The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory Author(S): Ted Hopf Reviewed Work(S): Source: International Security, Vol
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The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory Author(s): Ted Hopf Reviewed work(s): Source: International Security, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Summer, 1998), pp. 171-200 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2539267 . Accessed: 03/01/2012 16:10 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to International Security. http://www.jstor.org The Promiseof TedHopf Constructivismin InternationalRelations Theory A challenger to the continuing dominance of neorealism and neoliberal institutionalismin the study of internationalrelations in the United States,constructivism is regarded with a greatdeal of skepticismby mainstreamscholars.1 While the reasons for this receptionare many,three central ones are the mainstream'smiscasting of constructivismas necessarilypostmodern and antipositivist;constructivism's own ambivalence about whether it can buy into mainstream social science methods without sacrificingits theoreticaldistinctiveness; and, related to this ambivalence, constructivism'sfailure to advance an alternativeresearch pro- gram. In this article,I clarifyconstructivism's claims, outline the differences between "conventional" and "critical"constructivism, and suggest a research agenda thatboth provides alternativeunderstandings of mainstreaminterna- Ted Hopf is VisitingProfessor of Peace Research,The MershonCenter, Ohio State University.He is the authorof Peripheral Visions: DeterrenceTheory and American Foreign Policy in the Third World, 1965-1990 (Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press, 1994) and is at workon ConstructingForeign Policy at Home: Moscow 1955-1999,in whicha theoryof identity and internationalrelations is developed and tested.He can be reachedby e-mailat <<[email protected]>>. I am most gratefulto Matt Evangelista and Peter Katzensteinwho both read and commentedon many less-than-inspiringdrafts of this work,and, more important,supported my overall research agenda. I am also thankfulto Peter Kowert and Nicholas Onuf for invitingme to Miami in the winter of 1997 to a conferenceat Florida InternationalUniversity at which I was compelled to come to grips with the differencebetween critical and conventional constructivisms.I also benefitedfrom especially incisive and criticalcomments from Henrikki Heikka, Badredine Arfi, RobertKeohane, JamesRichter, Maria Fanis, Ned Lebow, Pradeep Chhibber,Richard Herrmann, David Dessler, and one anonymous reviewer. I would also like to salute the members of my graduate seminarin internationalrelations theory at the Universityof Michigan,in particular,Irfan Nooruddin, Frank Penirian,Todd Allee, and JonathanCanedo helped me figureout the relation- ship between the mainstreamand its critics. 1. The canonical neorealistwork remains Kenneth N. Waltz, Theoryof International Politics (Read- ing, Mass.: Addison-Wesley,1979). The debate between neorealismand neoliberalinstitutionalism is presented and summarized in David A. Baldwin, ed., Neorealismand Neoliberalism(New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1993). Constructivistchallenges can be found in Nicholas Greenwood Onuf, Worldof Our Making:Rules and Rule in Social Theoryand InternationalRelations (Columbia: Universityof South Carolina Press, 1989); PeterJ. Katzenstein, ed., The Cultureof National Security: Normsand Identityin WorldPolitics (New York:Columbia UniversityPress, 1996); and Yosef Lapid and FriedrichV. Kratochwil,eds., The Returnof Ctultureand Identityin IR Theory(Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner,1996). IhnternationalSecurity, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 171-200 ? 1998 by the Presidentand Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology. 171 InternationalSecurity 23:1 | 172 tional relationspuzzles and offersa few examples of what constructivismcan uniquely bring to an understandingof world politics. Constructivismoffers alternative understandings of a number of the central themesin internationalrelations theory, including: the meaning of anarchyand balance of power, the relationship between state identityand interest,an elaborationof power, and the prospectsfor change in world politics.Construc- tivism itselfshould be understood in its conventionaland criticalvariants, the latterbeing more closely tied to criticalsocial theory.The conventional con- structivistdesire to presentan alternativeto mainstreaminternational relations theory requires a research program. Such a program includes constructivist reconceptualizationsof balance-of-threattheory, the securitydilemma, neolib- eral cooperation theory,and the democraticpeace. The constructivistresearch program has its own puzzles that concentrateon issues of identityin world politics and the theorizationof domestic politics and culture in international relationstheory. ConventionalConstructivism and Issuesin Mainstream InternationalRelations Theory Since constructivismis best defined in relation to the issues it claims to apprehend, I presentits position on several of the most significantthemes in internationalrelations theory today. ACTORS AND STRUCTURES ARE MUTUALLY CONSTITUTED How much do structuresconstrain and enable the actions of actors,and how much can actors deviate fromthe constraintsof structure?In world politics,a structureis a set of relativelyunchangeable constraintson the behavior of states.2Although these constraintscan take the form of systems of material dis/incentives,such as a balance of power or a market,as importantfrom a constructivistperspective is how an action does or does not reproduce both the actor and the structure.3For example, to the extentthat U.S. appeasement in Vietnam was unimaginable because of U.S. identity as a great power, 2. Most importantfor this article,this is the neorealistconceptualization of internationalstructure. All referencesto neorealism,unless otherwisenoted, are fromWaltz, Theory of International Politics. 3. FriedrichKratochwil suggests that this differencein the understandingof structureis because structuralismentered internationalrelations theory not through sociolinguistics,but through microeconomics.Friedrich V. Kratochwil,"Is the Ship of Culture at Sea or Returning?"in Lapid and Kratochwil,The Returnof Cultureand Identity,p. 211. ThePromise of Constructivism | 173 militaryintervention constituted the United States as a greatpower. Appease- ment was an unimaginable act. By engaging in the "enabled" action of inter- vention,the United States reproduced its own identityof great power, as well as the structurethat gave meaning to its action. So, U.S. interventionin Vietnam perpetuated the internationalintersubjective understanding of great powers as those states that use militarypower against others. Meaningful behavior, or action,4is possible only within an intersubjective social context. Actors develop their relations with, and understandings of, others throughthe media of norms and practices. In the absence of norms, exercises of power, or actions, would be devoid of meaning. Constitutive norms define an identityby specifyingthe actions that will cause Others to recognize that identityand respond to it appropriately.5Since structureis meaninglesswithout some intersubjectiveset of norms and practices,anarchy, mainstreaminternational relations theory's most crucial structuralcomponent, is meaningless.Neither anarchy, that is, the absence of any authorityabove the state,nor the distributionof capabilities,can "socialize" statesto the desiderata of the internationalsystem's structureabsent some set of meaningfulnorms and practices.6 A storymany use in first-yearinternational relations courses to demonstrate the structuralextreme, that is, a situation where no agency is imaginable, illustratesthe point. The scenario is a firein a theaterwhere all run for the exits.7But absent knowledge of social practices or constitutivenorms, struc- ture,even in this seemingly overdeterminedcircumstance, is still indetermi- nate. Even in a theaterwith just one door, while all run forthat exit, who goes first?Are they the strongestor the disabled, the women or the children,the aged or the infirm,or is it just a mad dash? Determiningthe outcome will require knowing more about the situationthan about the distributionof ma- terial power or the structureof authority.One will need to know about the culture,norms, institutions, procedures, rules, and social practicesthat consti- tute the actors and the structurealike. 4. The criticaldistinction between action and behavior is made by Charles Taylor,"Interpretation and the Sciences of Man," in Paul Rabinow and WilliamM. Sullivan,eds., InterpretiveSocial Science: A SecondLook (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1987), pp. 33-81. 5. Ronald L. Jepperson,Alexander Wendt,and PeterJ. Katzenstein, "Norms, Identity,and Culture in National Security,"in Katzenstein,The Cultureof National Security, p. 54. 6. David Dessler, "What's At Stake in the Agent-StructureDebate?" InternationalOrganization, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Summer 1989), pp. 459-460. 7. Arnold Wolfers,Discord and Collaboration(Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins UniversityPress,