Chapter 09

Constructivism

• Constructivism in IR emerged from a critique of the more traditional IR theories during the Cold War period. They shared a rejection of the static material assumptions that dominated and instead emphasized the social dimensions of IR and the possibility for change.

• Constructivism is based on the general notion that international relations are socially constructed. To construct something is an act which brings into being a subject or object that otherwise would not exist. Social phenomenon such as states, alliances or international institutions, are not thought to exist independent of human meaning and action.

• The central themes of change, sociality, and processes of interaction point to the added value of constructivism within a field that has emphasized generalization across time, materiality and rational choice.

• The term constructivism was introduced to IR by Nicholas Onuf (1989) to refer broadly to a range of postpositivist perspectives, which shared a critique of the static assumptions of mainstream IR theory. However, scholars have since made a distinction between ‘conventional’ constructivism and more critical variations, including poststructuralism.

• Conventional constructivism is said to occupy the middle ground between rationalism and poststructuralism. By adopting a positivist epistemology, constructivists have gained considerable legitimacy, such that their debate with rationalists has come to occupy an important place in the discipline.

• Constructivism adds a social dimension that is missing from rationalist approaches. What is rational is seen as a function of legitimacy, defined by shared values and norms within institutions or other social structures rather than purely individual interests.

• Constructivists have questioned the individualist ontology of rationalism and instead emphasize a social ontology. As fundamentally social beings, individuals or states cannot be separated from a context of normative meaning which shapes who they are and the possibilities available to them.

• Structures not only constrain actors they also constitute identities. The individual or state can also influence their environment as well as being influenced by it, through a process of interaction and mutual constitution.

• Constructivists emphasise social cognition where intersubjective meanings have some independent status as collective knowledge not merely the aggregation of individual beliefs. Although a closer look at the role of individual cognition and rationality in constructivism suggests this difference is less stark.

• There is a tension between conventional constructivism and that with its roots in the linguistic turn, particularly regarding consistency. These inconsistencies arise from the combination of a social ontology with an epistemology that rests on a separation between an external world and the internal thought processes of individuals.

• Consistent constructivism rests on a longer lineage, outside of IR, with a genealogy that intersects with, but is distinct from, poststructuralism. Constructivism is, from this perspective, first and foremost an epistemological position, heavily indebted to the ‘linguistic turn’.

• The linguistic turn builds on the notion that we cannot get behind our language to compare it with that which it describes. Language is bound up in the world rather than a mirror of it.

• Positivist epistemology however rests on a correspondence theory of language, that is, objects are assumed to exist independent of meaning and words act as labels for objects in this reality. Hypothesis testing is then a method of comparing scientific statements about the world with the world to see whether they correspond.

• Consistent constructivism is based on an understanding of language and action as rule-based. This approach to language requires that we ‘look and see’ how language is put to use by social actors as they construct their world.

• As such it is less concerned with the intentions of individuals than the intention expressed in social action. For example, the ‘intention’ of individuals engaged in ethnic cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia could not be separated from a world in which neighbours had become ‘dangerous others’. Intention and action were defined in a public language by socially constituted actors.

• This approach also highlights problems apparent in the frequent emphasis on causality of conventional constructivism and the conflation of reason and cause. The competition to identify the ‘true’ cause or intention usually devolves into a battle of interpretations. Reasons, however, can be given in public language and make actions possible, such as the presence of WMD in Iraq, whether they were believed or not.

• This suggests we should focus less on the desire for ultimate truth and more on social fact that the action happened and then how this became possible.

• Case Study. NATO expansion has generated a literature that is explicitly constructivist in its orientation which grows out of a critique of more materialist or rationalist explanations. The focus has been on questions of both the persistence and the expansion of the alliance after the demise of its Cold War enemy.

• Case Study continued. Constructivists have focused on the dynamics within NATO to approach this problem. They have concentrated on the interaction of different actors and shared values and norms of liberal democracy in propelling expansion. Whilst both values and material interests are deemed important, values are given more credence in explaining expansion.

• Case Study continued. This approach encounters two problems, it does not address why the spreading of values is more important than material interests and it ignores NATO’s initial reluctance to consider expansion.

• Case Study continued. When language is connected to epistemology and method, as in consistent constructivism, the importance of dialogue in transforming all of the participants (NATO, Russia and the CEECs) is highlighted in making enlargement possible. In order to maintain its identity, NATO had to act in a manner that was consistent with the ideals and promises it had espoused during the Cold War, particularly in the face of claims that it was failing to do so. NATO required recognition which depended on a consistency between words and actions eventually dictating enlargement to the East.

• The meaning of constructivism has transformed over time. Whilst the construction of constructivism in line with positivist social science, causality and hypothesis testing has generated inconsistencies, the engagement with the mainstream has also opened a space for broadening the dialogue to ask further questions about the methods most appropriate to a constructivist approach.

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 09.

Chapter 09

Constructivism