social constructivism international relations
The culture of national security. Critical constructivists pay greater attention to issues of power and dominant discourses that construct national identity.. Allen, J. Steele, B. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. In the context of the global war on terror, US efforts to extract intelligence from suspected terrorists led to the use of enhanced interrogation techniques which was widely seen to have abrogated or contested the global prohibition on the use of torture (Steele 2008a; see also Birdsall (2016) who argues that it worked to strengthen the anti-torture norm). European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 341370. The scope of military conduct can also be institutionalized, and constructivism provides a way to understand such processes. In other words, actors can never significantly remove themselves from their social structure to make independent judgments. Constructivism focuses on the social context in which international relations exist. Post modernism is relatively new in international relations. The development of and debate over logics of behavior is the foundation of the reasoning about normsreasoning through norms spectrum. NATO and the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Instead of calculating what is best for improving its utility, an actor motivated by the logic of appropriateness will instead reason what actors like me should do. This standpoint of Constructivism is contrary to the 'atomized' 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. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 15(1), 923. In correlation to this, it would be fruitful to acknowledge the role of constructivism in international relations theory, as one could argue it is closely related to this analysis, where one may draw parallels between Norway and Sweden in the comprehension of the research. 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. Constructivist security studies: Portrait of a research program. Roennfeldt, C. F. (2022). Wendt, A. Post Cold War Era- Provided much diverse approach to understand and analyze international relations. Even among security communities such as the Nordic states, different strategic cultures can be found because they are informed by a range of historical and cultural experiences, with different experiences of war and conflict, membership of alliances, and other factors (see special issues of Cooperation and Conflict (2005) and Global Affairs (2018) for further discussions). CrossRef What was it all about after all? The Athenians demand that neutral Melos side with them against Sparta. Interpreting the impact of a norm. Other scholars deemed the logic of appropriateness (as well as the logics of consequences and arguing) to be too agentic to fit well with constructivist tenets. 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). 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. More recent constructivist norms scholarship has revisited this perspective on social norms, positing a different set of normative dynamics more focused on contestation over social 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. Birdsall, A. The irreducible core of constructivism for international relations is the recognition that international reality is socially constructed. 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. Epistemic communities are described by Peter Haas as networks of knowledge-based communities with an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within their domain of expertise. They share intersubjective knowledge and beliefs and a common policy enterprise, tackling specific problems in relation to their professions (2016, p. 5) to push for norm change around nuclear proliferation and to reduce the arsenal of the superpowers. ), Do the Geneva Conventions matter? The translation requires interpretation a subjective understanding of the intersubjective context to decide on a behavior. 1999). 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. London: Routledge. (1) Normative behavior how an extant norm influences behavior within a community. Kurki, M., & Sinclair, A. Grand strategy, strategic culture, practice: The social roots of Nordic defence. The rest of this section explores this distinction in greater detail, discussing the behavioral logics at the foundation of the about/through spectrum before examining the recent compliance and contestation literatures that are developing new ideas about norm dynamics. The category of social norm was not an invention of constructivism. While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to adequately cover these approaches, the Baumann chapter in this volumediscusses securitization; for works on ontological security that speak to international security and aspects of the military, see Mitzen (2006), Krahmann (2018), and Mlksoo (2018).) How shared culture and identity matters in international security can be illustrated with the example of nuclear weapons. talk, follow norms, create rules, etc.). An alternative set of norm dynamics may be implicated when one seeks to understand change in norms themselves. Social norms were considered, in many ways, the medium of mutual constitution. ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. 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. They do not simply replace bad norms but become established through what Finnemore and Sikkink (1998) call a norm cycle where new ideas and shared understandings emerge, become instituted and normalized. How strong is the nuclear taboo today? (2) Socialization how an extant norm or a nascent norm from one community diffuses and is internalized by actors outside that community. As Farrell tells us, liberals and realists do not agree on what prevents war is it democracy (as liberals would contend?) Even studies of norm emergence tended to treat the norms in question as relatively static one relatively fully formed norm is replaced by a new idea that becomes a norm. But for constructivists, it is social structure that is important (Farrell 2002, p. 52). Staff & Defence College, Norwegian Defence University College, Oslo, Norway, Norwegian Defence University College / Norwegian Military Academy, Oslo, Norway. Liberal international relations theory and the military. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. They are thus animated entities that strengthen, weaken, and evolve. Save. Issues such as those discussed immediately above raise the third criticism about constructivism, that "a weak or at least a controversial epistemology has become the basis for a strong pedagogic policy" (Phillips 1995, p. 11)).The primary influence underpinning much of the theoretical commitments of constructivist pedagogy was a highly influential paper written by Posner et al. Risse (2000) extended March and Olsens (1998) discussion of the relationship between the logics of consequences and appropriateness to a tripartite linking of three logics. 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. 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. Kowert, P., & Legro, J. The main two paradigms is the Realists and the Liberalist school of thoughts. 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. Wiener (2004:198) warns us that studying norms as causes for behavior leaves situations of conflicting or changing meanings of norms analytically underestimated. Certainly norms exhibit stability, as they are recognizable by the common expectations that they structure but, paradoxically, norms are also in a constant state of dynamism and flux. Critiques of constructivism tend to come from three areas: rationalist criticisms, issues over how constructivists see identity, and finally, criticism that constructivism is apolitical. In order to better understand compliance with and contestation over norms either in isolation or together, it is necessary to pay more attention to the prior understanding of who is in the community. The main empirical focus tended to be on either the development of a European polity (e.g., Checkel 2001) or on attempts at socializing Southern states into (relatively) universal international norms like human rights and sovereign statehood (Finnemore 1996; Risse et al. These works argue that norms do not provide fully specified rules for every situation, and especially not for novel situations. (2001). 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. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Adler, E., & Barnett, M. 394395). 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. Giddens (1984:22) argued that social rules do not specify all the situations which an actor might meet with, nor could [they] do so; rather, [they] provide for the generalized capacity to respond to and influence an indeterminate range of social circumstances. Until recently this insight was often bracketed and it was assumed that norm acceptors follow the norms that structure their community relatively unproblematically. 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. 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. Part of Springer Nature. Social Constructivist International Relations and the Military. The concept of power: A constructivist analysis. 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. ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. Yet this dominant view of international relations was significantly challenged by Alexander Wendt in the early 1990s with the simple premise: anarchy is what states make of it (Wendt 1992, pp. Social Constructivism in International Relations and the Gender Dimension . Social constructivism emerged out of key debates in international relations theory in the 1980s concerned with agents and structures and has come to be seen as the fourth debate in international relations theorizing, which pitches constructivist against rationalist perspectives (Fierke and Jrgensen 2001, p. 3). (1992). You could not be signed in, please check and try again. (Ed.). Yet the logic of appropriateness appears to cede the ground of purposeful, goal-oriented behavior to rationalist perspectives (whether it actually cedes this ground is an additional, and crucial question). Rasmussen, M. V. (2005). 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. But NATO transformed itself into something more than a military alliance. 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. A paradox of social norms is their dual quality. Norms and identity in world politics. Gheciu, A. Keywords Constructivists International norms International relations Rationalism Strategic behaviour First, both types of studies may benefit from more attention to the notion of intersubjective communities and their boundaries. 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. How militaries assess and interpret threat can be related to culture, intersubjective meanings, and social networks and understandings. (2016). They are both based on philosophical views. Norms are born anew every day as actors instantiate them through their beliefs and actions and, as Sandholtz (2008:101) notes, normative structures, in other words, cannot stand still.. It has major implications for an understanding of knowledge, including scientific knowledge, and how to achieve it. 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.. As we have seen in chapter 4, various factors can influence a country's interpretation of a convention. (1996). (1998). (3) state identities and interests are in important part constructed . 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.. However, the separation between the two kinds of norms research discussed above may ultimately be artificial. Following the initial success of empirical norms studies that established the efficacy of studying norms and showed that they mattered, current norms research explores when/where norms matter and how/when/why norms themselves change to a greater extent. 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). [1] [2] [3] The most important ideational factors are those that are collectively held; these collectively held beliefs construct the interests and identities of actors. Handbook of Military Sciences pp 116Cite as, 2 What is the main argument of constructivism? International Politics, 53(2), 176197. Journal of European Public Policy, 6(5), 721742. Germany and Japan, for example, had antimilitaristic strategic cultures after the Second World War which impacted their military engagement and organization (Berger 1996; Hagstrm and Gustafsson 2015). Kessler, O., & Steele, B. 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. This paper's argument begins by assuming that constructivism is a contested concept. It is especially relevant and pertinent as a tool of criticism of widely held empirical and normative theories. States may join military alliances to bandwagon with stronger powers, as realists tell us. Haas, P. M. (2016). 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. (2021). Recent efforts to ensure gender equality in militaries represent a normative shift, affecting operations and culture. There is considerable confusion in the field on what precisely constitutes social constructivism and what distinguishes it from other approaches to international relations.1 As a result, it has become fairly common to introduce constructivism as yet another substantive theory of international rela- 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. To construct something is an act which brings into being a subject or object that otherwise would not exist. Moravcsik, A. Security institutions as agents of socialization? 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. All of this came about through processes of socialization and persuasion, where interested groups such as NGOs, epistemic communities, and other actors not only successfully changed the norm around the treatment of civilians and combatants in warfare but instigated this norm as part of identity, and how states define right behavior. In R. Abrahamsen & A. Leander (Eds. (1999). Ontological security in international relations. At the same time, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) had successfully pushed for the UN to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2020. It derives its name from the . Although the theory lies more on non-material factors that govern states, it explains that politics also plays a role in international relations. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2018.1533385. 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. The strange career of Constructivism in International Relations" en Puchala, Do . International Politics, 47(1), 125. However, this focus did little to advance understanding of how norms themselves change without necessarily being replaced (Van Kersbergen and Verbeek 2007; Hoffmann 2005; Chwieroth 2008; Sandholtz 2008). van Meegdenburg, H. (2019). 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). Second, at a broader level, the current norms literature is wrestling with the relationship between intersubjective and subjective reality. Those who study compliance realize that actors are constituted by norms and cannot fully separate themselves from their normative context. A notable example that Searle uses to explain this is money. The Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink volume developed the spiral model that explained socialization of recalcitrant Southern states into universal human rights norms by referring to the linkages between and actions of transnational human rights activists, domestic human rights activists in the target state, and powerful Western state sponsors. (Eds.). Learning Objectives. ), Routledge handbook of private security studies (pp. The second big claim of constructivism is that ideas matter with rationalist theorizing, material factors take precedence. It stresses the social dimensions of International relations. Our assessments, publications and research spread knowledge, spark enquiry and aid understanding around the world. Two types of normative dynamics can be identified: the first is endogenous contestation; the second is compliance or diffusion. Constructivism argues that culture, social structures and human institutional frameworks matter. According to constructivism the priority is for social features instead of material. In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed. ), The culture of national security. As Tannenwald says, [e]ven as states pursue their interests, they do so within a normative structure (2017, p. 17). General norms must be operationalized or translated into specific actions for specific situations. Introduction by Finley, John H. New York: Random House. While neorealists argued that attacking Iraq was not in the national interests of the USA and that containment was more effective (Mearsheimer and Walt 2003), neoconservative hawks determined otherwise. To be specific, I navigated core tenets of constructivism in terms of its ontology, epistemology, and methodology, respectively. The empirical studies in this area were diverse. Intersubjective facts like social norms only exist within a community of actors that accept them. Constructivism relies in part on the theory of the social construction of reality, which says that whatever reality is perceived to be, for the . 124). Two have become particularly prominent compliance with the strictures of social norms and change in norms themselves. In A. M. Sookermany (Ed. Ontological security in world politics: State identity and the security dilemma. Norm emergence studies were concerned with how ideas come to achieve normative status (e.g., Nadelmann 1990; Klotz 1995; Finnemore 1996; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998) and why some ideas become norms and others do not (e.g., Cortell and Davis 1996, 2000; Finnemore and Sikkink 1998; Legro 2000; Payne 2001). Constructivists interested in norm change have recently begun reconceiving norm dynamics in a different way and have focused on contestation within communities of norm acceptors. 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. 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. Agius, C. (2006). Practice theory and relationalism as the new constructivism. The superior military capabilities of the USA were a significant material advantage that should have compelled Iraq to avoid invasion. - Checkel (1998) argues that "without more sustained attention . International Organization, 46(2), 391425. New York: Routledge. Norms that challenged ideas like genocide, apartheid, the use of nuclear weapons, how to treat prisoners of war, how combatants are defined, and the role of women in armed forces emerge in opposition to existing norms. 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). Identity informs preferences and interests, so to understand why certain states behave the way they do on the international stage, paying attention to how their identities drive their interests and actions matters. It was a tool for constructivists to show that ideas, norms, and morals mattered vis--vis rationalist variables in explanations of world political phenomena. The use of logic of appropriateness put constructivists in the curious position of having to show that norms, ideas, and identity mattered instead of material interests, which from a constructivist viewpoint is nonsensical. The Sandholtz (2008:121) passage quoted above brings together the two types of normative dynamics discussed in this section. This is a different way to think about and imagine the international realm beyond the narrow confines of rationalist power prescriptions. In international relations, constructivism is a social theory that asserts that significant aspects of international relations are shaped by ideational factors (which are historically and socially constructed), not simply material factors. The culture of national security. International Organization, 53(3), 433468. The first wave of empirical constructivist studies tended to freeze norms. 317356). (2010). Constructivism is an International Relations (IR) theory. Perhaps this is simply a matter of what questions are being asked. Constructivism and the nature of international relations Constructivism efforts to give a better understanding of international relations by its method which is based on social theory. Assessing the effects and effectiveness of the Geneva Conventions. 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. As Onuf states: Constructivism holds that people make society, and society makes people. What makes the UK feel safe in the matter of the USAs nuclear arsenal is that these states have a shared identity centuries of connection, friendship, shared beliefs and language, and similar cultures. Moreover, military alliances are increasingly not just about physical security but about binding together states with shared interests, identities, and norms. The initial empirical norms research tended to simplify normative dynamics to facilitate analysis and dialogue with competing perspectives, treating the norms that they analyzed as relatively static entities with relatively specific meanings and strictures. Ideas do not float freely: Transnational coalitions, domestic structures, and the end of the cold war. New York: Columbia University Press. Anarchy is not a given of the international system. Whereas Morgenthaus classical realism described interests in terms of power as a truism of international relations, in empirical terms, power might not be a driver for states interests and actions. 451497). Bruner (1990) and Piaget (1972) are considered the chief theorists among the cognitive constructivists, while Vygotsky (1978) is the major theorist among the social constructivists. Constructivism insists that reality is subjective. 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. ), Handbook of military sciences (pp. 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. International Organization, 59(4), 701012. The logic of arguing has inspired the development of significant empirical research (e.g., Muller 2004; Bjola 2005; Leiteritz 2005; Mitzen 2005) and it is the foundation for some approaches to reasoning about social norms (the logic of consequences is also implicated in approaches that consider that actors reason about norms). Searle, J. R. (1995).
