rather it seeks to explore how the current reality evolved (Farrell 2002, p. 59). 451497). The social construction of Swedish neutrality: Challenges to Swedish identity and sovereignty. Constructivism accounts for this issue by arguing that the social world is of our making (Onuf 1989). Journal of European Public Policy, 6(4), 669681. Even though it was opposed by the USA, which did not want to subject its military forces to external war crime trials, it is an example of a constitutive norm (which creates new actors, interests and categories of action (Bjrkdahl 2002, pp. New York: Columbia University Press. This reimagining is not new. B., & Heikka, H. (2005). 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. International Theory, 4(3), 449468. Critiques of constructivism tend to come from three areas: rationalist criticisms, issues over how constructivists see identity, and finally, criticism that constructivism is apolitical. Constructivist ideas are present when attention is turned to alliances and security communities. Keywords Constructivists International norms International relations Rationalism Strategic behaviour In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed. 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? The Peloponnesian 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). Altmetric. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4_105-1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4_105-1, eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science & International StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences, Over 10 million scientific documents at your fingertips, Not logged in Cham: Springer. In M. Evangelista & N. Tannenwald (Eds. Manchester: Manchester University Press. The causes of the Iraq war. Early empirical approaches did engage with normative dynamics and change (e.g., Finnemore and Sikkink 1998), but the understanding of dynamics and change was relatively circumscribed. Holding social norms relatively constant in order to do this was deemed an acceptable trade-off. 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. van Meegdenburg, H. (2019). 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. Whether a state is democratic or autocratic, for example, does not seem to matter for neorealists such as Kenneth Waltz (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume), because the anarchic structure is what is important for understanding state behavior. When actors follow the logic of arguing, they seek common understandings through discourse and dialogue. 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. 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. The development of and debate over logics of behavior is the foundation of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. Berger, T. U. Constructivism is an International Relations (IR) theory. This had some success. 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. 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. Fierke, K. M. (2001). Poststructuralism in international relations: An exploration of discourse and the military. 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.. They (2005:25) note, As domestic actors search about for new ideas to legitimate their self-interested preferences, the norms and institutions of the international system often provide them. While Cortell and Davis do not problematize the substance of the financial liberalization norm under examination, they do attend to a neglected aspect of norm dynamics the actions of those actors who are targeted for socialization. One of the big problems for rationalists, (When considering critiques of constructivism, it is important to note that those critiques are guided by the underlying epistemological and ontological positions of rationalist or other forms of theorizing.) The constructivist focus on norms is important for understanding teleological aspects of its idea of international relations that ideas can change world politics (Hopf 1998). Steele, B., Gould, H., & Kessler, O. Cortell and Davis (2005) still invoke fit or congruence between the local context and global norms in explaining compliance with an international norm, but their twists on this theme are: (1) to examine socialization of a powerful actor Japan; and (2) to conceive of fit not as a given, but rather the result of conscious domestic political activity. What Is Social Constructivism? (2006). (Eds.). In K. M. Fierke & K. E. Jrgensen (Eds. As Sandholtz (2008:101) puts it disputes about acts are at the heart of a process that continually modifies social rules. 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). However, the separation between the two kinds of norms research discussed above may ultimately be artificial. 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). 4. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. ), The culture of national security: Norms and identity in world politics (pp. 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). It stresses the social dimensions of International relations. 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. Recent efforts to ensure gender equality in militaries represent a normative shift, affecting operations and culture. 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). Chapter 4 Constructivism and Interpretive Theory CCRAIGPARSONS [A constructivist argument claims tear people do one thing and not anurher due co the presence of certain social construct ideas, belies, noms, idenies, or some other iterpreuire fer through which people perceive the wood. 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. Security communities. Constructivism is relevant to military studies in numerous ways. Handbook of Military Sciences pp 116Cite as, 2 In addition, rather than taking the external norm as given, recent socialization studies examine compliance with international norms as a process by which states (already normatively constituted) interact with, manipulate, and (sometimes) incorporate external ideas in a dynamic fashion. Risse-Kappen, T. (1994). Seizing the middle ground: Constructivism in world politics. Finally, the third theory of international relations, known as Constructivism, focuses on ideas, shared beliefs and identity as the main drivers of success. NATO and the New Europe. The basics of constructivism Social norms were considered, in many ways, the medium of mutual constitution. Constructivism, which reached the shores of IR in the 1980s, describes the dynamic, contingent and culturally based condition of the social world. . Cham: Springer. International Relations, 22(2), 243261. (2009). 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. Allowing the meaning of social norms to vary in the course of analysis can quickly devolve into an expository morass. 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). 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. Doing so has opened up the field to bring in different explanations of global politics that can delve deeper into how culture and identity play a role in determining state interests. Wendt, A. 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). First, the compliance and norm change research agenda (loosely defined) is more internally focused than the previous wave of norms-oriented research. Critics too began to understand social norms as static and specific and this facilitated an erroneous notion that evidence of norm-breaking behavior somehow invalidated or falsified constructivist theorizing. Steele, B. The category of social norm was not an invention of constructivism. Wendt tends to view state identity in a singular way which can omit its complexity. FBI says Saddams weapons bluff aimed at Iran. The Washington Quarterly, 41(3), 89109. A notable example that Searle uses to explain this is money. Social Constructivism is one of international relations approach. 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. Mearsheimer, J. J., & Walt, S. M. (2003). Hopf, T. (1998). 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. This freezing of norms tended to make them independent from politics as variables in political behavior. 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. 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). 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.. Roennfeldt, C. F. (2022). This dynamism, it should also be noted, may not always be positive ideas about security can also regress or become less normative or progressive. forthcoming). (It should be noted here that social constructivism is often seen as part of a broader set of theoretical approaches that are concerned with identity and discourses, such as ontological security and securitization. The focus was not on analyzing norms as much as it was using norms as a device to analyze world politics. Instead, norms are general principles that must be translated into specific actions (Gregg 2003). 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). 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). 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. Moreover, social constructivism emphasizes social relations in global politics, and sees security and international politics as determined by ideas as well as material factors. Even so, more recently there has been some rejection of the ICC by a few African states, signaling that some states are unwilling to accept its authority. Introduction. Thucydides the constructivist. European Security, 27(3), 374392. Haas, P. M. (2016). General norms must be operationalized or translated into specific actions for specific situations. 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. 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. (Ed.). It then turns to a discussion of two directions currently being explored in social norms research and the open questions that remain. It is ideas, according to constructivists, that play a large role in determining how actors act. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 15(1), 923. This analytic move facilitated conversation and competition with rational/material theoretical competitors. Katzenstein, P. J. (1999). For example, norms can challenge practices and beliefs that are seen to be no longer fit for purpose. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2018.1533385. Advance of Theory of Constructivism in IR The theory's rise is generally attributed after the end of cold war . Weinhabits world of our making" (Onuf,1989),and setion i . Norm-breaking behavior may be evident but is only problematic for constructivist arguments if norms are specific and static. 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). 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. Adler, E., & Barnett, M. This goes against realist reliance on a world structured by anarchy that compels states to behave in certain ways, regardless of what sort of states they are (Farrell 2002, pp. For realists, the material structure of the world matters. 115135). Conventional constructivism is not interested in replacing one reality of world politics with another. The irreducible core of constructivism for international relations is the recognition that international reality is socially constructed. Ideational or even soft power the influence that is exerted that does not rely on hard power but rather attracts others to ideas and values (see Realist International Relations Theory and The Military by Schmidt in this volume) can be effective in global politics and choosing to go to war over ideas rather than material gains or even to not take advantage of material gain and an increase in power, serve as examples. Norms and Social Constructivism in International Relations | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies Social norms were conceptualized as aspects of social structure that emerged from the actions and beliefs of actors in specific communities; norms shaped those actions and beliefs by constituting actors' identities and interests. (2019). An example of this can be seen in the case of Libya in 2011, which is broadly hailed as a successful R2P intervention. 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. Nordic strategic culture. Koschut, S. (2014). Post modernism is relatively new in international relations. Two have become particularly prominent compliance with the strictures of social norms and change in norms themselves. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Abstract. The second is compliance or diffusion actors from different normative communities seek to enlarge their communities or to hold on to extant norms in the face of external normative challenges and disputes that arise can lead to normative change in both communities. 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). Anarchy is what states make of it: The social construction of power politics. The work of Cortell and Davis (2005) and Acharya (2004) are relevant examples of this type of compliance research. Constructivist ideas are present when attention is turned to alliances and security communities ( 1 ) 519535... World matters analytic device has a deep history in the course of analysis can quickly devolve into expository. In this section cooperation and Conflict, 49 ( 4 ), 923 is relevant to military.! Norms relatively constant in order to do this was deemed an acceptable trade-off of superpower politics compliance! Can omit its complexity actors can see and interpret the world matters world matters were War... 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