Constructivism In International Relations Research Articles

Laundry-on-Air: Cultural Intimacy and the Transnational Circulation of Popular Culture

Abstract TV shows and movies, as dominant forms of modern popular culture, often trigger domestic discussions, especially when dealing with sensitive and thorny issues in society. But what happens when these domestically-created cultural productions are globally circulated and consumed? In recent years, especially following the streaming revolution, there have been increasing numbers of national TV shows and films that are internationally distributed and broadcast. Focusing on the Israeli case, this article examines discursive responses to conflict-related TV shows and films that were created in Israel and are broadcast to an international audience. Situating these responses within International Relations constructivism and Social Psychology literature, we argue that the Israeli harsh and emotional response is a result of three dimensions related to these productions: (1) they deal with culturally intimate issues; (2) they expose Israeli vulnerabilities to outsiders; and (3) they are created by Israeli citizens, expected to align with group norms. In addition to bringing to the surface domestic identity debates, these internationally consumed cultural productions add another layer of ontological anxiety—the uncomfortable feeling associated with “airing the dirty laundry in public.”

ASEAN (in)Security Community

The existence of arms modernization can be regarded as the high degree of security dilemma among states. In Southeast Asia, the fact that defense budget escalation followed by the military modernization may be the biggest obstacle to create an ASEAN Security Community. Unfortunately, there have been a little attention on the issue studying the correlation between arms modernization and the prospect of ASEAN Security Community. This paper seeks to fill the gap by analyzing how arms modernization in Southeast Asia is counterproductive to the ASEAN Security Community development. Using constructivism in International Relations, this paper argues that arms modernization among several ASEAN member states hinders collective identity building as a fundamental factor behind the security community. This argument implies that the formation of ASEAN Security Community will not create long-lasting peace in the region. This paper suggests that ASEAN should focus on collective identity formation to strengthen its own body institution rather than merely declare in a formal treaty.

The Game of Shapes: An Active Learning Template to Teach Constructivism in International Relations

This article presents the modus operandi of a game, the so-called Game of Shapes, which can be used as an active learning tool to teach Constructivism to introductory International Relations courses. While sharing our own experience of the development and application of the game in a laboratory with International Relations students, this paper aims to provide a teaching template that can assist in the problematization of the statist and individualistic ontology of rationalist theories. Hence it is an interactive dynamic that helps to introduce and open up the discussion of the contingency of the social world, which is the base to understand any of the several and intricate tenets of Constructivism and any other critical approaches. Most of the students’ feedbacks were very positive regarding their comprehension of the content presented. They provided important feedback on how the activity was valuable in order to grasp complex concepts, important to constructivist theories in International Relations.

"XALQARO MUNOSABATLARDA KONSTRUKTIVIZM NAZARIYASINING O‘ZIGA XOSLIGI"

"XALQARO MUNOSABATLARDA KONSTRUKTIVIZM NAZARIYASINING O‘ZIGA XOSLIGI"

International Organizations and World Making Practices: Some Notes on Method

Abstract In 2013, the International Law Commission (ilc) embarked on a codification project on identification of customary international law, including the role that international organizations (ios) might play in the formation of customary norms. Parallel discussions in the international law academy surrounding the role of ios reflected similar disciplinary anxieties as older debates on ios and law making. In this piece, I argue that the path to understanding ios’ governance passes neither doctrines of ios’ powers nor restrictive categories such as law making. A shift to ‘worldmaking practices’ and alternative approaches can help us diversify our subjects of enquiry and the ways in which we understand the ‘institutional’ dimension of international law. Here, I specifically focus on International Relations constructivism, Foucauldian ‘governmentality’, and critical political economy approaches. I then conclude with a discussion of international institutional law, interdisciplinarity and critique.

Positioning and Rebranding as a State Security Tools in Global Space

The purpose of this article is to explore positioning and rebranding as tools for state security in global space, using the methodology of constructivism in international relations. The author hypothesizes that positioning the country as safe will be attractive only if there is a unifying factor based on the principles of consocial democracy. To achieve this purpose, the authors used several scientific approaches and methods: constructivism as a scientific paradigm; dialectical method; content analysis, and comparison. The article covers the following issues: Positioning and rebranding in modern conditions; Level of branding effectiveness in Ukraine; National identity as the basis for rebranding and state security; Rebranding states in the face of new challenges and threats. The essence of the conclusions is as follows: States will choose a partner for economic cooperation under difficult conditions in terms of political risks, benefits, and costs. This trend is about renewed positioning and rebranding to facilitate decisions on cooperation. The effectiveness of the existing state brand depends not only on creating an attractive external picture of the country’s positioning. Without a genuine alignment of the declared brand with the internal situation of the state, the political system as a whole, the congruent of the mental construct of the main political structures and the social environment, the brand will not be attractive to investors and the country will remain in an unstable environment.

The Past as a Benchmark in Defining Turkey’s Status Politics

This article deals with Turkey’s status politics since the 2000s, by employing an aspirational constructivist approach that links social psychology with social constructivism in international relations. It focuses on the temporal side of status, stemming from historical identity construction in Turkish foreign policy (TFP) rhetoric and practices under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) since 2002. Turkey’s status politics is motivated by its past legacies rather than by a peer-to-peer comparison. Therefore, different variances and practices of identity politics in TFP offer valuable insights into its status-seeking practices. The article offers five images of the past that define various role sets and status claims for Turkey.

VIETNAM AND INDIA’S APPROACH TO THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION: IMPLICATION FOR BILATERAL RELATION PROMOTION

There have been tectonic shifts in the Indo-Pacific region, impacting relations among international actors, including traditionally close partners like Vietnam and India. By using the approach of realism and constructivism in international relations, this paper discusses Vietnam and India’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region to expand their substantive strategic relationship. The paper finds out that geopolitical changes in the Indo-Pacific directly influence the bilateral relation and create challenges as well as opportunities. By using the SWOT model, the paper analyzes driving factors and challenges to the Vietnam- India relations. Through the findings, it suggests both countries need to take advantages of the regional cooperation to further Vietnam-India’s strategic comprehensive partnership.

Social Constructivism in IR — A Short Success Story?

Abstract This article aims to present selected elements of SC’s development in the field of International Relations (IR) theory. It underlines the role played by sociology of knowledge and the transformative moment of the end of the Cold War. The main focus of this article is put on the process of mainstreaming SC in IR. This articles presents a summary, reminding one the fundamental premises of SC and their potential in IR and in social sciences in general. It is especially important today, as we face the situation where “everyone writes, but no one reads anymore” (Bok, 2015).

Constructivism in International Relations: from a theory between positivism and postpositivism to the theory of the world state

Constructivism emerged at the end of the Cold War and entered into IR theories debate by criticizing the rationalists (neo-liberal and neo-realist) on the one hand and critics on the other, accusing them of failing to predict and explain the end of the Cold War. While rationalists focus on material and economic factors, constructivists focus on cultural factors, the influence of ideas, norms and identities on the explanation of processes of interest formation, how to define survival and defining mechanisms of international politics, and emphasize that interest and identity interact through socio-historical processes and constitute each other. Thus, constructivism belongs to the fourth debate in the theoretical study of International Relations and it is one of the post-positivist theories, but it attempts to serve as a bridge between the positivist and post-positivist approaches. For example, if post-positivist theories are criticized, because of suffering from providing a realistic alternative versus of the description and explanation offered by rational theories, constructivism tries to overcome this criticism and it is able to provide the research program required to remove the post-positivist dilemma, by providing the practical hypotheses required by the establishment of a theory to describe and explain the reality of international relations. However, constructivism is not immune from criticism, it is accused that it does not offer anything new and exaggerates the understanding of cultural factors such as norms and identities and their impact on the reality of international relations, as well as its epistemological and methodological problems and its internal divisions between modern constructivists and postmodern constructivists.

Indonesian approaches to perception of the international relations and worldwide policy

In this article authors analyze sources and bases of political culture of Indonesia, reveal features of national approaches to the international relations, and also consider influence of national peculiarities on the international relations and foreign policy perception in Indonesia. The relevance of the study is due to a low degree of research of the influence of political culture, ideas, traditions and ideologies on the Indonesian foreign policy. The purpose of the research is to identify the characteristics and to analyze the development of Indonesian political thinking, the ideological and conceptual foreign policy foundations. This article is an interdisciplinary paper at the junction of the theory and history of international relations, cultural studies, sociology, ethnology. The authors apply a combination of system, comparative and historical (historical-genetic) method. Also, the authors rely on the school of constructivism in international relations. The results of the study are presented in the form of conclusions containing analysis of the influence of ideological, ethnic and political factors on the perception of international relations and world political processes by Indonesian society.

Forum introduction

AbstractThis piece is an abstract to a commentary section on Alexander Wendt's (2015) book, Quantum mind and social science : unifying physical and social ontology. In this book, Wendt, one of the core theorists of constructivism in international relations, undertakes a bold new initiative in grand theorizing. The commentators, followed by Wendt's own response to them, analyze this new direction from a number of angles.

A tale of two cognitions: The Evolution of Social Constructivism in International Relations

Constructivism in International Relations (IR) is popular, but constructivists seem disappointed. Allegedly something has been lost. Such criticisms are misplaced. There was never a uniform Constructivism. Since constructivism is socially constructed, to argue that constructivism has evolved “wrongly” is odd. This paper explains the dissatisfaction with constructivism followed by a second reading of its evolution as a tale of two cognitions. These two cognitions distinguish genera in the constructivist “family”. A criticism against one genus based on the cognition of the other is unfair. A focus on cognitions and the use of genera helps in perceiving constructivism’s future evolution.

China’s Strategic Culture and the Challenge of Security Management in the South China Sea Dispute

The most challenging task in creating peace in the South China Sea is how to deal with Chinese assertive behavior. This is important since many proposals of the regional security architecture have failed to engage China in order to establish a long-lasting peace in the region. This paper seeks to explain the failure of security management in the South China Sea. Using the concept of strategic culture deriving from constructivism in International Relations, this paper argues that China’s strategic culture is the main factor behind the aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. This culture is rooted from the pre-modern China’s history that has distinct perspective from the Westphalian international law with regard to territorial disputes. This cultural dimension, not the material one, is the key to rethinking security management in the region.

The Social Self In International Relations: Identity, Power and the Rediscovery of Constructivism’s Symbolic Interactionist Roots

Abstract This article argues that the symbolic interactionist sources of the first generation of constructivists in IR theory are worth recovering because of their ability to address what constructivists have always wanted to understand – the social construction of world politics. Symbolic interactionism is more or less implicit in key claims of canonical works of the first generation of constructivism in International Relations (IR) theory. However, constructivism lost some of its potential to address everyday experiences and performances of world politics when it turned to norm diffusion and socialisation. The second generation of constructivists generated rich insights on the construction of national identities and on patterns of foreign policy, but did not fully exploit constructivism’s analytical potentials. Contrary to what most IR scholars have come to believe, symbolic interactionists saw the self as a deeply social – not a psychological or biological – phenomenon. Symbolic interactionism is interested in how inherently incomplete and fragile selves are constructed and deconstructed through processes of inclusion, exclusion and shaming. Today, third generation constructivists are returning to the sociology of Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel and other symbolic interactionists to address problems of identity, power and deviance in international politics. Keywords : Goffman, constructivism, identity, power, symbolic interactionism, the social self, stigma, Wendt. ----- Bibliography: Adler-Nissen, Rebecca: The Social Self In International Relations: Identity, Power and the Rediscovery of Constructivism’s Symbolic Interactionist Roots, ERIS, 3-2016, pp. 27-39. https://doi.org/10.3224/eris.v3i3.27340

Constructivism, Cognition, and Duality

Abstract The history of social constructivism in International Relations (IR) is marked by cognitive change and continuity. This paper’s argument begins by assuming that constructivism is a contested concept. Yet, Wittgenstein’s notion of family resemblances helps in understanding why an essence of constructivism need not be found. Within this constructivist family, there are different modes of cognition, or different understandings of legitimate processes of knowing. The paper identifies two different modes, one joined, the other separate but equal. Third generation constructivists could contribute to constructivism’s evolution by communicating (better) their mode of cognition. The paper draws from Wittgenstein, Gestalt psychology, and modern physics to suggest cognitive duality, illustrated with an example from global law. Physics-envy may be healthy if it differs from what IR is accustomed to. Keywords : social constructivism, third generation, cognition, Gestalt psychology, duality, Wittgenstein ----- Bibliography: Peltonen, Hannes: Constructivism, Cognition, and Duality, ERIS, 3-2016, pp. 76-86. https://doi.org/10.3224/eris.v3i3.27344

Ekspor Revolusi Islam dan Identitas Republik Islam Iran

Having been considered as rational actor acting based on national interests, sovereign states is also understood have their own identities. Moreover, state identities have pivotal role on determining state behavior in international social structure. Stand on that assumption, this paper will describe the four state identities of Islamic Republic of Iran that assist to find an answer for interesting question: why did Iran export their Islamic Revolution throughout Middle East during Ayatollah Khomeini’s era (1979-1989)?During export of revolution, Iran was in war with Iraq and ideologically conflicted with Saudi while its fundamental ideology was spread across by propagating via international radio network and supporting oppressed nations in some countries. This historical phenomenon will be explained by Constructivism in International Relations, especially based on Alexander Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics. It can be seen that there are four identities of Iran: as an Islamic Iran nation, velayat-e faqih-based Islamic Republic, core of Islamic world, and part of Pan-Islam.

Practice Theory and Relationalism as the New Constructivism

In this theory note, I address two new approaches in international relations theory gaining adherents and producing insightful applications: practice theory and relationalism. Practice theory draws attention to everyday logics in world politics. It stresses how international actors are driven less by abstract notions of the national interest, identities, or preferences than by context-dependent practical imperatives. Relationalism rejects the idea that entities—like states and international organizations—are the basic units of world politics. It replaces them with a focus on ongoing processes. Noting similarities in their arguments to those advanced by early constructivists, I argue that, taken together, practice theory and relationalism represent the New Constructivism in International Relations (IR). A practice–relational turn became necessary because the meaning of constructivism narrowed over time, becoming tied to a specific scientific ontology focusing on the role of identity, norms, and culture in world politics. This ontology unduly narrowed constructivism’s theoretical lenses, which practice theory and relationalism productively reopen.

Michael Oakeshott’s political philosophy of civil association and constructivism in International Relations

This article shows the relevance of Oakeshott’s political philosophy for the contemporary constructivist debate in International Relations. First, the article argues that Oakeshott’s perspective stresses that political institutions are based on norms and relationships which result from human understanding. Second, it elaborates on Nicholas Rengger’s recent work and reveals that Oakeshott’s On Human Conduct presents considerations pertaining to international politics that are consistent with his broader political philosophy. These observations concern the nature of war, the historical role of colonialism and the evolution of international society. Third, this article discusses Terry Nardin’s notion of ‘practical association’ and Christian Reus-Smit’s criticism of it. It contends that international civil association is a relationship between states based on understood and socially constructed moral values and practices. Finally, the article claims that customary international law declares and reflects these values and practices. As such, it reveals that Oakeshott’s notion of authority and his theory of civil association illuminate the possibility of an international legal order without a legislative office. This is of particular relevance also because of the Hobbesian influence on Oakeshott. Overall, this article illustrates how Michael Oakeshott’s theory of civil association sheds light on the nature of international society and law.

Mengapa tidak berperang? Norma Politik Luar Negeri Cina dan Konflik Laut Cina Selatan

South China Sea conflict is one of the most destabilizing factors in Southeast Asia. Despite it has occured for long time period, there has not been major wars among occupants. This puzzle challenges realist particularly ofense-defense theory stating that when perception of victory is greater than defeat, it will lead to war. China’s military capability is far greater than any contry in the region. Yet, China does not intent to attack others. Assumption that China is an offensive and hegemonic nation is not in accordance with reality. Material-based explanation cannot account for China’s foreign policy. This article seeks to explain why South China Sea conflict does not lead to war between occupants. Using constructivism in international relations, this article argues that China’s domestic norms of national security plays great role which constitute its foreign policy character. Norms of cooperative security or hezuo anquan which is rooted from Confucian culture emphasize on harmony and cooperation that generate self-restraint diplomacy. As a result, China would not employ its military power to solve South China Sea conflict. This article concludes that norms held by country constitute its interest and in turn guide state’s policy.