CONSTRUCTIVISM - Northwestern University

← Back to document page

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.

of international relations is minimal when compared to the influence of brute material factors, and so the research agendas of neorealism and neoliberalism have at once conceded the constructivist insight while maintaining their core claims.

  International, Relations, Constructivism, International relations