Constructivism: N. Onuf, A. Wendt: A quick revision

1. The original insight behind constructivism is that MEANING is “socially
constructed.” Constructivist theory emphasizes the meanings are assigned to
material objects, rather than the mere existence of the objects themselves. For
example, a nuclear weapon in the United Kingdom and a nuclear weapon in North
Korea may be materially identical but they possess radically different meanings for
the United States.
http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~ihu355/Home_files/17-Smit-Snidal-c17.pdf
 An approach to international relations that focuses on the social interaction of
agents/actors in world politics
 Institutions and actors are mutually conditioning entities
 According to constructivists, international institutions have both regulative and
constitutive functions.
CONSTRUCTIVISM

2. NICHOLAS ONUF – Discipline, Order/Anarchy, Republicanism
1. ‘Constructivism’, a term he is widely credited with coining for the field.
2. His ground-breaking World of Our Making appeared in 1989, offered a significant challenge for the
discipline of international relations and, along with the work of Alexander Wendt, inaugurated an
ongoing conversation around the perspective of ‘Constructivism’ in international relations
3. He argued for ‘Reconstruction’ of the discipline of international relations
4. He rejected liberalism – Why? : asocial foundation : autonomous individuals are pre-social
5. He argued contemporary understanding of anarchy is of much more recent origin – it’s based on the
conception of order inside the state
6. Onuf draws heavily on the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens as well as the linguistic theory of
Ludwig Wittgenstein and argued that agents (people) and structures (recurrent forms of social
institutions) mutually constitute each other. Mutual constitution of agents and structures happening
through 3- Rules : Assertive, Directive, ‘Commisive’ or ‘Commitment’
7. He also explored republicanism. In the text, Republican Legacy in International Thought, he sets out to
rescue republicanism from liberalism (or liberal internationalism)
8. Onuf traces republicanism back to the Greeks, and argues that republican thought evolved around the
notion of community and the common good. Onuf able to demonstrate that important areas of
international relations, such as sovereignty, humanitarian intervention and the democratic peace, have
been deeply influenced by republican thought..

3. ALEXANDER WENDT
Primarily a meta-theorist or ‘second-order’ theorist rather than a ‘first order’ theorist
Wendt is concerned to reconstruct the study of international relations. Why? Neorealists and neoliberals
share a commitment to ontological atomism and epistemological positivism. ‘Collectivist’ also (World
System theorists) committed to structure.
Wendt wanted to capture the relationship between agents and structures without reification of one or the
other i.e. an ontology that overcomes the tendency to treat action and structure as the opposite sides of a
dualism
Wendt defines constructivism as follows: Constructivism is a structural theory of the international system
that makes the following core claims:
(1) states are the principal units of analysis for international political theory;
(2) the key structures in the states system are inter-subjective, rather than material; and
(3) state identities and interests are in important part constructed by these social structures, rather than given
exogenously to the system by human nature or domestic politics.
His famous book is Social Theory of International Politics. He stated the effects of materiality…largely
function of ideas. He formulated three modes of socialization: coercion (Hobbes), calculation (Locke) and
belief (Kant).
Exploring ‘capacity for collective self-consciousness’ through quantum theory.
 Source: