Communitarian International Relations: The Epistemic Foundations of International Relations

by Adler,Emanuel

• ISBN13: 9780415335911
• ISBN10: 0415335914
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-06-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In Emanuel Adler's distinctive constructivist approach to international relations theory, international practices evolve in tandem with collective knowledge of the material and social worlds. This book - comprising a selection of his journal publications, a new introduction and three previously unpublished articles - points IR constructivism in a novel direction, characterized as 'communitarian'. Adler's synthesis does not herald the end of the nation-state; nor does it suggest that agency is unimportant in international life. Rather, it argues that what mediates between individual and state agency and social structures are communities of practice, which are the wellspring and repositories of collective meanings and social practices. The concept of communities of practice casts new light on epistemic communities and security communities, helping to explain why certain ideas congeal into human practices and others do not, and which social mechanisms can facilitate the emergence of normatively bettercommunities.

Author Biography

Emanuel Adler is the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Professor of Israeli Studies at the University of Toronto and Professor of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Series editor's preface	xii
Preface and acknowledgements	xv
PART I Introduction	1	(28)
Communities of practice in International Relations	3	(26)
PART II Cognitive evolution	29	(88)
From being to becoming: cognitive evolution and a theory of non-equilibrium in International Relations	31	(34)
Cognitive evolution: a dynamic approach for the study of International Relations and their progress	65	(24)
Seizing the middle ground: constructivism in world politics	89	(28)
PART III Epistemic communities	117	(66)
Ideological `guerrillas' and the quest for technological autonomy: Brazil's domestic computer industry	119	(28)
The emergence of cooperation: national epistemic communities and the international evolution of the idea of nuclear arms control	147	(36)
PART IV Security communities	183	(50)
Imagined (security) communities: cognitive regions in International Relations	185	(22)
Condition(s) of peace	207	(26)
PART V Identity and peace in the Middle East	233	(26)
A Mediterranean canon and an Israeli prelude to long-term peace	235	(8)
Changing identities: the road to peace	243	(16)
Notes	259	(62)
Index	321