INTERNATIONAL THEORY

International Theory

International Theory

We are going to discuss here the merits of the argument that all International Theory is constitutive. The discipline of international relations (IR) is one that has witnessed a multitude of variations and shifts. It has produced a fair amount of debate between academics within the international relations scholarship. Due to a plethora of circumstances scholars have subjected the traditional rationalist theories of neorealism and neoliberalism to critical re-evaluations. As a result, constitutism is a concept that has emerged as an alternative approach to dominant IR theories. It focuses on the importance of state identities in defining and gaining knowledge of state interests, actions and goals.

There are theorists who claim that the rise of constitutism allows for a further understanding of another international theory. This is a branch of critical social theory that illlustrates how gender has been thought of or avoided in traditional international relations. In order to gain a fuller understanding of the components involved it is first necessary to provide a brief introduction to the concepts. Theories of international relations were developed through three major debates and as such, IR ideas were traditionally dominated by the perspectives of realism, idealism and behaviouralism . Criticisms leveled by critical theorists, combined with the end of the Cold War and a generational change, led to the displacement of established axes of debate by a new constituteivist approach to IR literature. Rooted in sociology, constitutism is about human consciousness and the role of this feature in international life . Dominant rationalist theories make distinctions between the actions and interests of states on the basis of economic and security concerns. They believe states act in accordance with the material structural incentives of the international system. Conversely, a primary assumption of the constituteivist approach is that identities, norms and culture play fundamentally important roles. Alexander Wendt and John Ruggie, the forefathers of constitutism, contend that this theory is characterized by an emphasis on the significance of not only material but normative and ideational structures affecting the role of identity in forming political action. An argument is made on the mutual relationship between agents and structure . Constituteivists argue that the identities and interests of states are not only structurally determined but socially constituteed by interactions between states, institutions, norms and cultures . Concurrently, not only are identities and interests of actors socially constituteed, they must also 'share the stage' with a host of other ideational factors emanating from people as cultural beings. The constituteivist focus of inquiry is social phenomena such as norms, rules, institutions, language or productions . In sum, it is the process of social constitution, the mechanisms that constitute reality, and not structure, which determines the manner in which states interact in world politics.

The decade of the 1980s saw the beginnings of feminist IR scholarship . Carrying over to the latter stages of the 1990s, for feminist political scientists such as Ann Tickner and Birgit Locher the third debate provided a new basis for an engagement ...