CONSTRUCTIVISM - Northwestern University

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17-Smit-Snidal-c17OUP218-Reus-Smit(Types et by Spi, Delhi)298of316January18,2008 18:41chapter hurdThebasic insight behind the constructivist approach can be understood by un-packing a quick observation made by Alexander Wendt. He says that 500Britishnuclear weapons are less threatening to the United States than5North Koreannuclear weapons (Wendt1995,73). In this little observation are found traces ofthe features that distinguish CONSTRUCTIVISM from other approaches to internationalrelations, including its critique of materialism, its emphasis on the social construc-tion of interests, its relationship between structures and agents, and its multiplelogics of anarchy. On its surface, the empirical puzzle of the threat embodied byNorth Korean missiles is easy to explain: as Wendt (1995,73) says, the British arefriends and the North Koreans are not.

17-Smit-Snidal-c17 OUP218-Reus-Smit (Typeset by Spi, Delhi) 301of 316 January 18, 2008 18:41 constructivism 301 the 1980s shared a commitment to materialism in which socially mediated beliefs

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