Constructivism
●International politics are “socially constructed”
●State identity matters
○Relational
○States have multiple identities depending on counterparts and contexts
○States identities are never fixed
●State interests are closely associated with identity
●International norms matter
○Formal or informal standards of appropriate behavior for actors with a given
identity
○Norms can work without coercive enforcement (Realism) and sometimes without
economic incentives or self-interest (Liberalism)
○Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
○Prohibition of targeting civilians
○Non-use of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
Constructivism “Anarchy”
●Alexander Wendt (1992): “Anarchy is what states make of it”
●“Anarchy as such is not a structural cause of anything. What matters is its social
structure, which varies across anarchies. An anarchy of friends differs from one of
enemies, one of self-help from one of collective security, and these are all constituted by
structures of shared knowledge.”
International Norms Change
●Non-interference→ Responsibility to Protect
●Targeting civilians→ Prohibition of targeting civilians
●Slavery
Nuclear Taboo
●Since 1945, nuclear weapons have never been used
●Why haven’t states used nuclear weapons even in cases where there was no fear of
nuclear retaliation
●States have not used nuclear weapons due to a growing international norm
●How does this norm emerge?
Samuel Huntington
●The Clash of Civilizations?
○Foreign Affairs article (1993)
○Predict a new post Cold War order
○Culture is the dominating source of conflict
