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A Whole New WorldSituating the Particular: After Constructivism

A Whole New World: Situating the Particular: After Constructivism [If the tension between realism and liberalism provides the main axis of debate within international studies, there is also a series of critiques that have been addressed to one or both of these approaches. Two lines of analysis have been paramount in that regard. One line starts with the post-modern work inspired by Foucault and others, and is represented for instance by the writings of Rob Walker. It then winds itself through the Habermasian critical theory exemplified by the work of Andrew Linklater, and finally culminates in the constructivist literature mainly identified with Alexander Wendt’s work. The goal of that literature is to show that a series of assumptions about the nature of knowledge, identity, and interest underlie both realism and liberalism, and that these assumptions are historically specific in that they stem from particular historical and intellectual developments. The logic of power, human identity, rationality, and suchlike, which the realists and the liberals build on all these starting premises, are thus themselves historically contingent. What they present as universal elements of international politics on the basis of that logic remains, in that sense, nothing more than the effect of particular circumstances and conditions.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Whole New WorldSituating the Particular: After Constructivism

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References (7)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011
ISBN
978-1-349-32757-7
Pages
61 –78
DOI
10.1057/9780230316843_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[If the tension between realism and liberalism provides the main axis of debate within international studies, there is also a series of critiques that have been addressed to one or both of these approaches. Two lines of analysis have been paramount in that regard. One line starts with the post-modern work inspired by Foucault and others, and is represented for instance by the writings of Rob Walker. It then winds itself through the Habermasian critical theory exemplified by the work of Andrew Linklater, and finally culminates in the constructivist literature mainly identified with Alexander Wendt’s work. The goal of that literature is to show that a series of assumptions about the nature of knowledge, identity, and interest underlie both realism and liberalism, and that these assumptions are historically specific in that they stem from particular historical and intellectual developments. The logic of power, human identity, rationality, and suchlike, which the realists and the liberals build on all these starting premises, are thus themselves historically contingent. What they present as universal elements of international politics on the basis of that logic remains, in that sense, nothing more than the effect of particular circumstances and conditions.]

Published: Oct 14, 2015

Keywords: International Study; International Affair; World Order; World Politics; International Politics

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