1. Presented by Yu Seunghee & Zhang Luan
Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist and constructivist approaches to international by Steve Smith
Presented by Yu Seunghee & Zhang Luan

2. Introduction to International Relations
Main contents
Explanatory/constitutive theories
Foundational/anti-foundational theories
Reflectivist theories:
Normative theory
Feminist theory
Critical theory
Historical sociology
Post-modernism
Social Constructivism

3. Introduction Introduction
Realism, liberalism and structuralism were dominant theories for the last 50 years.
The inter-paradigm debate has been influential in thinking about international relations.
Two changes in the last decade
a major debate : neo-neo debate
the appearance of a range of new approaches

4. Introduction Reasons for the rise of new approaches
the end of the cold war
globalizaion
major developments underway in other academic disciplines
(Positivism has been undermined by developments in the social sciences and philosophy)
neo-liberal institutionalism

5. Foundational/anti-foundational theories
Introduction
Two distinctions in international theory
Explanatory/constitutive theories
Foundational/anti-foundational theories

6. Explanatory/constitutive theories
Explanatory theories
Constitutive theories
The world as
something external
to our theories of it
Our theories
help construct
the world it
the social world
as the natural world
our language and concepts
as helping create the reality

7. Foundational/anti-foundational theories
Foundational theory
Anti - foundational theory
All truth claims can be
judged true or false
True claims
cannot be judged
neo-neo debate
historical sociology
critical theory
post-modernism
some feminist theory
much normative theory

8. The current theoretical situation
Since the late 1980s, the new approaches have tended to question positivistic assumptions.
Yosef Lapid(1989) has termed this ‘a post-positivist era’.
The resulting map of international theory has three main features.
rationalism : neo-neo debate
reflectivism
social constructivism

9. The current theoretical situation
International theory in the late 1990s
Rationalism
Neo-realism
Neo-liberalism
Reflectivism
Post-modernism
Feminist theory
Normative theory
Critical theory
Historical sociology
Social constructivism

10. Two important points of Reflectivist theories
Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Two important points of Reflectivist theories
1. Most of reflectivist theories are radical, alternative, post-positivist. Use the reflectivist only to differentiate from the “rationalist”
2. Reflectivist approaches differ from one other, but they share a rejection of the core assumption rationalist theories.

11. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Normative theory
Normative theory is out of date because of dominance of the positivism.
Chris Brown : set up the two main points of world politics, cosmopolitanism and communitarianism.
- Cosmopolitanism should concentrate on humanity as a whole and on individuals.
- Communitariantism maintains that the appropriate focus is the political community.

12. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Normative theory
Chris Brown examined the three main focus points of normative international theory : the state autonomy, the ethics of the inter-state violence, and the international justice.
In the last few years, normative paid more attention to the question about the foreign policy.

13. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Feminist theory
Four main different feminist theory: liberal, Marxist/socialist, post-modern, and standpoint feminisms.
Liberal feminism looked that women are excluded from power and from playing a role in political activities. They want the same rights and opportunities that are available to men.

14. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Feminist theory
For Marxist/socialist feminists, the cause of women’s inequality is to be found in the capitalist system. Socialist thought the capitalism and patriarchy are the oppressor of women.
Post-modernist feminists are concerned with gender as opposed to the position of women as such.

15. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Feminist theory
Standpoint feminists try to develop a female version of reality. Tickner redescribed the six objective principles of international politics of Han Morgenthau.

16. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Critical theory
Critical theory is the development out of Marxist thought from 1920s.
Jurgen Habermas, Max Horkheimer, Robert Cox are the key scholars of the critical theory.
There are many other contributions of critical theory: Linklater, critical security studies.

17. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Historical sociology
Historical sociology central focus is that how societies develop the forms that they do .
Contemporary historical sociology is a study of the interactions between states, classes, capitalism, and war.
Charles Tilly, Michael Mann are the key scholars of historical sociology.
IEMP model (Ideological, Economics, Military and political power)
Historical sociology and the neo-realism have many points in common.

18. Introduction to International Relations
Reflectivist theories
Post-modernism
Post-modern approaches are too theoretical and not enough concerned with the real world.
The post-modernists think that in the social world there is no such thing as the real world.

19. Social Constructivism
Bridging the gap?
“My objective in this article is to built a bridge between two traditions (rationalism and reflectivism) … by developing a constructivist argument … ” (Wendt, 1992)
Alexander Wendt

20. Social Constructivism
There are several important objections to Wendt’s argument and his account is really much more traditional and rationalist than at first seems to be the case.
But many think that he does manage to bring the two approaches together.

21. Introduction to International Relations
Social Constructivism
Social constructivism offers the prospect of a via media(中庸). It represents a synthesis between rationalism and reflectivism.
Is the social constructivism is the middle way between the rationalism and reflectivism, or the view of how to construct different knowledge? The answer will depend on how you see the social world and what kinds of features of world politics matter.

22. Introduction to International Relations
Conclusion
Conclusion
The main contents : alternatives to the dominant rationalist of the international theory from the reflectivist theories to social constructivism.
Reflectivist theories are different, put them together only because they are all rejecting the central concerns of rationalism, but they do not to add up to one theoretical position.
So the prospect of a rationalist-reflectivist debate is very low.

23. Theories of World politics
Introduction to International Relations
Conclusion
Theories of World politics
Which theory do you think explain world politics most effectively?
World politics is very complex and there are a variety of theories that try and account for different parts of that complexity.
Which theory paints the picture captures the most salient features of world politics?

24. 감사합니다! 谢谢！ from 승희 & 张峦