IR Social Constructivist
theories
Ideas and intersubjectivity
What are IR social constructivist
theories?
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Idealist
Ideas shape reality
Social reality is not objective or
external to the observer
Social world is recreated through
intersubjectivity
See e.g. Jackson and Sorenson,
Introduction to IR, OUP.
What is the international system for
IR constructivists?
- a human invention
- constituted by ideas not by material
forces
- a set of ideas, body of thought,
system of norms
- created by particular people in
particular place
- intersubjective creation
- a system which can be changed by
Constructivist IR against materialist
IR approaches
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E.g. Neorealism
- behaviour of states
- national interests
- balance of power
- distribution of material power
• - military forces, economic capabilities
etc
Social constructivist theories
outside IR
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Social constructivist theories
developed in
sociology and history before IR
Notably
Invention of childhood studies
Aries: ‘In medieval society
the idea of childhood
did not exist.’
Social constructivist theories
outside IR
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2 strands of social constructivist theories
- materialist social constructivist approaches
• - closer to classical sociology
• - (Durheimian, Weberian or Marxist traditions)
• - relationship between norms and material
conditions
• - e.g. industrialisation/modernity, deindustrialisation/postmodernity
- idealist social constructivist approaches
- society constructed through intersubjectivty
Social constructivism in IR follows idealist social
constructivist approaches
Influence of sociological
constructivist theories
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E.g. sociologist Anthony Giddens
Structuration
- structures (or rules and conditions) do not
mechanically determine what actors do
- relationship between structures and actors
involves intersubjective understanding and
meaning
- structures constrain actors
- but actors can transform structures
- by thinking about them &
- acting on them in new ways
Social Constructivist links
Antecedents in IR
• E.g. Kant - our knowledge of world is always
subjective in sense filtered through human
consciousness and human language
Similarities with other IR theories
- Liberalism’s concern with advance of liberal
democratic ideals – though constructivism has
interest in role of ideas in general
- International Society approach (popular in
European IR) included concern for ideas and social
interaction between states
Rise of IR Constructivist theories
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Failure of dominant IR theories
To explain end of Cold War
1989 Revolutions
largely peaceful revolutions
Romania
- only violent overthrow in Eastern bloc
- execution of head of state
[later conflict in parts of
Eastern Europe
notably former Yugoslavia]
Explaining end of Cold War
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Explaining end of Cold War
Cold War did not end through conflict
Instead Soviet elite abandoning
Communism and embracing market
Check Point Charlie
10 November 1989
Key IR constructivists
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Alexander Wendt
- ‘anarchy is what states make of it’
- rejects neorealist position
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anarchy must lead to self-help
state identities and national interests given
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- self-help outcome of particular interactions between
states
- identities and interests of states created through
interactions
- ‘structure has no existence of causal power apart
from processes’
Key work: Wendt’s Social Theory of International
Politics, 1999
Wendt: cultures of anarchy
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3 key types of international anarchy
- Hobbesian
war of all against all
- states = adversaries
- war= endemic as violent conflict means to survive
Lockean
restraint
states= rivals
states recognise each others right to exist
since Peace of Westphalia in 1648
Kantian
states = friends
disputes settled peacefully
mutual support if third party threat
among liberal democracies since WWII
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Constructivist approaches to
security
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- states want security
- but concept of security not fixed
- security identities, interests and
policies constructed through
interactions between states (Wendt)
End of Cold War
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‘if the United States and the Soviet
Union decide that they are no longer
enemies, “the cold war is over”. It is
collective meanings that constitute
the structures which organize our
actions. Actors require identities –
relatively stable, role specific
understanding and expectations
about self – by participating in such
collective meaning’ (Wendt, 1992, p.
Subsequent constructivist theories
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state not only international actor
i.e. Wendt did not move far enough from
Realist assumptions
global actors, identities, norms, interests
and policies not fixed
norms of international society constructed
through interactions
between states and other non-state actors
including NGOs etc
concern with
- normative change
- role of international organisations and NGOs in
promoting global norms
- peacemaking
Constructivist examples
ICRC in promoting laws of war/IHL
Neorealist critiques
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See e.g. Stephen Krasner, John
Mearsheimer
Neglect power
Norms upheld or disregarded if in
interests of powerful states
Problem of trust/uncertainty about
other states’ intentions
Problem of deception
Constructivist view of change
Constructivism on change?
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Criticism that contructivists
• ‘provide few insights on why discourses
rise and fall…’
• ‘little about why realism has been the
dominant discourse’
• ‘they usually end up arguing that
change in the material world drive
changes in discourse’
• Mearsheimer, 1995
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- see e.g. constructivist explanations
of the Iraq War e.g. Mary Kaldor
Realist critique of constructivism
William Wohlforth’s article, International
Security, Vol. 19,1994-1995
Structural realism may neglect
domestic politics
But classical realism does look at
domestic politics
 - e.g. Morgenthau, Niebuhr
 - Waltz’s Man, the State and War
• - first image - leaders make politics
Alternative historical materialist or
postmodern social constructivists
Critiques
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Mainstream IR constructivists neglect
- questions of power & capabilities
- global norms informed by more powerful actors
- explaining why changing material social conditions fostered rise
of idealist approaches in 1990s
e.g. ICC & evolving international criminal law
e.g. links between changing development models and changing
security concerns
2. Neorealist critiques of constructivism neglect
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impact of changing national/domestic politics
states’ difficulties cohering sense of national interest
explaining why changing material social conditions fostered rise
of idealist approaches in 1990s
War crimes trials
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This week's BBC programme Moral
Maze discusses war crimes trials –
relevant to social constructivism and
international ethics debates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/
b00nfqzl#synopsis