Onuf (1998: 58). Wendt (1999) develops this point in excruciating detail. Emmanuel Adler's (2002) probing review and evaluation of constructivist research concedes the same point. Onuf (1998: 58).
Walt (1998). 5 Onuf (1998, 1989). See chapter 1 for a brief description of what is stipulated as the elements of social theory within which this volume is largely cast. While this volume, and particularly this chapter, is sympathetic to the constructivist project and welcomes its insights, it remains tributary to the possibility of an objective, if not disinterested, social science, a proposition rejected by many constructivists. As the discussion below suggests, this volume sees value, limited by the reservations developed below, in the constructivism of Alexander Wendt and of Peter Katzenstein and his associates – so-called "light" rather than the "heavy" constructivists. See Katzenstein (1996) and Wendt (1992, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000).
The internal quarrels among constructivists form a growing body of literature. See, for example, Kubalkova (2001a, 2001b), Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert (1998) and Fierke and Jorgensen (2001). Finnemore (1996) and Klotz (1995) describe, respectively, how norms influence actor behavior in defining national interests and in undermining the South African system of racial apartheid. See Ruggie (1998: 862–9) for a lucid sketch of key case studies as well as Katzenstein (1996), Fearon (2002), and Wendt (1999) throughout. Space constraints limit the discussion of these studies.
as a surrogate for constructivist thinking. some exclusively. In the interest of full disclosure (but at the risk of undue complexity) the strenuous objections of fellow contructivists against relying on Wendt as a worthy representative will be summarized below. Wendt's value derives precisely from his attempt to bridge constructivist thinking and the other paradigms and approaches discussed in this volume. within this larger. not as an epistemological. See ns. it would make a significant contribution to security studies and international relations theory. and security.262 Validating security theories defending territories). Specifying the key elements of Wendt's thinking is also a precondition for accurately nesting Wendt's approach and contributions. but without apology. the discussion will initially highlight the approach and contributions of Alexander Wendt. at least provisionally. and their alternative conceptualization of the constructivist project will be delineated. The citations in this chapter provide but a sample of this growing literature. politics. problem.9 To grasp. Heavy constructivists focus primarily. see the critique by Maja Zehfuss (2001). on knowing what is real rather than positing without question that the state is real. sprawling and expanding field of analysis.11 His constructivist critics aside. Some acquaintance with this apparatus is a prerequisite for hazarding an evaluation of constructivism's "value-added" to security studies. An understanding of his elaborate conceptual apparatus to explain international politics provides a useful introduction to constructivist thinking and its relevance to security. To partially relax if not surmount this constraint. See also Zehfuss (2002) for an extended analysis and critique. constructivists would have to show what still remains problematic: that their explanations of social events and actor practices trump alternative interpretations drawn from competing international relations and security paradigms.10 This task is further complicated by the deep splits among constructivists about what precisely they are doing and how to do it. This syncretic effort is rejected by heavy or "ideas-all-the-way-down" constructivists. They insist that the first task of constructivist 9 10 11 This point goes to the heart of the rationalist (behavioral) vs. we need some understanding of the complex (and very much contested) conceptual apparatus developed by constructivists. 5 and 7 for serious objections to Wendt's constructivism and its alleged compromise with prevailing rationalist thinking. To achieve this level of explanatory power. Wendt (2000) acknowledges as much. Specifically. the impact of constructivist scholarship and theorizing on international relations. . one of constructivism's leading lights. The latter view this move as intellectually misguided largely because Wendt chooses to join the issue of the state and explanations of its behavior as an ontological. constructivist debate. Space limits preclude a comprehensive review of the diversity of constructivist opinion and of its mounting literature.
with a three-way debate between Wendt. Knowing how humans know themselves and how they create their social conditions and other actors.13 Implicitly following a Lakatos prescription for validating theory. In this complex debate. interest. practice. What he proposes to do is to change the direction of the causal arrows of ascendant empirical theories. are still portrayed by Wendt as central concerns of international and security theorists. See also his critique and those of the following: Campbell (2001). like Wendt's states. and material forces driving human and state behavior. and Adler (2002). Wendt (2000. the latter should be our starting point. . Smith (2000). since he remains within the ambit of the contending theories and approaches that currently dominate thinking about security. like states.12 Words as speech acts that create knowledge and rule-binding human actions are viewed as more telling and explanatory than stipulated identities. it is important to keep in mind that Wendt's brand of constructivism purports to be more comprehensive and inclusive as an approach to theory. unlike heavy constructivists. Wendt's aim is more to enlarge the scope of explanation of actor behavior. Compare Wendt (1999) and Waltz (1979). however uncomfortably for heavy constructivists. specifically. Wendt's self-proclaimed "via media" works in this discussion. and research than alternative schools of 12 13 15 Campbell (1992). notably the state. While acknowledging that "power and interest are important factors in international life. 1999). Note the title of his major volume."14 Wendt is especially keen to draw swords with neorealism. is viewed as the proper first move in analyzing political phenomena and. Power." he argues that "since their effects are a function of culturally constituted ideas. 14 Wendt (1999: 41). and fellow constructivists who reject both his work and empirical theory. the principal interest of this volume. than. an obvious play on Waltz's Theory of International Politics. then. to reject prevailing theories or behavioral approaches.15 As a bridge to mainstream thinking. Epistemology thwarts conventional notions of what is real (states) or ontology. Social Theory of International Politics. Wendt's challenge is also a point of departure to understand the claims of "ideas-all-the-way-down" constructivists who reject Wendt and the mainstream.Constructivism 263 analysts is to address what is yet the unresolved question of how actors know themselves and their social environments and how they act on these ideas or conceptualizations. Wendt's announced objective is to subsume this body of scholarship within what he contends is the broader scope and deeper penetrating explanatory power of constructivist theorizing. rationalist schools of security theory. Doty (2000). in exploring issues of security. The student is presented.
followed by an assessment of his contributions to constructivist thinking. The constructivist project is a work in progress. The discussion seeks to provide wary students with usable conceptual tools to permit them to compare constructivist assumptions with those of rationalist and behavioral rivals to highlight the constructivist claim to be a radical break from dominant theorizing in international relations. much less the insights they afford. What the discussion can do is join some of the key points of controversy among these conceptually warring opponents to allow indulgent readers to make up their own minds. contender for hegemony in understanding and explaining international politics and security. the discussion will assess the range of constructivist thinking as a contribution to an explanation of the Cold War and its passing. it will be abundantly clear to Wendt's sharpest constructivist detractors that for several reasons beyond space constraints their positions will not have been fully covered.264 Validating security theories thought about international relations and security but not an outright abandonment of these positions. Once this conceptual framework is up. the specific structure of Alexander Wendt's constructivism will be sketched. The learning issues raised by heavy constructivists. if still coming. including the reservations of his constructivist critics. quite frankly. The general thrust of this discussion – extremist positions among practitioners notwithstanding – supports the constructivist claim to be a worthy. As with all of the contenders for hegemony. James Fearon and Alexander Wendt (2002). have also never been resolved to the satisfaction of scholars and theorists since they were first raised by the Greeks over two millennia ago. 16 17 This note of compromise is especially evident in Fearon and Wendt (2002). This move will facilitate evaluation between the competing conceptual "wares" offered by each school for sale in the marketplace of ideas. .16 Constructivism and its critics Why did constructivism arise to challenge prevailing theories? What separates constructivists from the schools of thought already covered in this volume? How do they go about their work in explaining how actors are socially constructed and how and why they think and behave the way they do? And what do responses to these questions have to do with security as constructivists understand this problem? In responding to these questions. Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett (2002). and the Forum (2000) organized by the Review of International Studies on Wendt's Social Theory of International Politics provide useful and informed introductions to these debates.17 So they can be scarcely resolved here.
Both are mutually constituted. they are always "off key. Wendt (1987. and institutions they construct enable them to act. biological and social universes which humans inhabit are mute until they come alive when given voice by humans. and fundamental explanation for the social exchanges of actors than alternatives. 1993). heavy form. rules. They reduce the pursuit of knowledge to an incessant struggle in which those in control of the linguistic tools to dictate the course and outcome of the battle gain power and privilege over others. and self-interest. For "ideas-all-the-way-down" constructivists these voices never ring "true".18 Words. both are simultaneous and instantaneous in their workings. and Carlsnaes (1992). Or are theorists and observers obliged to posit the existence of collectively shared and actor-affirmed ideas – structures of ideas 18 19 Foucault (1980. This charge is even leveled at the physical and biological sciences. 1999). as symbols of meaning and authority. The issue of causality raises next the problem of distinguishing between the causal import of agents and the socially constructed structures enabling them to act in certain ways. count decisively for constructivists. knowledge. especially social knowledge. post-modernist. Unlike Wendt. power. In the latter citation. There is no easy way to summarize all of the relevant elements of this presently intractable problem of how actors and structures are created. Grasping the import of these assertions captures a critical dimension of the constructivist approach and project. these heavy constructivists insist that all knowledge is relative and depends for its provisional validity on its social construction. Those in this branch of constructivism dismiss the insistence of most other social scientists that the knowledge they discover and advance can be objective and independent of the interests and biases of the observing "scientist. Dessler (1989). more profound. For constructivists. actors or agents and the norms." They reject the notion that knowledge can be divorced from the observer." servicing the interest they favor. The physical. constructivism puts into question – that is.19 Formulating the problem as a question may at least join the issue: Can "social facts" be explained solely by reference to the thinking and actions of putatively independent and autonomous agents or actors that produce these social facts. problematizes – all knowledge.Constructivism 265 It is important from the start to understand what constructivists mean by causality and to assess their claim that they offer a deeper. For them. A relevant introduction to this problem is found in Giddens (1984. . nor do justice to the divergent positions held by constructivists and their opponents about this process. In its most extreme. created through language by humans. see chapter 4 : 139–93 and works cited therein. like buying and selling in global markets or going to war. is inevitably and inherently tainted by privilege. 1982).
" These facts suffuse our daily social exchanges and thinking whether we are consciously aware of their impact on us or not."20 The physical and biological world comprising the setting for human exchanges is deaf and dumb.266 Validating security theories and knowledge – to understand and explain actor thinking and behavior? Depending on the constructivist under examination. Neither Weber nor Durkheim believed that social facts and practices could be adequately explained or understood simply by reducing them to the thinking and actions of individual agents. too. like sporting events. This environment and the objects of which it is composed have no meaning or significance in and of themselves except insofar as humans infuse then with social value. while the natural environment would exist whatever meaning we might impart to it. 1993). but Weber's hypothesis remains highly contested. to more mundane matters.21 explanation for the spread of the 20 21 Quoted in Ruggie (1998: 856). and significance attached to this natural environment and to social exchanges constitute the process of creating "social facts. In turn. They extend. if not sufficient. Weber implicitly posed the agent–structure problem in insisting that humans are "cultural beings endowed with the capacity and the will to take a deliberate attitude towards the world and to lend it significance. These prisms of social value render the physical and social worlds around them with a refracted array of significances. it is relevant to remember that the constructivist project has roots deep within Western social thought. or the annual rhythms of holiday celebrations. See especially Weber (1968) and Durkheim (1984. linking human freedom to moral obligation – a sense of personal autonomy and corresponding responsibility for one's own salvation – were a necessary. The value. These inform their thinking about the world and themselves. for example. Needless to say. The latter include religious and cultural values. these "arrays of meaning" generate incentives for action. Weber contended. that the Protestant Revolution and its new mindset. value-infused structures. that is not the case with respect to social exchanges and their significance. See Mommsen (1992) and Swedberg (1998). In conformity to the Lakatosian test of validity of competing schools of thought. Max Weber and Emile Durkheim paved the way for constructivist thought over a century ago. . This discussion draws on Ruggie's informed understanding of the evolution of constructivist thinking and on the author's own reading of Weber and Durkheim. family traditions. Individuals are embedded in ideational. profoundly held notions of political legitimacy and principles of state sovereignty and security. meaning. Weber (1958). this chicken–egg problem is typically resolved more by stipulation than by compelling or persuasive proof advanced by the analyst. shared national and ethnic identities. Of particular importance is the realization that.
According to Weber. whether they acknowledge their debt or not. although driven by personal material and millennial gain. Answers to these daunting questions supply. market system in which private and public goods would be harmonized by the "hidden hand" of the market. authority. choices. as chapter 5 describes. advanced the notion of a collective conscience. secularized the Protestant notion of the good Christian who. according to constructivists.Constructivism 267 market system and of capitalism around the globe. essentially formed a structure no less real or compelling than the material conditions limiting or facilitating human thinking. professional roles. possessed of intelligence. new insights in the causes and conditions of war and peace. These "ideas" and "beliefs. . as a social construct. Thus. state legitimacy. and accession to prevailing social institutions and the power and authority they conferred on individuals and groups (family hierarchy. see Katzenstein (1996) and Adler and Barnett (1998). These collective understandings shaped how others were perceived and evaluated. constructivists. command system would be transformed into a Lockean consensual. Hobbes' coercive. create and are created by these social facts so unlike the inanimate or non-human sentient bodies composing the natural universe. adherence to norms (human rights). a set of shared ideas and beliefs that informed the thinking and behavior of members of a given society. self-reflection. promoted by the Protestant break with Catholicism in positing a direct tie between man and a supreme being. had an implicit obligation to provide collective goods for others. and action. and reflexive capacity (acting on themselves). in extending Weber's insights. shared practices of social conduct (global market exchange through price mechanisms). have fashioned new conceptual tools to probe and expose these collective structures of ideas. Durkheim. social forces. including their relative power. if invisible and non-material. etc. enhancing the power of actors and driving their behavior – what Rousseau might have earlier termed the general will. and status. created the conditions for the effective workings of markets. Building on the contributions of Weber and Durkheim to social thought. These were embodied in the very identities of the members of a society and their conceptions of each other.). These notions and associated social practices were reflected and reaffirmed as socially created "facts" in language (the autonomous individual). Adam Smith's benign egoists. Searle (1995) elaborates on these links.22 22 Ruggie (1998) usefully roots constructivist thinking in the contributions of these early founders of sociology." however they may have arisen. For an analysis of the implications of constructivism for security. They remain focused on explaining how actors. These collective ideas were detectable. the new and widely accepted value of individual autonomy and responsibility.
quite apart from his attack on Waltz's neorealist thinking. or states – is primarily the result of shared ideas rather than of material forces. the notions of "good" or "bad" are not inherent in the physical or biological universe or in social relations. and reflexive agents rely in adapting to their social and physical environments. These are the elemental particles. He insists that the structure of human relations – whether between individuals. apart from the significance and meaning imparted to them by humans. Wendt adds a third and fourth dimension to these widely shared tenets. therefore. reflective.268 Validating security theories Shared constructivists tenets With this all too brief background. What is known is. These "ideas" arise by way of the agency of hearing and thinking humans. the social relations constructed by humans are social knowledge on which thinking. Perhaps two contemporary examples may illustrate Wendt's position at a general level of analysis. "This means that different collective meanings are attached to the material world twice. In other words. of human identities as social constructions." Unless there is a human to hear a tree fall. The notion of "tree" is not given by the tree or the meaning of its physical impact on earth as a function of gravity. if you will. and the theories. or technology. Similarly. and symbols that scientists use to interpret social reality. As Emanuel Adler explains. as Marxists would claim. Thousands of years of accumulated human knowledge were needed before a grain of sand could be recognized as the host of a computer chip and thereafter as a key link in a global communications system. Knowledge of nature or of social meaning and the significance of social exchanges depends on some knowing human being."23 The early Greeks had intuitively grasped these elements of the human condition in their assertion that "Man is the measure of all things. as such. we can identify several key and widely shared constructivist tenets. knowledge is both a resource that people use in their day-to-day life for the construction of social reality. as social reality and as scientific knowledge. socially and collectively constructed and does not rest inherently in the objects – inanimate or social – to which it is associated. it did not fall as a social event or fact. Second. whether violence. groups. Wendt argues that human associations and exchanges are principally defined by human ideational conceptions of their material circumstances. . This assertion directly challenges all of the schools of thought covered so far. economic resources. concepts. First. No less creative and subject to human ideas was the construction 23 Adler (2002: 95). meanings. all knowledge is socially constructed.
Falsifying the claimed causal effect of these factors beyond the pale of observation and empirical testing is difficult. and institutions affirmed by actors. are defined by the rules.24 Human agents both construct their identities that enable them to act and are simultaneously constrained by these identities. no new social constructions. the creation of new identities. These ever-changing agent–structure modalities evolve through an endless process of affirmation. . To wit: no new ideas. These material conditions were in Wendt's world driven by non-material "ideas" that informed and shaped the material conditions of social life. This is not to say that the theorists covered earlier discount or trivialize ideas or beliefs as key determinants of actor behavior. rather. The latter. industrialized. no new identities. a position in marked contrast to Marx." For the positivistically and empirically inclined social scientists these "No-See-Um" ideas refer to unobservable. that material factors can explain variance in human and agent behavior in more conclusive and definitive ways than appeals to what Calvin in the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" calls "No-See-Ums. Identities and interests are constructed from shared ideas. for many of a non-constructivist persuasion.Constructivism 269 of a society sufficiently modernized. no computer industry. no new interests in innovation and material acquisition. In contrast. what distinguishes most of the theorists of this volume from constructivists is their stress on the material conditions of choice confronting actors or agents rather than on the ideas or ideational structures of knowledge that actors construct to explain and thereby to infuse value into their social and natural environments. Constructivists claim that it is this "knowledge" that actors rely upon to guide their decisions in adapting to these settings. 1993) develops this socialized adaptation process in excruciating and repetitive detail. Most rivals of constructivism privilege material forces and external conditions as "shoving and shaping" 24 Giddens (1984. They are neither given by nature nor timeless and unchanging. in turn. as much of social science theory postulates. This evolutionary process also reveals a fourth tenet of constructivism. arguably impossible. They insist. largely unknowable or inaccessible social data. norms. no Bill Gates. rejection or social mutation by which agents redefine themselves and revise the structures which both enable them to act in the here and now and limit their range of freedom at the same time. Changing ideas about who actors believe they are define their interests. not the reverse. and technologically sophisticated that it could produce a Bill Gates whose universally adopted word processing program could advance the material welfare of billions of people.
are morally mischievous since they tend to affirm power relations already in place. Ideas inform technological change and economic practices. liberals and Marxists. and Ruggie's (1998: 866–7) criticism. Marx's economic man as a social construct is not necessarily determined beyond reform or repair as a consequence of technological innovation and changes in property rights. calculating. as Kenneth Waltz insists.270 Validating security theories actor behavior. See Goldstein and Keohane (1993) and Keohane's (2002) critique of Wendt. Whether explaining the market or 25 Some theorists object to the constructivist charge that ideas are marginalized in contemporary international relations. choose between alternative strategies. also encounter constructivists' fire and ire. Constructivists object to the choices made by rival theorists in defining the make-up of the actors and the systems they study. and create norms and institutions to facilitate future exchanges.e. on shared norms to facilitate the adjustments of self-interested egoistic actors in pursuit of mutual if differentially enjoyed material gains. Problematized are the notions of a rational actor.. on bio-economic needs under conditions of scarce material resources and given states of technology. conventional knowledge – that. . Markets and egoists who make them work are viewed no less as social constructs than states. viewed either as the autonomous. Realists and neorealists principally rely on force to explain actor choices and behavior. This widely accepted (but under-studied) Weberian "idea" of the state and its coercive trappings is advanced without explaining its social origins or justifying its claims to authority and power. Prevailing theories in international politics posit the existence of the state as a given requiring no explanation. who stipulate a pre-social or asocial individual as the primary unit of social analysis and by assumption a self-evident reified actor. The state and those in possession of its monopoly of violence are priority targets of the constructivist attack. Similarly. They are not beyond the capacity of the agent to recast and. Identities are not pre-formed. to redefine what it means to be human.25 The constructivist critique of prevailing paradigms Constructivism arose largely as a reaction to what were viewed by many as fundamental shortcomings in prevailing theory about international politics and security. Liberal economic theorists. These shortcomings are alleged to inspire explanations of actor behavior – i. These social units are no less problematic than their state counterparts. The latter are criticized for failing to develop a theory of how different agents and their interests arose. by that token. See Robert Keohane's insistence that ideas help actors link their preferences to effective strategies. egoistic and potentially omniscient individual actor or state. potentially. and liberal institutionalists.
dominant social science assumptions – static and unchanging identities and interests and the stipulation of a pre-determined trajectory of behavior – severely limit social inquiry to means–ends or narrow and self-serving instrumental thinking. like realists. Classical liberals. too. liberals are convinced that convergences can be achieved by voluntary social mechanisms. states will act out these strivings "as if" these constraints were timeless and irrevocable. problematic. where they initially converge. For constructivists of all stripes. to survive and thrive. Whereas realists are unable to envision the convergence of private egoistic and collective preferences. Explanations become circular: actors change their preferences in response to the functional. Realists and their fellow travelers assume that states in a decentralized state system will seek power to get what they want. These constructed identities and their corresponding interests are fundamental matters to be explained. Egoists will exploit the principles of the division of labor and comparative advantage . as if these were self-explanatory. Unable to surmount this posited security dilemma. the actor is stipulated to have an interest. and how their interests are formed and generated in response to these identities. assume. Constructivists reject the "as if" thinking of prevailing social theory. how the actors are to be studied (individuals or states or other agents). Following Adam Smith.Constructivism 271 the state system. and how these latter properties change over time. Actors are assumed without evidence or explanation "as if" they were moving in a fixed and rigid trajectory to get what the analyst (rather than the subject of investigation) stipulates as their preferences. how they acquired their current identities and interests. And the construction of these starting points – changing actor identities and differentiated interests – are always open to question and. they expect smart egoists to surmount the conflicting preferences through an ever-expanding market system and. What is most important about the actor under examination is dismissed out of hand: how these actors were socially created. to coordinate their efforts for joint gains. respectively. the market system to the action of individuals. accordingly. These unexamined assumptions. that individuals will act "as if" they were egoists. in maximizing wealth or power. challenged by constructionists. instrumental utility of such shifts in servicing fixed state or individual interests and identities. how they understand themselves. how they relate to each other as possessed of mutually constructed identities. The state system is reduced to the behavior of states. beg the question of the social make-up of these preferred units of analysis of prevailing theories. a condition stipulated as embedded in the state system. since responses to these questions necessarily precede strategic analysis and means–ends thinking.
functional imperative and concern for efficiency? The Australian Aborigines successfully replicated their way of social life for over 26 27 28 Schroeder (1994b.28 defined by the stipulated expectations of the liberal model of the standard economic. the state system and the roles that states play within it today evidence a gradual weakening of the Hobbesian world posited as unchangeable by realists and neorealists. 1959) and Durkheim (1993). according to constructivist thinking. how and why they behave. why assume. barter. but it is gaining ground. 29 Ruggie (1982) and Cooper (1968). Profound questions go begging about who humans are. Or. For a dissenting view.272 Validating security theories to produce wealth at the least cost with maximal benefit and sustained innovation over time for the greatest number. Constructivists underline what they insist are the enormous costs to knowledge of bounded "as if" thinking. Individuals will act this way "as if" Smith's reformulation of human nature were "true. "what if" thinking opens the observer to the possibility that individuals often – arguably most of the time – act in counterpoint to the liberal economic expectation of egoism and selfish acquisition of material wealth?27 For many neo-liberal economists to act out of a selfless or altruistic frame of mind would be tantamount to acting irrationally. believe in the inevitable march of technological change." defined by the stipulation of an allegedly inescapably compulsive attribute "to truck. consult Frank (1988). 2004) argues that the European states and statesmen not only understood that war was threatening to their states and regimes but also that peaceful solutions to state and regime conflicts were beneficial in their own right in creating a European security community bent toward consensual over coercive cooperation. "What if" states were able to cooperate and surmount their posited egoisms. and their prospects as species. Frank's dissenting voice is scarcely the dominant position in conventional economic theory. and exchange. which adopted an open trading regime?29 And from a radically contrasting perspective. could be checked by domestic and international political and socioeconomic reforms. too. Similarly. . These shortfalls are especially acute and significant concerning coping with challenges to personal and state security. materially driven rational man. 2003. too." Marxists. like those initiated immediately after World War II by the liberal democratic states. posited by Marxist theory. were wrong? What if the incentives for capitalistic exploitation and imperial expansion. instrumental. and to do so because they believe not only that cooperation is instrumentally beneficial but also a positive political good that is valuable in its own right?26 As Wendt argues in the discussion below. Frank (1988). making humans who they are and setting (albeit contingent) boundaries to the social identities they can construct. Also relevant are the earlier critiques of liberal economic thought by Polanyi (1944. "what if" Marx. that human evolution follows some principle of historical determination and that this process is dictated by a rational.
As Wendt (following Anthony Giddens) observes. as a methodology of analysis. The range of actor choices and possibilities of transformation are simultaneously (and paradoxically) always limited. Posing agent make-up and choices in this way problematizes and challenges existing power structures and the valued positions of privileged actors the latter support. the creative.30 affords more explanatory power of actor behavior and opens research to a greater range of prospective change than prevailing static "as if" theories allow. but social scientific theories alone have the potential to become part of their world as well." to borrow from Robert Axelrod. too. are free to make of anarchy what they want. "in both social and natural science observation of the world is affected by our theories. constructivists insist that what they see as "real" is. reflexive capacities of human agents possessed of unique linguistic and conceptual skills. created and constructed by actors as provisionally bounded systems which implicate their variable identities in structures of meaning that constrain yet enable them to act socially in what is for them sensible and rational ways. This "shadow of the constructivist future. potentially.Constructivism 273 forty millennia. including the practices that sustain or erode them. the limitless malleability of actor identities and interests and the social structures that inform these actors and to which their behavior conforms. but the prospect. conceivably. Constructivists claim that their interpretation of "reality" trumps conventional explanations of actor behavior and of the rise and demise of all social systems. reflective. yet open to limitless reformulation. Within constructivist thinking they acted as rationally as any modernized human today. Such transformations violate the assumptions of the causal theory of reference. In other words. of countless rationalities."31 If humans are free to construct the world as they wish and will. . 31 Wendt (1999: 76). There exists no one immutable and universal form of rationality. since reality is being caused by theory rather than vice-versa. Constructivists are largely persuaded that opening up research on the composition of agents and their social construction will privilege "what if" questioning over "as if" thinking to explain how human agents define "security." Counterfactuals defeat factual approaches in the constructivist approach because they more closely approximate. then this "knowledge" of the make-up of actors (ontology) and their conscious grasp and capacity for limitless re-creation of this "knowledge" (epistemology) conspire to privilege "what if" thinking and action over 30 Axelrod (1984). as most constructivists maintain – reaffirming what Rousseau asserted over two centuries ago – and if states.
social relations and agent behavior. . constructivists invoke what they term as collective knowledge that defines the identity and interests of agents. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's celebrated and much repeated ontological (and moral) stipulation of the human condition at the opening of the Social Contract – that humans are born free but are everywhere in chains – is reaffirmed and presented both as knowledge and as a guide and prompt for action to transform these words into reality.35 Constructivists argue (Wendt's reservations below notwithstanding) that agents and their social constructions are not independent and autonomous of each other. 34 Dahl (1957). They are mutually constituted by the meanings and ideas that compose them. This is particularly pertinent for understanding what actors mean by security and how they cope with this notion and the knowledge appropriate to addressing this imperative. These assumptions about causality clearly fall well short of the position of "all-the-way-down" constructivists. we assume that (1) X and Y exist independent of each other. ideas.34 This way of thinking certainly applies to statements about the natural physical and biological world."33 This characterization essentially replicates Robert Dahl's widely quoted attempt to operationalize the concept of "power" as what causes A to do something A would not otherwise do in the absence of the power exercised by B. Constructivists distinguish between causal and constitutive explanations of actor or agent behavior. 33 Wendt (1999: 79). principally with respect to explaining social change. applied to human. adapts a broad and capacious conception of empirical or behavioral causality. In conventional causal analysis there is an assumption that when we say. misleads and falsifies how social knowledge is constructed and how agent behavior is to be accurately and appropriately explained. It allows for a greater range of human activity to be observed and counted as explanatory of human thought and action. This volume. Conventional social science largely reduces these posited constructivist structures to common or shared cultural knowledge. or reject these collective structures of knowledge over 32 35 Rousseau (1950). of the causal role of values. and why and how they do it. These ideas form social structures that define the identities and interests of these actors or agents. Y would not have occurred. that "X causes Y. often determinative. and (3) but for X. It also exemplifies the epistemological assumptions of behavioral theory. Constructivists argue that this understanding of causality. It stipulates the importance. The latter are free in their mutual relations and practices to affirm. as Wendt observes.32 The constructivist critique of "as if" thinking leads logically to a unique constructivist understanding of causality.274 Validating security theories "as if" theory and practice. as chapter 1 explains. modify. some of whom reject the possibility of an objective social science capable of accessing the subjective states of mind of actors from the biases of the observer. (2) X precedes Y temporally. In contrast. and subjective states of mind in explaining what actors do.
whether they are consciously aware of their roles or not in "constructing" or in transforming themselves. He describes how he was expected by the local population under his rule to kill what they insisted was a rogue elephant. as expressed in appropriate social practices consistent with their identities. state) behavior or the rational choices of individual actors in pursuit of material gain (liberal economic theory) crystallize into recurrent patterns or market structures. rejection. but simultaneous and mutually constitutive. by the Raj's Indian subjects. replication. as discrete variables do not exist independently of each other. and change of identities and social structures is mutually constituted.36 36 Orwell (1954). Once these social facts and relations are set in motion and institutionalized in the linguistic speech acts and practices of actors and agents as continuing elements of their social interactions. respectively. This process of affirmation. To do otherwise would have violated the shared communal view of Orwell as representative of the ruling British Raj and the identity and roles assigned to that position. rules and institutions that inform them. Constructivists thus challenge two key assumptions of prevailing causal logic. Despite his personal reservations about killing the elephant. they essentially define the identities and interests of master and slave. Second. This rule-based construction constitutes social knowledge and defines who agents are as social constructs. recounts his experience as a British civil servant in south Asia. in which. X and Y conceived. Take the socially constructed distinction between master and slave. the relation between these variables is not sequential. Orwell. . the author of Animal Farm and 1984. The thinking and actions of these actors can be explained by way of the socially constructed meanings attached to their social conditions. as with Waltz. mutation. the structure dictates actor (i. "Shooting of an Elephant" portrays this process of identity-interest creation as a function of social interaction.e. These social constructions and the roles assigned to actors within them can be further illustrated by two examples.Constructivism 275 time. It cannot be located or reduced to discrete cause–effect or means–end chains as depicted in conventional social science. George Orwell's essay. An example may help illustrate the constructive claim of "value-added" in explaining agent behavior by positing the mutual social construction of agents and structure through collective ideas and knowledge. ironically. he believes he had to act in line with the expectations of those ostensibly subordinate to his command. First.. The properties of agents do not exist apart from socially constructed norms. These agents are fully party to their own social constructions.
Can it be understood in constructivist terms? At issue were the continuation of slavery as a legitimate social practice and the authority of the several states to preserve this institution vs. value and beliefs – as knowledge – were joined in a civil war struggle. Therefore. This new meaning attached to American identity of the fundamental equality of the races generates changes in social practices and in shared notions of what norms. and he had to obey what they demanded. A roughly accurate paraphrase of the general's justification might be put this way: "I was the chief. This is not. It sparked a civil rights movement that continues until today. Constructivists stress instead the "appropriateness" of actions relative to agent identities. this newly founded identity generated rules. Sequentially realized. and practices to put this social construction into play. a particular agent–structure composition at a given point in time is the product of a seamless process of ceaseless construction. norms. it was imperative that I follow them. . It ended slavery with the passage of the thirteenth. His defense parallels Orwell's rationalization of what he was about to do against his better judgment. and institutions are to be valued as legitimate. gender. of course. and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution. the authority of the federal government and the union of the American people to eliminate what many believed to be a morally heinous institution. not the means–end consequences of their choices and strategies. In constructivist thinking the Union's victory set the American republic on an entirely different course than that of the original Constitution. and ethnic inequality to the equality of all citizens. whether viewed as the replication. these mutually constructed agents and structures in opposition to each other render the enormous physical damage and slaughter meaningful and rational." Reflect for a moment on the American Civil War. These claims as social facts and as competing and irreconcilable forms of meaning. The general told the court that he was the leader of his troops. rules. mutation. significance. the instrumental. As the identity of Americans moved from notions of racial. It also set in train the elimination of state-supported discrimination among the races. In constructivist thinking. These new "ideas" and the changed social practices associated with them are putatively better guides for explaining the behavior of actors than appeals solely to the instrumental calculations of actors about the efficiency and functional utility of their actions. It is the substantive rationality of a profound commitment by actors to what agents construct as fundamental social purposes – ending or preserving slavery. means– ends rationality of much of prevailing social science inquiry. fourteenth.276 Validating security theories There is also the example of the French General who was court marshaled by the French Gaullist Fifth Republic for his complicity in a failed coup attempt. institutions. or transformation of a defined social set.
He was supposed to have replied that "It's too early to tell. passim. neither ideas about human rights nor the evils of slavery and genocide nor the elimination of these practices can be easily or plausibly attributed to the existence of autonomous. reflexive rational agents and structures their behavior across all human societies as a seemingly irresistible global movement. Pressures continue to mount worldwide for the protection and exercise of these rights. The subtitle is borrowed. Bridging the gap: Wendt's world40 Let's now turn to more probing examination of a closely argued and exhaustively presented constructivist position. independent. from a critique of Wendt's light constructivism by a "heavy." The significance of this observation is that the ideas of liberty and equality are putatively universal properties. For supportive evidence.38 Human agents have progressively become aware of their collective and common values as humans.39 as peoples everywhere work to transform their socio-economic and political settings to conform to these new ideas about what it means to be human. and socially disconnected individuals – a major contention of constructive thought. Chou En-lai. this force profonde has increasingly become a global social fact that informs the cultural knowledge of thinking. Rwandan and Bosnian genocides. reflective. with thanks. This is not to say that the expansion of these newly cultural values will be "instantiated" in social practices universally. where conflict approaches a Hobbesian endgame. viz. was allegedly asked what he thought of the French Revolution. and continuing civil war in many parts of the globe – in Sudan and central and western Africa. Kolodziej (2003). Steve Smith (2000). The point here is that. see Kolodziej (2003). Humans are presumably invested with these rights simply because they are human. This line of analysis is developed in the author's edited volume." In constructivist terminology. the Chinese Communist leader who had been educated in Paris. according to constructivist tenets. it was no less evident that it is also what the French call a "force profonde." "all-the-way-down" constructivist.Constructivism 277 The explosive expansion of human rights claims around the globe ushered in by the French Revolution and the proclamation of the rights of man would also appear to be relevant to the constructivist position of mutually constituted agents and structures producing social facts. Note the Chinese Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. that of Alexander 37 38 39 40 Searle (1995). This redefinition of human rights has evolved over two centuries to become one of the most dynamic forces driving international politics. ..37 If the idea of human rights assumes different forms across diverse and divergent societies.
state) behavior. 43 Wendt (2003). The first is Kenneth Waltz's neorealism. and not individuals. in Wendt's critique. as suggested earlier. Wendt applauds Waltz's structural theory of state behavior.43 Wendt maintains that states have a wide range of choice before them in relating to each other. He affirms the explanatory power of a structural approach but rejects Waltz's material conditions for the causal impact of structure on agent (i. Focusing on the state. as many of his constructivist partisans would prefer. accordingly. "underspecified. that he concedes too much to prevailing theoretical positions. states may believe their 41 42 This point is also made by two realists. The final challenge arises from many of his fellow constructivists who believe. much to the chagrin of his constructivist skeptics. within Wendt's world of states. but from a strategic rather than a systemic perspective.. States are not stuck in a Waltzian mold. Some appreciation may also be elicited for Wendt's erudite effort to navigate these turbulent waters and steer what he terms a "via media" between them. bereft of any significance absent human meaning and resulting practices that define this condition. See Christensen and Snyder (1990). The second is Wendt's critique of prevailing social science paradigms and his attempt to subsume this body of scholarly research within the broader scope of the constructivist project. Wendt portrays states as having "constituted" their relations in terms of shared ideas about what a state is and.e."41 The importance of Wendt's attack is that it is mounted on Waltz's home ground. the touchstone for Wendt's form of constructivism. Specifically.42 Conceivably. some sense of the intensity of the debate and sharp differences between and among these opponents may be captured. while fending off their attacks. . They can break out and make of anarchy what they wish and will. Waltz's structure of power – a decentralized distribution of capabilities for violence across states – and his attribution of a ceaseless and unrelaxed concern for survival and security is. Wendt (1992). anarchy is rejected both as having causal force and as a condition preceding sequentially the construction by states of their mutually recognized (and changing) identities and interests. In tracing the development of Wendt's responses to these three groups of critics. Waltz's characterization of the system of decentralized states fails to distinguish or provide any guidance in choosing which set of anarchical relations to pursue. Wendt views anarchy as an empty vessel. Wendt's constructivism responds to three challenges. as a right step in the wrong direction. For example. on what its interests are.278 Validating security theories Wendt. they can even surmount realism's security dilemma. and not launched from a vantage point outside the scope of Waltz's neorealist framework.
a causal role in this circular and iterative process of persistent and replicated exchanges. These forms can range from incessant conflict to perpetual peace. as posited by Waltz. interest. The crystallization of these constructions into ideational structures assumes. Viewed from Wendt's world. As ideal types. Agent and the structure of ideas animating and informing the actor are not separate and distinct from each other. simultaneously. Here deterrence and accommodation are appropriate rational strategies and practices. Waltz's rigid separation of structure and state.Constructivism 279 survival requires a status quo posture. inexplicably rejects any causal connection between the distribution of capabilities as structure and the changing material capabilities arising internally within states as inherent in the evolving composition of these material structures of violence. state behavior in response to eternal interests in survival. with structure "causing. This structure is embedded in the very identity of states – what makes them real – and is more powerful and compelling than Waltz's material constraints. each form of culturally created anarchy has a distinct logic of state identity. they create a non-material structure of ideas. The role of self-help. and the search for security constitute a particular conception of anarchy. Wendt portrays states as perfectly free to create whatever form of anarchy they please. Wendt contends that Waltz covertly smuggles into his structure of power properties of states – such as their shifting identities and interests – that actually do the explanatory work attributed to anarchy. or friends are not dictated by a uniformly composed anarchy. Each can be distinguished from the other in terms of the mutual perception or conception of states of each other as enemies (the Waltzian analogue)." as it were. respectively. and the appropriate use of hard and soft power. or friends. from Hobbes through Locke to Kant. Waltz's depiction of anarchy represents only one of three possible forms of cultures or structures of ideas and knowledge potentially available to states to choose among. which appear beyond manipulation or transformation. The specific anarchical structure is the mutually constituted product of the interactions of states. . role. rivals. Extending this line of analysis. These conceptions of identity of states as enemies. These properties of Waltzian anarchy drive the system and state behavior. their fear of perceived enemy states may be so overpowering that a revisionist posture of expanding their power and eliminating their adversaries and of permanently quashing threats through military force may be the preferred – and perceived rational – strategy. rivals. the attitude of self-regarding egoism toward other states. as independent and dependent variables. Or. Since in constructivist thinking these properties or ideas about the state define the identity of states toward each other. which mutually constitute them.
defined by their mutually constituted identities. The process of change in state identities.44 and choose absolute over relative gains (as Keohane insists). According to Wendt. not an endgame. while the state system may well have arisen out of Hobbesian anarchy. The shift to a Lockean or a Kantian anarchy is not prompted or occasioned by the efficiency of new ways of action. 45 Keohane and Nye (1984). the state system has evolved currently to a Lockean system where states view themselves more as rivals than as enemies. value future interactions with other states (as Axelrod predicts). correspondingly. mutation and evolution. Wendt contends that. after all. states under conditions of Lockean anarchy accept the status quo and respect the sovereignty of other states. describing a process of potentially ceaseless change. and of appropriate rules. interests. and power arrangements. and to resist the total defeat and state collapse of adversaries. practices. A Lockean anarchy is sufficiently different from its Hobbesian counterpart of a war of all against all to constitute an entirely distinct culture of anarchy with its own. since we are. Revisionism is precluded as a strategic option and practice.45 Military force gradually cedes to non-military force and what Joseph Nye terms "soft power" in a Lockean system of increased interdependence. notably against civilian populations.). The logic and behavioral effects of a Hobbesian and Lockean system may well overlap during an epoch as states may careen from armed hostilities and war to peace and cooperation and back again.280 Validating security theories The Hobbesian culture of anarchy compares favorably to the Hobbesian model already described at considerable length in this volume. not conclusive. states can expect mutual constraints in the exercise of violence and be guided by moral strictures. interests. Nye (1990) and Keohane and Nye (1989). . unique distribution of ideas and.46 If war erupts. a corpus of knowledge to guide states in their interactions. norms. This underlying and ever-shifting body of ideas on which states act can ostensibly be discerned both by the states which produce them and by the acutely sensitive outside observer (Wendt and fellow constructivists) both as a form of knowledge and as an explanation of state behavior.47 both to limit the use of force.48 These tendencies are illustrative. states can take more risks in cooperating with other states. With greater margins of freedom to cope with or surmount threats to their security or influence and less concern that their sovereignty may be eroded. and institutions is depicted as decidedly more dynamic and fluctuating than Waltzian analysis allows. 44 46 48 Axelrod (1984). Wendt (1999: 282ff. such as Just War theory. 47 Walzer (1974).
according to heavy constructivists. In Social Theory of International Politics. generate entirely new interests. the central concerns of heavy constructivists. substantially relaxed to a point of marginal concern in a Kantian order. Wendt (2003). As Karl Deutsch first posited of the emerging European Union. In Wendt's world war and security concerns are not necessarily urgent or overriding. Rather than problematize the state. do affirm his optimism and discern the emergence of "we feeling" and community among states in other regions. all could still expect that differences would eventually be resolved peacefully. and not of ontology or what's real. Wendt parts company with many constructivists. states within a pluralistic security community would see their interests as converging. too. too. as his critics advise. Deutsch (1957). the grave error of reifying the state. States could then accept wider margins of risk that states might defect and injure them. become more salient expectations. Wendt speculates (and concedes he lacks conclusive evidence) that the state system is moving toward a Kantian endgame. he problematizes Waltz's notion of anarchy and posits a morphology of state identity transformations from which flow appropriate 49 50 51 His speculation at this time of writing goes well beyond a Kantian anarchy as the endgame of the state system. envisions the possibility eventually of a world state. at least. who might not share Wendt's explanation of state security behavior. As competitors in a Lockean system to which states are dedicated. The security dilemma endemic to Hobbesian anarchy and still lurking below the surface of a Lockean system logic would be surmounted or. Wendt's principal aim is to explain social reality as the main goal of social knowledge rather than to address the more daunting problem for which no definitive solution has yet been found of how this knowledge is constructed and acquired.49 Within such a system.51 At this point." Cooperation. Wendt accepts states as given and thereby commits. His current thinking. States. Calculations about state behavior would radically change. states would view each other as friends. which has not been incorporated into this discussion.Constructivism 281 but driven by entirely different conceptions of what a state is. When clashes might erupt.50 Most constructivists. what it should do. identifying themselves as friends. and what expectations states can have of each other in terms of their shared norms and the strictures these imply for behavior. These are questions of epistemology. While sympathetic to the point of view of "ideas-all-the-waydown" constructivists and their shared skepticism about the real or potential evils of the state and the need to surmount them. however. they would not be in perpetual fear of being made a "sucker. Adler and Barnett (1998) and Katzenstein (1996). not conflict and defection. .
Wendt's pragmatic approach acknowledges that the state is going to be around for a long time. are largely concerned with creating social knowledge that emancipates humans from "oppressive structures. on the other hand. If the state is an idea. notably to realists. rationally directed social scientists. Heavy constructivists. The state's material capabilities and the loyalties it commands. Wendt assumes. puts aside) the question of the state's unconditional claim to be preserved and replicated in some singular form. In attempting to bridge behavioral or rationalist social science and constructivism.282 Validating security theories and quite different and contradictory interests than those described by Waltz as timeless and unchanging state attributes. Indeed. His compromise hinders the search for alternative mechanisms of rule and social order. effectively divides the state as agent from the structure presumably constituting the state. it can be changed through voluntary and deliberate transformation – a prospect that Wendt affirms in principle but is skeptical about its likely realization anytime soon. liberals and liberal institutionalists. In stipulating states as real. Wendt's stipulation of the state as a self-organizing unit possessed of a monopoly of legitimate violence sits uneasily with "heavy" theorists. while a participant in the social theory he is constructing.e. This tolerant view of the state. He brackets (i. Wendt 52 Adler (2002: 107). Wendt seeks to keep constructivism within the broad scope of prevailing international relations theory. as modified. pithy critique of the criticisms of "heavy" constructivists of Wendt's "via media". By that token Wendt is accused of privileging the claims of authoritative knowledge to these schools of thought. to the claims of prevailing social science theory. This move presumably concedes too much conceptual ground to other security and international relations theorists. if at all. as Wendt's critics charge."52 How knowledge of social relations is constructed thus becomes a key concern and a challenge not only to Wendt's brand of constructivism but also. He provides an excellent. For them Wendt's formulation of the constructivist project concedes too much to the power of the state. in the foreseeable future. The priority assigned by "heavy" constructivists to epistemology puts them at odds with Wendt and at fundamentally opposite poles to most empirical. . of the natural sciences.. can still generate knowledge that meets the tests. The implication of this concession is that Wendt's reification of the state unwittingly validates its claims to a monopoly of legitimate violence – precisely the attribute brought into question by heavy constructivists. He avers that the observer and theorist. cannot be willed away very easily. and more broadly. There is no replacement for this unit of political organization and no world order in the wings.
What is key is the creation of social units. arguably. and to be fair to constructivists of all stripes. At the risk of unduly complicating the discussion. sometimes surprising. The aim of this discussion is to join key issues among rivals to allow the reader to make an informed choice. these can be said. cognitively discovered or socially constructed knowledge. Italics in the original. Some are even prepared to vote him out of this school of thought. Constructivism and the cold war: Wendt and his uneasy allies Until now. like the state. etc. methodology. two alternative constructivist explanations for the end of the Cold War are summarized and evaluated. to cover the principal factions within 53 Adler (2002: 108). the ferocity of the debates among constructivists and the sweep of their philosophical concerns. Instead he offers a theory and a portrait of agency and the state that locks in politics as the study of interstate relations and ultimately gives up on bringing into the theory the ultimate constructor of worlds – by which I mean the thinking. Evaluating his explanation of the Cold War. that can use overwhelming and legitimate violence to arbitrate social conflicts in their particular eras or epochs."53 This brief review cannot definitively settle this internal constructivist quarrel. go well beyond the scope of this discussion and conventional social science research. . particularly with respect to their opposing views over fundamental issues and questions of ontology. and even at times creative human individual. As already suggested. These roles can be distinguished from any particular social unit over the evolution of human societies. The word "state" is less important than the capabilities it has at its disposal. epistemology. This defense of Wendt's position will hardly sway "heavy" constructivists. Wendt should have been aware that constructivist theories ought to leave room for new and unexpected structural possibilities. Alexander Wendt's constructivism has served as the surrogate for this complex and contentious school of thought. often reasonable. rules of evidence. As a fellow constructivist complains: "Why did Wendt settle for such a limiting constructivist theory? As a constructivist.. would then dismiss his constructivist critics out of hand without giving them an opportunity to present their conceptions of this school of thought. which humans are perfectly free to invest in other socially created units assuming multiple forms and modalities through time and space. Many constructivists. as if it were the constructivist position. including one of the anonymous evaluators of this volume. vigorously object that Wendt does not represent their positions.Constructivism 283 views the security roles that the state plays as essentially timeless. Together with Wendt's account.
neorealist. as an unintended and ironic consequence of their actions. insists on key principles. . Where they differ is in identifying the specific driving forces for change that in the post-Cold War era allegedly transformed international politics and surmounted the superpower and Cold War security dilemma that most non-constructivists posit as endemic to interstate relations and to the nation-state system. The first alternative or "light" constructivist position will focus on Friedrich Kratochwil and his associates. ahistorical generalizations about actor behavior are possible. and that actors are capable of redefining their identities even. See also his foundational work (1989). that there exists no covering rule for actor and agent behavior beyond social construction of these rules. These lines of analysis also challenge Wendt's focus on anarchy and narrowly conceived reformulations of state identity as a function of the interactions of these reified units.284 Validating security theories the constructivist project with respect to international relations theory and security. Moreover. They affirm that no objective. relaxed or ignored by Wendt and light constructivists. In exploring these levels of analysis and the actors or agents appropriate to these perspectives. and liberal institutionalist theory into the bargain but also to establish these heavier forms of constructivism relative to Wendt's. constructivists purport to probe deeper for more primary causal structures not only to explain the end of the Cold War and thereby to undermine realist. associated with heavy or "ideas-all-the-way-down" constructivism. since they also assert that the competent actor relies on his social constructs to adapt to his social conditions. The final constructivist position to be examined. Both Wendt and partisans of this extended version of constructivism can agree on what change occurred. Onuf's hedge poses problems for constructivists.54 This latter outcome is precisely what Gorbachev is alleged to have unwittingly accomplished in embracing "New Thinking" with the unintended consequence of destroying the regime reforms were supposed to preserve. who stresses competence over chance. All constructivists might agree that Gorbachev 54 Onuf (1998) is especially insistent that agents act always under conditions of uncertainty and that these actions or practices lead to unintended and unforeseen consequences. 1993). principally military forces. of the superpowers. Fundamental changes in actor identity working within domestic politics and within the mind-set of leading Soviet reformers are advanced as a more convincing explanation for the end of the Cold War than changes in the material capabilities. how does the all-knowing constructivist observer know when the actor is acting with deliberation and knowledge of the consequences of his decisions or unwittingly with unintended and unforeseen outcomes as the result? See Giddens (1984. Kratochwil drops below Wendt's analysis pitched at a systemic level to that of foreign policy analysis and to the domestic politics of the Soviet Union. paradoxically.
or the significance attributed to hard or soft power by these actors. determine state behavior. principles. they have choices about who and what they will be since they are the handmaidens of their social construction. ." but they scarcely share the same understanding of what the content or the consequences of "New Thinking" were. which in turn forced the Soviets to 55 Wendt (2003).55 Given the scope of Wendt's ambitious theoretical objectives. The distribution of material capabilities across states is subject to the ideational chain of causality rooted in the changing identities of states.' an important outcome of which was the realization that aggressive Soviet foreign policies contributed to Western hostility. This broader aim does not prevent him from making sweeping claims about the relevance of his constructivism to explain why the Cold War ended and why his approach is superior to alternative interpretations. "For four decades. States make of anarchy what they want and will." he notes. including those of rival constructivist critics. rules. Wendt begins with Soviet "New Thinking" in the 1980s. also come under Wendtean scrutiny. the Soviet Union treated the Cold War as a given. . egoistic conceptions of state behavior of liberal institutionalists prevent them from reaching Wendt's hypothesis that states can ultimately surmount the incentives for defection to form a community of identities and interests that progressively marginalizes to a point of extinction notions of enemies or rivals. as given. A structure of ideas about state identities and interests appropriate to both rather than a static structure of violent capabilities and their distribution across states. . Liberal institutionalism. which stresses norms. it is not surprising that he does not dwell on the Cold War. and practices. and institutions as constraints on states. Like the other two constructivist position to be discussed.Constructivism 285 ended the Cold War through "New Thinking. " . The liberal institutional concession that ideas count in assisting states to make decisions where alternative (game-theoretic) "equilibria" are possible is still not sufficient within Wendt's critique for social science inquiry to be able to understand and thereby explain state identities. Then in the 1980s it engaged in 'New Thinking. and not simply the material differences between them. The instrumentalist. interests. This position is charged with failing to adequately explain the self-limitation that states impose on themselves in using their material power to get what they want or in choosing cooperation over defection in their exchanges with other actors when they see an attractive advantage by breaking an accord or norm. Wendt focuses on challenging Waltz and neorealism and on reversing the causal arrows for change to the linkage of ideas to identities to interests.
. conceptual reassessment of what the US–Soviet relationship 'was. a conflict that seemed like it had become set in stone. Stones can be turned to dust by agent power armed with new ideas about constructing a new identity. most notably. 58 Wendt (1999: 375).286 Validating security theories engage in high levels of defense spending. and based on it the Soviets were able to end. 57 Wendt (1999: 129). evolution. the end of the Cold War is more convincing than alternatives. a structural pressure theory alone cannot explain the form the Soviet response took (ending the Cold War rather than intensifying repression) or its timing (the material decline had been going on for some time).57 Soviet self-knowledge and acknowledgement of the negative impact of Soviet foreign and security policies on its Western rivals – in pursuit of Hobbesian strategies of incessant struggle and balance of power politics – purportedly prompted a reassessment and transformation of Soviet identity. or (b) that his position (given the understanding of theory of this volume) is falsifiable. In the conclusion to his volume. For Wendt to establish his particular constructivist "theory" for the end of the Cold War. By acting on that understanding to conciliate the West. the Gorbachev regime virtually single-handedly ended the Cold War. Wendt rejects materialist explanations for the end of the Cold War. By that token Soviet state interests changed. . The reflective model of international explanation captures this process more naturally than the blind forces model. . Wendt reasserts these propositions: "Gorbachev's new thinking was a deep. he would be obliged to show either (a) why his explanation for the origin. and. And it also ignores the role that the leadership's realization that its own policies were part of the problem played in conditioning that response. Soviet behavior changed because they redefined their interests as a result of having looked at their existing desires and beliefs self-critically. . the notion derives from the human meaning infused into the conflict to make it hard and seemingly resistant to change. His say-so. Structural conditions did not force self-awareness on the Soviets. at the lay level. will say that the Soviet leadership had to change its politics because of its declining relative power position . however 56 Wendt (1999: 76).' It was constitutive theorizing."58 The notion of conflict as set in stone does not derive from the seeming intractability of the conflict itself. unilaterally and almost overnight."56 In a later chapter in his Social Theory in International Politics. Rather. too. However. asserting that: those wedded to the blind forces model (of Waltz) . . from relying on force to get its way with enemies to seeing other states as Lockean rivals with which conflicts could be resolved by non-violent means for mutual advantage.
like Kratochwil and his associates. and Kant is what makes the box. . significance for light constructivists. Since Wendt does not attempt to apply these twin tests. and the psychological state of mind of Soviet reformers and Gorbachev for answers to explain systemic change. to a Kantian form of anarchy. Kratochwil reviews the sources of preceding Cold War thinking. light constructivists. according to Kratochwil. Oye and Jack Snyder. inter alia. incipiently. probe deeper than Wendt into Soviet domestic politics. an international politics that effaced the distinction between domestic and international politics.59 These light constructivists view the Cold War through the lens of an ideological struggle between the Soviet Union and the West. He substituted. the skeptic is entitled to draw on his constructivist critics as well as the paradigms and approaches covered in this volume to evaluate his constructivism in light of the Cold War laboratory test. notably Kenneth A. What's inside the box marked Hobbes. especially not "heavy" constructivists. as Wendt outlines. Some of the contributors to the Lebow volume. Light and heavy constructivist critics of his position insist that these levels of analysis and changing actor ideas and identities fundamentally shape and shove the three (or conceivably more) anarchical state systems or societies of states described by Wendt. East European bloc relations. As noted earlier. Light and heavy constructivists. Within this system the Communist party enjoyed a monopolistic control over state authority.Constructivism 287 elaborate his conceptual apparatus. Ideas and the identities they constructed drive the conflict and shape the state practices of containment and balance of power politics. these agent and structure dimensions are "black boxed" by Wendt. not the box (or state) itself. in the ideological competition of East and West. Locke. extend Wendt's analysis to domestic politics and to the psychological make-up of Soviet reformers like Gorbachev. Whereas Wendt stipulates a change in New Thinking.. The material power of the Soviet Union kept this system intact through serial interventions into the domestic politics of Eastern Europe states whenever local Communist 59 Koslowski and Kratochwil (1994) and Lebow (1995). Stalin is said to have abandoned the traditional view of interstate conflict. viz. In the postwar world. is not enough. the coalition of Communist parties of the Eastern bloc formed an imperial unity. Rather than stipulate that the Soviet regime under Gorbachev's tutelage moved Soviet foreign and security policy from a Hobbesian to a Lockean and. Light constructivists and the Cold War "Soviet New Thinking" has a different. arguably deeper. would not include themselves among constructivists.
The Brezhnev doctrine. A new international politics arose from the redefinition of Communist ideology and Soviet identity as a consequence of political 60 Koslowski and Kratochwil (1994: 133). the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. of the Cold War superpower struggle. which legitimated Soviet intervention as a state practice.288 Validating security theories party rule was under threat. Instead. Then why did the Soviet Union under Gorbachev renounce the Brezhnev doctrine? Its nullification spelled the demise of Communist party rule in Eastern Europe. Set in train then was the dissolution of power of these national Communist parties. and the transformation of the bipolar system into a unipolar American system. In the post-Cold War world constructed by Soviet reforms. or small. and of international politics more generally. the end of bloc politics in Europe. the ascendancy of the Western coalition. and the rejection of balances of power and terror. the break-up of the Warsaw pact. middle-sized. whether great. the reuniting of Germany on Western terms. The state system was transformed from an ideological struggle in which domestic and international politics were different aspects of the same phenomenon to what Kratochwil characterizes as the "Austrianization" of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. Gorbachev attempted to re-establish the frayed and broken bonds between these parties and their national populations. not questing for a Lockean system. and a softening of US belligerency could come about only by the mutual consent of all parties. was the logical consequence of Soviet thinking under Stalin and his successors. the implosion of the Soviet state. the end of the superpower confrontation. states. That implied a decisive shift from balance of power politics toward the politics of consensual multilateralization of all state exchanges and the peaceful resolution of interstate conflicts in the post-Cold War era. They also preferred solutions predicated on integration – both in the areas of low politics (economics) and in the vital area of security – to those based on internal balancing. In renouncing the Brezhnev doctrine. the passing of the Cold War. These changes in the Eastern bloc."60 Kratochwil's construction of the context and content of Soviet New Thinking that produced these changes differs sharply from Wendt's. . the reintegration of the two Germanies. Kratochwil projects a world politics where "virtually all actors have rejected the generative logic of the system that made a balance-of-power policy with shifting alliances the paramount political maxim. New Thinking responded allegedly to the crisis of legitimacy of the Communist party in the Soviet Union and in Moscow's East European satellites. have opted for some form of multilateralism. he is viewed as seeking to regain lost Communist party legitimacy. the reunification of Germany.
To understand Gorbachev's New Thinking. despite their eventual self-emasculating consequences. Most pointedly. viz. Changes in Soviet foreign and security practices. was supposedly Gorbachev's insistence that the Communist party would retain its privileged position as the sole vehicle for social theory and knowledge. Kratochwil. since military capabilities on both sides of the Cold War divide were roughly balanced. Kubalkova here serves as the representative of this "ideas-all-the-way-down" constructivist ensemble with respect to the Cold War case. logical trains of thought. is assigned the "heavy" lifting to explain the end of the Cold War.Constructivism 289 pressures from within the Soviet Union at the very top of the leadership tier and from within the Warsaw pact. however. Realism and neorealism are summarily dismissed largely on grounds already covered by Wendt and Kratochwil. the Miami group) from Wendt and from light constructivists. whose linguistic approach to constructivism parallels that of Onuf.. Kubalkova and the Miami group see little difference . and the dissolution of the Soviet state. Her explanation for its end breaks not only with the paradigms of this volume but also with Wendt and with less rigorous.k. and psychological and cognitive states of mind that need to be explained. Heavy constructivism and the Cold War A heavy constructivist position rejects Wendt's reification of states and their construction as a self-explanatory given. This foundational epistemological position sharply differentiates the constructivism of Nicholas Onuf and Vendulka Kubalkova (a. Still left unexplained is why Gorbachev embarked on self-destructive reforms that would result in his downfall. It is his rationality. States which are "real" for Wendt are problematic for heavy critics. What is of particular interest to this discussion is the marginalization of Wendt's contributions as little more than a minor amendment to liberal institutionalism theory to explain the Cold War. strict constructionists. not those of the observer. Realist accounts are rejected as insufficient to explain these radical shifts in identity. The approach of heavy constructionists is decidedly epistemological. is treated more sympathetically but his explanation for the end of the Cold War is still qualified for failing to fully grasp the alleged originality of Soviet New Thinking and its implications for international politics. like Kratochwil and his associates. the loss of the Communist party's privileged status. the renunciation of the Brezhnev doctrine to repair the flawed legitimacy of Communist party rule.a. What remained intact. heavy constructivists insist that he has to be accepted on his own terms rather than those imposed by the analyst. it departed radically from its Marxist-Leninist origins.
This critique is developed in detail in Sterling-Folker (2000). For heavy constructivists. like the Miami group. while liberal institutionalists heavily discount them by reducing ideas to facilitating mechanisms in choosing different courses of action. Sterling-Folker (2000: 101). realist logic. heavy constructivists. and policies. interests. ."64 While Kratochwil's delineation of the implications of the Soviet abandonment of the Brezhnev doctrine for international politics is affirmed as a step in the right constructivist direction. it distorts understanding of what is viewed by these critics as the revolutionary thrust of New Thinking in its attempt to reconceptualize international security and thus to create new knowledge of the human condition with associated novel ways of speaking about politics (speech acts) – purportedly key forces for surmounting the conflict and war-making disposition of a decentralized state system. They are seen as splitting largely over the weight to be assigned to ideational factors in shaping elite preferences.65 Rejected is the notion that 61 62 63 64 Compare Keohane and Goldstein (1993). this misalliance allegedly misrepresents New Thinking. As Kubalkova avers "the inability of the Wendtean constructivism to handle 'new thinking' and presenting it as a litmus test of the prowess of soft constructivism becomes serious if this form of constructivism is to be the response that IR scholars in the United States make to the post-Cold War world. this odd couple of institutionalism and Wendtean constructivism has serious theoretical and policy implications. liberal institutionalists."62 The upshot of this line of critique is that the differences between Wendt and liberal institutionalists are negligible. All fall short of exposing what is contended to be the radical break of New Thinking from Marxist-Leninist and Western thought about international relations. Wendt's constructivism is also viewed as potentially mischievous for security policy-making. 65 Kubalkova (2001: 131). According to "ideas-all-the-way" constructivists.63 Both reduce new thinking to their conceptual frameworks rather than get "inside" the mind of those Soviets who fashioned New Thinking. contend that this light constructionist position fails to understand the scope and innovative break of New Thinking from prevailing Cold War.61 Both are alleged to converge on the view that Soviet reform can be explained simply as a functional and instrumental necessity. because the regime was in crisis and "an aggressive posture was too difficult to sustain in material terms. with Wendt. Kubalkova (2001: 121).290 Validating security theories between the two positions. This is a critical charge. Wendt stresses their central importance in informing state behavior. Consequently. precisely because these alternatives to a heavy constructivist position do not fully exploit the conceptual and methodological apparatus of constructivism.
under conditions of extreme internal crisis. not vice-versa. Soviet reforms appear to be driven by Western ideas. 2001b) develops this argument at length. too. Gorbachev's "identity" was purportedly defined by his socialization and commitment to the Communist party as the exclusive source of political truth. who needed to be led and guided. . 69 Kubalkova (2001: 114). of the party and the Soviet state on which his power and authority rested. For the heavy constructionists of the Miami group. Gorbachev is alleged to have repudiated the more fundamental Marxist-Leninist doctrine of inevitable class warfare. is the explanation for social change in Soviet foreign and security policy of liberal institutionalists. Gorbachev 66 67 68 Sterling-Folker (2000: 97). If the party was the source of political truth and Gorbachev's identity was structured by this system." Gorbachev is presented as bound by his formation and personal commitment to strengthen. yet preserve the Communist party and his central role as the sources of political truth. Kubalkova (2001: 131). however failed and flawed. Viewed from this point of view and self-socialization.66 A heavy constructionist interpretation seeks to understand New Thinking on its own terms. Kubalkova (2001a. a portrayal congenial to liberal institutionalism. institutional efficiency" to account for these fundamental shifts in Soviet external behavior. ipso facto. According to this interpretation of a transformation in Communist ideology and. While reasserting the superior knowledge of Communist dogma and of the party as its historic spokesman – hence remaining within the only structure of knowledge he knew – Gorbachev's New Thinking is interpreted as having gone beyond the Brezhnev doctrine and certainly well beyond Wendt's constrained framework of systemic analysis. and many light constructivists – clearly including Wendt and arguably Kratochwil.67 Reared under Marxist-Leninist ideology. of Soviet identity. This transformation led to the reform of domestic and international politics. For him and many of his reformers Communism was still the "future of mankind. not risk the dissolution. "with its epistemological roots deep in Marx's ideas. Rejected. then his actions can be understood as an effort to transcend the limits of this system. it was "rational" for him and his New Thinking partisans that. they would be prompted to reconstruct world politics on radically different assumptions of actor identities and interests than those animating the superpowers and other states. Cast in this light. too – who rely on "the same mechanism of functional."69 As leader of the Communist party.Constructivism 291 Gorbachev and his fellow reformers were liberal Western democrats in disguise. rather than those of an outside observer."68 The party then was "vested with a superior way of knowing and could always be paternalistic toward the people.
71 Ibid. constructivism is not a single. Instead of the balance of terror. relentless violent class warfare to that of undermining Western capitalistic power by adopting Antonio Gramsci's posture of "counter-hegemony. Heavy constructivists go further and reject the assumptions of sequential causality 70 Kubalkova (2001: 139). coherent body of thought at this point of its evolution. which he put in second place. So sweeping a claim merits evaluation.292 Validating security theories "argued that in light of global problems threatening humanity's existence. world society had assumed a greater significance than the class struggle. If this particular heavy constructionist interpretation were accepted as the definitive understanding of New Thinking. Whither constructivism?: a critique Critiquing constructivism by evaluating its explanation of the end of the Cold War is tricky. evidentiary. Instead of continued military confrontation and class warfare. Gorbachev is supposed to have shifted to a policy of cultural and ideational attack on Western capitalism and its presumptively vulnerable liberal open societies. It is a work in progress whose partisans are as divided among themselves as they are with the established schools of security thought they are contesting. . and eventually complete disarmament as ways of effectively abolishing the ultima ratio regnum of the Westphalian system."72 Superior ideas and moral claims were now allegedly relied upon by Gorbachev to eventually win over superior Western material capabilities. it would certainly constitute a radical departure from all preceding theories of international relations and security as well as rival constructivist approaches. As this all-too-brief review of the complex conceptual apparatus of constructivism and of its deep internal splits makes clear. The shift in strategy and in efforts to capture the high moral ground resulted in a complete break from a Leninist strategy of incessant. Gorbachev and his reformers seriously "proposed a reduction in armaments."71 The moral stature of the Communist party would presumably be enhanced through reforms that were designed to bind national populations to local Communist parties. For purposes of comparison it is important to keep in mind that most constructivists challenge prevailing methodological. and ontological assumptions underlying leading schools of security and international relations theorizing. with its sovereign states and the legitimacy it gave to the use of violence in IR. 72 Gramsci (1971). epistemological."70 Communism and the Soviet Communist party would triumph by rejecting the superpower conflict and surmounting the Westphalian interstate system rooted in war. changes in their strategic doctrine.
. then we cannot really meaningfully compare it with that which it describes . Constructivists portray agents as social constructions. 76 Ibid. As Kubalkova puts the case for heavy constructivists. Falsification itself is contested and problematized."74 Nor can conventional and widely accepted tests of falsification be readily applied to validate constructivist claims. as described in chapter 1. Kubalkova (2001: 75). if language is constitutive of the world . 74 Ibid."73 "Rules make agents out of individual human beings by giving them opportunities to act upon the world. As Onuf neatly states: "Rules Make Agents. with no resting place 73 77 Onuf (1998: 64). including rejection of falsification itself. . Through these acts. 75 Smith (2001: 42). norms. and institutions of their own creation. cannot be squared with conventional empirical theory. The falsification of hypotheses and theories . claimant's) ever-contingent position in an ever-changing stream of deeds. . These acts have material and social consequences. rule-oriented constructivists hold that intersubjectivity is a process. wherein agent and structure are "instantiated" simultaneously in their mutual construction. . that ahistorical regularities and covering rules to explain agent behavior can be discovered.75 that social facts and values can be separated. . some of them intended and some not. . But always dependent on the subject's (agent's. As such they are provisional claims. bound by rules. Agents Make Rules. certainly not those of its most determined "ideas-all-the-way-down" analysts. postulates a correspondence theory of truth between the "world and the word. some better founded than others. that these patterns exist apart from the methods used to uncover them.Constructivism 293 underlying empirical or rational theory – an epistemological assumption affirmed by this volume. Falsification tests resting on these assumptions make little (light) or no ("heavy") sense to constructivists.76 and that facts as evidence – empiricism – is the final arbitrator of competing explanations of actor behavior and social change. Lakatos need not apply. . agents make the material world a social reality for themselves as human beings. However." between the "objective reality" and our representations of it. Most constructivists either reject outright or qualify substantially widely held assumptions and principles of analysis which underpin dominant social inquiry today: that the social and natural worlds are "amenable to the same kinds of analysis"."77 This posits an infinite regression of claims and counter-claims to political knowledge. Recall that constructivism's causal explanation of agent or actor behavior and social change. which makes all facts social.
or Kantian system of anarchy. . can it explain facts not addressed by other explanations. Lakatos stipulates. too. Lockean. using the three orientations from Wendt to "light" to "heavy" constructivist positions to cover the range of viewpoints of this approach. that bodies of theoretical thought can be viewed as progressive or degenerating research programs. since these criteria rest on empirical validation. First. although they are admittedly loaded against constructivism. let's see how constructivists do against each other. as chapter 1 describes. Neither realism nor Wendt's systemic approach can convincingly explain the break-up of the Warsaw Pact. Kratochwil's postulation of a domestic political crisis of legitimacy in the Soviet Union and. In light of this impasse over how to pursue research and theory – and what theory and knowledge even are – two lines of analysis will be adopted to critique the constructivist approach in terms of its explanation of the Cold War. Constructivists observe that neither realism nor neorealism can convincingly explain the end of the Cold War. Wendt shows (confirmed. within the Warsaw Pact provides a plausible line of analysis for systemic change arising from fundamental changes within the Soviet Union's political regime and its abandonment of the interventionist practices of the Brezhnev doctrine. yet the Cold War ended abruptly and unexpectedly. by liberal and liberal institutionalist research) that the interstate system maps more closely with Lockean than a Hobbesian model. Constructivists vs. in order to join key issues and identify splits between rationalist and constructivist approaches within a Lakatosian framework of analysis. Anarchy is not a given. but is constructed by changes in the identities of states. however much constructivists may object. constructivists Much of the power of analysis of all constructivist positions is their ability to problematize empiricist findings. internationally. Whether they are going up or down depends on an evaluation of their responses to three questions: does a theory explain what other theories can do. As their identities change.294 Validating security theories and no stable point of reference to generalize about human or agentconstructed behavior. a Hobbesian. The balance of power and terror between the two superpowers would seem to preclude change. Here other constructivists have more to say than Wendt about alliance dissolution. so also do their interest in supporting. Second. let's apply empiricist criteria to constructivist claims. alternatively. and can it explain new facts and events that arise within the scope of its claimed explanatory power? Constructivism will be evaluated by these tests.
They provide no bridge – only the prospect of a link – between rationalism and constructivism. Social analysis is presumptively supposed to explain actor behavior as the latter understands his social conditions. designed to save the Communist party and the Soviet state. as Max Weber recognized over a century ago. as Kratochwil argues. Kubalkova and her associates pose Gorbachev's reforms within a global strategic framework that makes domestic and foreign policy-making a unified and singular field of action – a distinction without a difference. These are not easily or comfortably reducible to the material constraints on which other theoretical positions rest. . utterly failed. and agent identity return social theory to human and human-created concerns. The alternate light forms of constructivism of Wendt and Kratochwil have no plausible explanation for these events.Constructivism 295 The Miami group goes further. They make the defensible point that social analysis is not supposed to reduce human thinking and action to validate and suit prevailing theories or tailor human thought to their self-imposed procrustean methodological and evidentiary limits. Rueschemeyer. They cite changes in Soviet behavior and speak of a crisis in legitimacy but offer sparse explanation for how and why these new political facts arose or how and why they sparked specific reform policies and processes and what were the consequences of these evolutionary shifts. 78 Compare Evans. Rather than a reversion to the Austrianization of international politics and the warfare system on which it rests. and democratization. perestroika. and Skocpol (1985). This enlargement of the scope of constructivism's explanatory power is well beyond Wendt's sharp focus on state systemic change or that of Kratochwil and other light constructivists whose explanation for the end of the Cold War remains within traditional notions of foreign and domestic policy analysis. It advances the intriguing hypothesis that Gorbachev's reforms aimed simultaneously to restore the privileged position of the Communist party at home and to transform the Westphalian system as a warfare system. constructivists keep open the debate over security by insisting on agents and their self-reflective and reflexive redefinitions of their identities as vehicles of social change. Finally. and of no small consequence. On this score light and heavy constructivists put the individual actor. However daunting is the challenge of objectivizing the subjective states of mind of agents as the principal vehicles of meaning and value. not just the state. back into social analysis.78 Yet the "fact" remains that Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost. all forms of constructivism reintroduce the power of agent-driven change into social analysis. values. Ideals. not bolster the findings of researchers' research apparatus. but merely record them.
What is missing is an explanation of why he chose policies that destroyed that system and his own personal authority and power. consistent with constructivist strictures. no less social constructs than ideas or identities. A critique of constructivism from conventional wisdom There is little in constructivist thinking to explain. a fundamentally non-material state of mind. specifically. that failure was a realistic option and that its pursuit was rational. the opportunity "to act upon the world. whose effects have been felt for over two centuries.296 Validating security theories The Miami group. affording him. does seize the nettle and postulates the proposition. privileged by the other paradigms covered in this volume. 80 Kubalkova (2001: 124)." is an identification of the compelling social forces. that Gorbachev was acting "rationally" within the social context in which he was reared. as constructivists assert. There is little comfort in a theory or approach. helps to explain – certainly to better understand – the break-up of the Soviet 79 Onuf (1998: 64). One would have thought that they would have seized on national sentiment. . constructivists and nonconstructivists. perestroika. Kubalkova states that "it takes a leap of faith to argue with any degree of conviction that any Soviet leader would have agreed on behalf of his country to plunge into the disarray characteristic of the transition in which the former Soviet Union still finds itself. as a human construction."79 Attacking all opponents. What is embarrassingly absent from this analysis. The pull of best practices in producing material wealth – the Western open market exchange system and its dependence on global networks of technological innovation and scientific discovery – falls outside of the scope of constructivist thinking of all stripes. and democratization were chosen as the preferred instruments of reform and why they failed. Particularly puzzling is the resistance of constructivists to highlight what would appear to be an obvious factor consistent with their epistemological orientation. that undermined both Gorbachev and his cherished system. why glasnost. on the other hand. notably among heavy constructivists."80 This line of analysis "saves" Gorbachev as a "rational" actor within the social structure which shaped and informed his identity and which also generated incentives for him to act to save the system and his place within it by transforming both. This force. much like the dog that didn't bark in Sherlock Holmes' tale of "The Hound of the Baskervilles. As a consequence the reform process is explained by reference to New Thinking as if it were entirely uninformed and insulated from the powerful material lures and allure of these knowledge and productive systems of human enterprise and creativity.
regimes and institutions. if insufficient. cultural. nationalism shattered the bonds between the Communist parties of the empire and between the Soviet state and Russian people. is so keen to emphasize the possibility of surmounting human conflict and the security dilemma by the sheer exercise of human will and desire that it falsifies the agent whose thinking and behavior it is attempting to explain 81 83 Carr` ere d'Encausse (1993) and Kaiser (1994). 84 Schumpeter (1955). It destroys empires. or Gorbachev reformist."82 They are embedded in an elaborate set of rules. it does not follow that constructivists are necessarily obliged to advocate their adoption and spread. .81 Ideas. undergirded by tangible and effective political power. whether Leninist. is a necessary. As Joseph Schumpeter recognized several decades ago. communal. however. "do not float freely. and linguistic identities and loyalties as compelling social forces. Constructivism as an approach to international relations and security theory might well re-examine its resistance to acknowledging nationalism as a force in social construction.Constructivism 297 empire once glasnost and democratization were set in motion with all of their unwitting and unintended destructive effects to the Soviet system. Stalinist.83 nationalism is an indispensable. norms. ethnic. Kolodziej (1974). it is a pre-rational. if not always totally reliable. It fused legitimacy with the monopoly of violence of the state. as a powerful force in international relations and a source of profound insecurity in world politics. In acknowledging national. These reforms ushered in a renewed expression of nationalism across the Soviet state. predictor of the collapse of the Soviet empire. as a light constructivist would concede. So the purported insight of heavy constructivists that Gorbachev acted rationally in his own social context is of doubtful value in constructing a theory of international relations and security to understand why the Soviet Union imploded and the Cold War ended. As President Charles de Gaulle and other classical realists (not neorealists) foresaw. 82 Risse-Kappen (1995). explanation for the end of the Cold War. atavistic force that cannot be reduced to functionalist calculations if it is to be understood and explained. Nationalism. The resurgence of national loyalties over ideological commitments exposed the gap between the political legitimacy of the Soviet state in eliciting public support and the material power it wielded. The election of Boris Yeltsin and Gorbachev's accompanying electoral defeat in the Russian Federation testify to the force of nationalism over the discredited claims of Communist ideology. Constructivist theory.84 One can only speculate why constructivists who place so much stress on human creativity and subjective states of mind overlook this force within the scope of their theorizing. More than New Thinking and the rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine. religious.
Here economic liberal theorists.85 These shape and shove thinking. which may well be more oriented toward conflict and the use of force than cooperation and consensus. who are decidedly not constructivists. . The material conditions created by markets and industrialization impact powerfully on human choices. Wendt's narrowly conceived explanation for state behavior as a product of interstate exchanges that instantiate a culture of knowledge or ideas across states cannot reach the construction of an entirely different and competing material system – global markets resting on ceaseless acquisition of new scientific knowledge and its application in innovative technology. This transnational order of exchanges between state and non-state actors 85 Lindblom (2001: 169). choices. power and authority. perestroika is short-changed in constructivist thinking of all stripes. as chapter 5 delineates. Ideas and values that infuse meaning and significance in human relations and legitimate the exercise of state power are framed in a preexisting set of material conditions. Similarly. could Soviet elites increase their personal wealth as much as they might have wished by remaining trapped in a command economy that they controlled and within which they enjoyed privileged status. an ideational breakthrough and an ideology in its own right. but paltry material gains when compared to their Western counterparts. or what Charles Lindblom calls prior determinants. both Karl Marx and Adam Smith agree that markets and the social interactions and processes associated with them have more to do with making and doing than thinking about these social institutions. The yawning and widening gaps in economic and technological development between East and West and the daily experience of deprivation of Soviet elites generated incentives. It risks ignoring or slighting what humans have chosen (or had imposed on them) as their identities. have no difficulty arguing this case. and action. One might have expected Wendt and his constructivist fellow travelers at least to insist on the notion that the market system is.298 Validating security theories in real time and circumstance. "What if" wishful thinking trumps "as if" description and explanation. paradoxically. for new thinking to adapt to Western best practices – an open economic trading system. arguably. Nor. as chapter 5 suggests. Much of this oversight can be attributable to the intangible. have a point in arguing that the Soviet Union could not compete with the West's solution to the national and global imperative of material welfare sought by the world's populations. From radically divergent theoretical vantage points. as liberal economic theory expects. ideasdriven causal explanations of the constructivist project. Friedrich Hayek and his liberal confreres.
" Curiously. communal. especially chapter 3. material conditions endemic to a Kantian culture of friends. if placed in a nurturing and supporting social system favoring free exchange and voluntary economic exchange. The incentives generated by these material conditions of technological innovation and the globalization of the market system to envelop and undermine the Soviet Union fall outside Wendt's purview and that of most constructivists.86 Gorbachev made fatal errors in underestimating the power of Western open economic and political systems and the attractive pull they exerted on national populations under Communist control. National. constructivists who stress freedom of choice and creativity in the construction of social relations ignore Joseph Schumpeter's widely acknowledged insight of capitalism's "creative destructive power" and the reformist impact of entrepreneurs on social structures. whatever its explanatory shortcomings. that empires cannot withstand the centrifugal force of competing identities clamoring for their own self-determination within an increasingly globalizing world of divided populations and states. to "truck. Constructivists at this point in the development of their project appear unable to incorporate the material incentives of a market system. Like Montezuma and Anatuhalpa. in adapting and acceding to Western material power. too. They derive from what Marx refers to as the bio-economic composition of humans or what Smith adds as the inherent tendency of humans. like Kratochwil. 86 Diamond (1997). utterly failed to foresee the implications of free market reforms on the Soviet command economy. and exchange. would not appear to be hostage simply to the idea of the utility of these systems. into their approach except to reduce this revolutionary social system and the creative destruction that it unleashes to their preferred ideational forms. In the way that Montezuma in Mexico and Anatuhalpa in Peru underestimated the material power of the Spanish invaders. No less was an ideologically socialized elite able to understand the power of nationalism as an imploding force once these political and economic reforms were introduced at the cost of the Soviet Union and its empire. . and ethnic antagonisms within the Soviet Union proved eventually to be its undoing – a testimony to one of the decisive lessons of the twentieth century..Constructivism 299 composing the global market system and the enormous material cornucopia issuing from this social system structure human interests and incentives as well as the range of choices open to participants in the market system. viz. barter. Incentives for voluntary cooperation of a market system and for techno-scientific discovery and innovation. Light constructivists. Soviet reformers.
. . In a sense. He has implicitly dismissed these crucial sources of the identity transformation of the Soviet state and its republics. which fostered state self-limitation and adherence to international norms. viz. Wendt's belief that the Cold War did not become a hot war because of the emergence of a Lockean system. ignoring these two other levels of actor and social interactions impacting on the Soviet state. can reach some of the wellsprings of opposition to the Soviet system. the other positive – offer more explanatory power. Wendt has essentially described the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War through the narrow prism of interstate relations. Russett and Starr (2000). Krasner (2002: 131).1 outlines. too. But they. In particular. On the one hand."88 Wendt also claims that no big wars between the major powers have arisen because of ideational self-constraints among states.300 Validating security theories do add the important dimension of domestic and alliance politics and the repercussions of both on the legitimacy of the Soviet state and Communist party. he insists that the latter provide more explanatory power of why the Cold War never became hot. Heavy brands of constructivism. arms races – can overwhelm state adherence to self-limiting norms. like the Greek Goddess Athena from the head of Zeus. whether portrayed in material or ideational form – from his explanation of the emergence of three cultures of anarchy and the identity and interests of states appropriate to these three structural systems. in excluding both transnational actor exchanges (economic and market transactions) and domestic politics. like other constructivists. Neorealists and liberal institutionalists are scarcely convinced that a Lockean system emerged full blown. He has bracketed – that is. eschew recognition of the telling power of wealth and welfare – an acknowledgment that would undermine their ideational explanation of behavior. but that acknowledgment does not insulate him from the criticism of one of his detractors.87 Wendt can't. has also been the target of criticism. They can also reach the proposition of the democratic peace. excluded – an analysis of domestic politics. While he concedes that material conditions – for example. Russett and Oneal (2001). Two material conditions – one negative. Wendt is aware of these shortcomings. and Lipson (2003). that his constructivist claim "is unsupported by empirical data and confounded by the thinness of norms in the international environment. of the kind alluded to by Emmanuel Adler above. as table 1. increasingly self-ensnared in a Lockean system of rivals progressively moving toward a Kantian system of friends. Wendt's narrow brand of constructivism precludes him from using constructivism to good advantage in examining the impact of domestic politics on the Soviet state and empire. the enormous 87 88 Russett (1993).
89 The strength of constructivism is its weakness. trial-and-error development of social systems capable of increasing human wealth and welfare. ." There is a fundamental and contradictory tension underlying the optimism of the constructivist project. as human constructs.Constructivism 301 costs of nuclear war would appear to have more than a marginal effect in discouraging major wars. as Onuf insists. But no less a fundamental principle of constructivism than the instantiation of the agent–structure relationship is the assertion that all theories of knowledge. Ex post facto rationalizations of this evolutionary process by reversing the causal arrows of ideas driving material conditions is a credible hypothesis. 1964) and John Mueller (1988."91 That is tantamount to saying agents or actors act only if they have social power. Agents as rule-constructed can only act socially if they instantiate themselves in a network of rules. are also ipso facto problematic. and institutions. This surface property of current constructivist thinking. These social mechanisms or arrangements. insist upon.90 On the other hand. not the thinking and action constructivists might prefer. That is a defensible move. It is "as if" the problematizing of political truth and power automatically led to a world in which differences were blurred and conflicts were necessarily abated in the act of problematization. 89 90 Compare Waltz (1990. the incentives for voluntary cooperation of a market system and for techno-scientific discovery and innovation. In problematizing all theories of knowledge. Both liberals and Marxists converge on the evolutionary. but this characterization of the evolution of the social change still lacks both "empirical data" to make this case stick and logical firepower to contest prevailing counter-positions. notably international relations and security theories. material conditions endemic to a Kantian culture of friends. norms. 91 Onuf (1998: 64). 1989). Extreme forms of constructivism are especially prone to the criticism that they rob themselves of any plausible expectation that the legitimate use of power is ever conceivable or possible to achieve the favorable outcomes they largely share – peace. it implicitly and explicitly brings back human values into the question of a theory of knowledge of human thought and action. provide "opportunities to act on the world. as even card-carrying liberal economic theorists are now prepared to concede – indeed. On the other hand. 1995). however estimable. Kuran (1991. including the constructivist stipulation of this "truth. would not appear reducible simply to the utility of these systems. raises doubts about the theoretical import and objectivity of constructivism in explaining actor behavior. notably the paradigms covered in this volume. the conceptual route chosen by constructivists to return human actors and their constructed agents to center stage exposes its principal weakness.
. specifically. . and legitimacy. causal. neorealists. and justice. Whatever use of power might produce or advance these exalted aims is delegitimated at the very moment of human construction – dead on arrival as a social construction. It can examine ways closed to realists. notably among younger scholars. interest. It is not paradigm specific. of tracing the process and the material conditions 92 93 Keohane (2002: 126). or bound by any code of conduct to a particular theoretical view. Do these lines of criticism add up to the charge of one harsh critic that "there are no propositions about state behavior in Social Theory of International Politics. Building implicitly on the work of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. It would certainly be unfair to dismiss its wide-ranging criticisms of prevailing theories of security and international relations on evidentiary. as this volume argues.. tethered precariously and dangerously on a balance of terror whose nuclear detritus still hangs over the fate of the human species.g. eschewed by Wendt. or Marxists of how the security dilemma might be relaxed and surmounted by human intervention and design. Constructivists are opening new lines of inquiry and attracting growing numbers to their ranks. Katzenstein (1996).93 This prompts the need. Adler and Barnett (1998). "92 That would seem to be too facile and harsh a dismissal of the constructivist project. and methodological grounds appropriate to other perspectives. Kratochwil and other light constructivists have clearly brought constructivism into the mainstream of international relations theorizing without abandoning in this account central constructivist tenets. not even the 'few and big' propositions that Kenneth Waltz develops .302 Validating security theories prosperity. The bewildering number of agent–structure axes (narratives in constructivist terminology) that can be explored frees it from the constraints of prevailing paradigms. E. Constructivism in its many forms is too resourceful an opponent to reject simply because of the particular weaknesses of this light or that heavy constructivist. Constructivism does a better job explaining the slowing of violent conflict and. . No closure is warranted at this time in the struggle between paradigms and approaches for hegemony. constructivism opens the door to exploring a wide range of problems and questions previously off limits to accepted theorizing. and Frederkind (1998). the passing of the Cold War than explaining why the Cold War started and morphed into a superpower global struggle. There is no theoretical or practical impediment in current constructivist thinking that precludes actors and agents and structures of power to revert to a Hobbesian model and to a regressive and self-destructive endgame. both as knowledge of empirically accessible social facts and as privileged claims to certain values. power. Wendt. In challenging all other theoretical projects.
if not yet a full-fledged contender. methodological. Ironically. tainted as it is by a commitment to rationalist and empirically driven theory. Why is a constructivist explanation of security better characterized as an approach than as a paradigm for international relations and security studies? 2. These problematize the state and the state system. 4. expose the impact of different agent or actor identities on how they define their interests. Evaluate the capacity of the three forms of constructivist critiques in this chapter to explain the rise. much as the evolution of the European state system has moved toward European unity after five centuries of internecine civil war. attractive to growing numbers within their ranks. erode the artificial conceptual barriers separating domestic and international politics in theorizing about global politics and security. Constructivism. and Beth A. While this positive assessment will not sit lightly with "heavy" constructivists. London: Sage. What are the key elements of the constructivist approach to international relations and security theory and practice? Identify the break of constructivists with other social scientists along evidentiary.) (2002). is not ready to assume the title of hegemon in its battle with the paradigms and approaches covered in this volume. But it is a comer. an explanation is needed and warranted. and collapse of the Cold War bipolar system. evolution. Thomas Risse. too. and challenge both static conceptions of international politics and worn claims to legitimacy and privilege. Discussion questions 1. Handbook of International Relations. Where would Wendt be situated on a range of constructivists from heavy to light? 5. ontological. Distinguish between heavy and light explanations of actor behavior in international relations and in security policy-making. there is no doubt that fellow constructivists are opening new lines of inquiry. causal. more not less constructivist research and scholarship is needed to establish constructivism's ambitious claims.Constructivism 303 necessary to explain how a Hobbesian anarchy can evolve to a Lockean and Kantian mode. Suggestions for further reading Walter Carlsnaes. What are the key elements of the constructivist critique of the behavioral or rationalist approach to security theory and practice? 3. It is not enough to stipulate a supposed shift in systemic state behavior. This handbook . and epistemological dimensions. in any of the forms reviewed here or as a collective enterprise. Simmons (eds.
written by leading international relations scholars. and by James Fearon and Alexander Wendt on rationalism and constructivist approaches are particularly pertinent. If one wishes to begin somewhere to understand constructivism. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge.304 Validating security theories presents the best critical review of international relations theory. Ethics and the Sociology of Morals." Review of International Studies 26: 123–80. UK: Cambridge University Press. The essays by Emmanuel Adler on constructivism. divided into the principal sub-fields of the discipline." pp. Sharpe. Nicholas Onuf. . London: M. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. This is the best and most wideranging critique of Alexander Wendt's constructivist theory. "What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge. Forum (2000). The Construction of Social Reality. E. edited by Vendulka Kubalkova. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. John R. edited by one of the major scholars in international relations and comparative politics. which suggests where his thinking is going today. Emile Durkheim (1993). This hefty volume summarizes and expands on all of his previous important articles.) (1996). 58– 78 in International Relations in a Constructed World. Searle (1995). "Constructivism: A User's Manual. "Forum on Social Theory of International Politics. Peter J." International Organization 52: 855–85. makes the best case for taking light constructivism seriously and of incorporating its insight into mainstream thinking. This is a useful introduction to Onuf's more challenging and comprehensive 1989 work on constructivism: World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations. It is helpful to read the greats to grasp the cumulative debt that contemporary theorists and practitioners owe to giants who came before. this is as good a starting point as any. Onuf (1998). evidencing an enviable grasp of the literature and constructivism's debt to Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. John Gerard Ruggie (1998). and includes Wendt's rejoinder. New York: Free Press. This volume. Nicholas G. Alexander Wendt (1999). This is a foundational volume on constructivism by a leading sociologist. Katzenstein (ed. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. Clearly written. New York: Columbia University Press. and Paul Kowert.