Social constructivism in IR Theories

Main Theme in IP – Criticism of structural realism.

Scholar – Alexander Wendt (Anarchy is what states make of it), Nicholas Onuf, Nina Tannonwald.

It is a school of relatively recent origin after end of Cold War. Onuf’s book “The world of our making”, led to the emergence of the school.

Context of School – The earlier generation thought Cold War is inevitable and will be permanent fact, however end of Cold War shows that it was world of our own making. Similarly Cold War was not because of any real issues, it is a story of misunderstanding and miscalculations. Similarly Wendt suggest that it is true, that there is no world government yet absence of world govt does not necessarily means, that nations have to go for struggle for power. He has criticised Kenneth Waltz by suggesting that “anarchy is what states make of it”, it all depends on how we look at state of IP. The so called security dilemma described as the material fact is actually the construction of realists. Our construction is shaped by knowledge i.e given to us, values norms experiences, we continue to live in the world of our imaginations without making attempt to verify our thinking, security dilemma need not be a permanent feature, subject to condition state go for communication on regular basis. Thus social constructivist suggest that to change world, we need to change the way we think, we need to change our norms, values. Social constructivists try to understand not what we think, but why we think.