Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality

by Maja Zehfuss

• ISBN13: 9780521815444
• ISBN10: 0521815444
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-08-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist representations of reality. Each critique concludes that constructivist notions of key concepts are impossible, and that this is not merely a question of theoretical inconsistency, but of politics. The book is premised on the notion that the 'empirical' and the 'theoretical' are less separate than is acknowledged in international relations, and must be read as intertwined. Zehfuss examines the scholars' role in international relations, worrying that, by looking to constructivism as the future, they will be severely curtailing their ability to act responsibly in this area.

Author Biography

Maja Zehfuss is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Warwick

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
List of abbreviations	xiii
Introduction	1	(37)
Constructivism in International Relations	2	(8)
Three Constructivisms	10	(13)
German military involvement abroad	23	(10)
Plan of the book	33	(5)
Identity change? Wendt's constructivism and German military involvement abroad	38	(56)
The identity move	39	(17)
Collective identity	56	(7)
Collective identity reconsidered	63	(21)
The identity of identity	84	(10)
Intersubjectivity and the normative: Kratochwil's constructivism and German military involvement abroad	94	(57)
The significance of the normative	95	(23)
Norms as the basis of intersubjectivity	118	(17)
The politics of intersubjectivity and the normative	135	(16)
Words and world: Onuf's constructivism and German military involvement abroad	151	(45)
Words making the world	153	(18)
The normative effects of speech acts	171	(7)
Speech acts: success and failure	178	(8)
The politics of words and worlds	186	(10)
The politics of `reality': Derrida's subversions, constructivism and German military involvement abroad	196	(54)
The impossibility of pure presence and the politics of the `real'	197	(10)
The `reality' of international politics	207	(15)
Everday `reality'	222	(14)
`Reality' as raw material	236	(9)
The politics of constructivism	245	(5)
The politics of constructivism	250	(14)
Responsibility in international relations	254	(5)
Constructivism, reality, International Relations	259	(5)
Bibliography	264	(17)
Index	281