1. IR Social Constructivist theories
Ideas and intersubjectivity

2. What are IR social constructivist theories?
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.

3. 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 new ideas
Alexander Wendt: ‘anarchy is what states make of it’

4. Constructivist IR against materialist IR approaches
E.g. Neorealism
- behaviour of states
- national interests
- balance of power
- distribution of material power
- military forces, economic capabilities etc

5. Social constructivist theories outside IR
developed in
sociology and history before IR
Notably
Invention of childhood studies
Aries: ‘In medieval society
the idea of childhood
did not exist.’

6. Social constructivist theories outside IR
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, de-industrialisation/postmodernity
- idealist social constructivist approaches
- society constructed through intersubjectivty
Social constructivism in IR follows idealist social constructivist approaches

7. Influence of sociological constructivist theories
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

8. 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

9. Rise of IR Constructivist theories
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]

10. 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

11. Key IR constructivists
Alexander Wendt
- ‘anarchy is what states make of it’
- rejects neorealist position
- anarchy must lead to self-help
- state identities and national interests given
- For Wendt
- 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

12. Wendt: cultures of anarchy
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

13. Constructivist approaches to security
- states want security
- but concept of security not fixed
- security identities, interests and policies constructed through interactions between states (Wendt)

14. End of Cold War
‘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. 418).

15. Subsequent constructivist theories
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
human rights
human security
e.g. Mary Kaldor, Martha Finnemore etc

16. Constructivist examples
ICRC in promoting laws of war/IHL

17. Neorealist critiques 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
Discussed in Jackson and Sorenson, 2003

18. Constructivism on change?
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
- see e.g. constructivist explanations of the Iraq War e.g. Mary Kaldor

19. Realist critique of constructivism
William Wohlforth’s article, International Security, Vol. 19,
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

20. Alternative historical materialist or postmodern social constructivists
Critiques
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
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

21. War crimes trials
This week's BBC programme Moral Maze discusses war crimes trials – relevant to social constructivism and international ethics debates.