Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality

by Maja Zehfuss

• ISBN13: 9780521894661
• ISBN10: 0521894662
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Maja Zehfuss critiques constructivist theories of international relations (currently considered to be at the cutting edge of the discipline) and finds them wanting and even politically dangerous. Zehfuss uses Germany's first shift toward using its military abroad after the end of the Cold War to illustrate why constructivism does not work and how it leads to particular analytical outcomes and forecloses others. She argues that scholars are limiting their abilities to act responsibly in international relations by looking towards constructivism as the future.

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)
Everyday `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	(27)
Index	291