General Notes:

• Chapter 3 - Liberalism: Interdependence and Global Governance (pg. 63)

  • Major Actors and Assumptions (pg. 63)

    • "realists are primarily interested in power and the balance of power - explanations of political and economic competition, war, and other conflicts" (pg. 63)

    • "liberals, by contrast, are primarily interested in explaining the conditions under which international cooperation or collaboration becomes possible" (pg. 63)

      • "with the liberal lenses firmly in place, the focus may be on democratic peace theory, integration, interdependence, regime theory, neoliberal institutionalism, and the ways and means of global governance" (pg. 63)

    • 5 Key Assumptions: (pg. 63)

      • "first, states as well as non-state transnational actors are important entities in world politics" (pg. 63)

        • "the liberal image is therefore a pluralistic one in which multiple kinds of state and non-state actors play substantial roles in world politics" (pg. 63)

      • "second, many liberals see economic or other forms of interdependence or interconnectedness among both state and non-state actors as tending to have, if not a pacifying effect, then at least a moderating one on state behavior" (pg. 64)

      • "third…the liberal rejects the notion that the agenda of international politics is dominated only by military-security issues…[but that] economic, social, and environmental issues also matter" (pg. 64)

      • "fourth, as opposed to structural realists with their 'top-down' view on how anarchy and the distribution of capabilities affect state behavior, many liberals take an 'inside-out' view that examines how factors at the state-society and individual levels of analysis affect international relations and outcomes" (pg. 64)

        • "democratic peace theory attempts to show how political culture, values, and domestic political structures influence the prospects for international peace" (pg. 64)

      • "fifth, the key analytical task is to discover under what conditions international collaboration, if not peace, might be achieved" (pg. 64)

        • "scholars of regimes theory argue that collaboration is possible where principles, norms, and actors' expectations converge on a particular issue area" (pg. 65)

    • "neoliberal institutionalist theories all examine the possibilities of upgrading the common interest to include the impact of nonmaterial factors such as ideas and norms" (pg. 65)

    • "compared to structural realists and many economic structuralists…liberals tend to be voluntarists" (pg. 65)

  • Intellectual Precursors and Influences (pg. 65)

    • "[liberals have] an interest in not simply the state, but also the individual or group" (pg. 66)

    • Interest Group Liberalism (pg. 66)

      • "it is a multi-actor pluralism of individuals in groups interacting and forming coalitions and countercoalitions in the domestic arenas of politics that many liberal scholars project as capturing the essence of politics across the entire globe" (pg. 66)

        • "many liberals reject the realist distinction between 'international' and 'domestic' politics" (pg. 66)

      • 3 Liberal Notions: (pg. 66)

        • "the state as neutral arbiter" (pg. 66)

        • "the potential for a natural harmony of interest, in this case among groups of individuals" (pg. 66)

        • "public concern for…a policy process not restricted to elites" (pg. 66)

      • "the image of politics that interest group liberals hold is of a fragmented political system, one in which multiple actors compete" (pg. 67)

        • "[Robert] Dahl describes American politics as a 'system in which all the active and legitimate groups in the populations can make themselves heard at some crucial stage in the process of decision" (pg. 67)

      • "what the group is to the interest group liberal, the individual is to the liberal philosopher" (pg. 67)

        • "what they have in common is agreement on the fragmented nature of the state and society and the potential for harmony to develop out of competition and conflict. The state is not an independent, coherent, autonomous actor separated or aloof from society. Its primary function is as arbiter of conflicting demands and claims, or as an arena for the expression of such interests" (pg. 67)

  • International Organization (pg. 68)

    • "the League of Nations…[was an] effort to maintain the peace…[whereby] negotiators moved away from alliances, power, and the balance of power [which] were understood to be more the causes of war than mechanisms for maintaining the peace. It was instead to be a collective security based on the rule of law" (pg. 68)

      • "liberal and realist conceptions came together in the multilateral security mechanism constituted under the authority of the UN Security Council" (pg. 68) [Chapter VII: Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression (Articles 39-51) | United Nations]

  • Integration (pg. 69)

    • "[David] Mitrany argued that modern society faced a myriad of technical problems that can best be resolved by experts as opposed to politicians" (pg. 69)

      • "Mitrany saw a way to sneak up on the authority of the sovereign state. As states and societies became increasingly integrated due to the expansion of collaboration…the cost of breaking these functional ties would be great and hence give leaders reason to pause" (pg. 69)

    • "the most prominent theorist of regional integration was Ernst Haas, whose work…was referred to as neofunctionalism" (pg. 69)

      • "rather than just compete in ongoing zero-sum contests, optimizing short-term self-interest at the expense of others, they can upgrade service of their common and long-term interests through cooperative and collaborative efforts reflected in international institutions" (pg. 70)

  • Transnationalism (pg. 71)

    • "by the early 1970's…attention turned to the increasing role of MNCs abroad and the challenge they posed to the sovereign prerogatives of states as they transited across national boundaries in the daily conduct of their business" (pg. 71)

      • "the new focus was on studying these actors, their institutions, and the coalitions they form across state boundaries…such as MNCs, banks, churches, and eventually human rights, environmental, and terror or criminal networks" (pg. 72-73)

  • Interdependence (pg. 73)

    • "interdependence is simply defined as mutual dependence resulting from the types of international transactions catalogued by transnationalists - flows of money, goods, services, people, communications, etc." (pg. 73)

      • "interdependence exists when there are 'reciprocal effects among countries or among actors in different countries'" (pg. 73)

    • "in a situation of complex interdependence, where multiple channels connect societies, there is an absence of hierarchy among states, and military force is not used by governments against other governments involved in the interdependent relation" (pg. 73)

  • International Regimes (pg. 74)

    • "Keohane and Nye's work on complex interdependence did not displace the state as [the] principal focus of study" (pg. 74)

    • "regime literature has focused, then, on ways and means of constructing and maintaining or managing interdependent relations in these multilateral, institutionalized arrangements" (pg. 74)

      • "as sets of principles, norms, rules, and procedures, international regimes are not the same as international organizations" (pg. 74)

      • "in IR theory they are merely analytical constructs defined by observers. Action remains with states and both international and nongovernmental organizations" (pg. 75)

        • Power-Based Realist Theories - "the basic argument is that regimes are established and maintained when a state holds a preponderance of power resources" (pg. 75)

        • Knowledge-Based Cognitive Regime Theories - "cognition theorists argue that state interests are not given, but rather created. This leads them to examine the role of normative and causative beliefs of decision makers in explaining preferences and interest formation" (pg. 75)

  • Neoliberal Institutionalism (pg. 76)

    • "[Keohane] developed the broader concept of 'institutions' [which] he defines as 'persistent and connected sets of rules (formal and informal) that prescribe behavioral roles, constrain activity, and shape expectations'" (pg. 77)

    • "neorealists and neoliberal institutionalists agree that international relations or world politics lack a stable hierarchy due to its anarchic or decentralized character. Neoliberals, however, are much more emphatic that there is no necessary logical link between the condition of anarchy and [outcome of] war" (pg. 78)

    • "the literature on international organizations, regimes, and institutions in the liberal tradition offers insight on how states may accommodate differences and upgrade the interests they share" (pg. 79)

  • Global Governance (pg. 79)

    • "Keohane sees greater institutionalization as the world becomes more like a polity with governance essential to trade, finance, environment, security, and other matters" (pg. 80)

      • "devising better, more effective global institutions to serve the needs of humankind is an imperative" (pg. 80)

  • Economic Interdependence and Peace (pg. 83)

    • "as economic interdependence spreads, economic development through trade and foreign investment becomes a self-reinforcing process and an integral part of state strategy" (pg. 83)

    • "[Stephen] Brooks examines three major means by which the international economy can influence security" (pg. 84)

      • Changing Capabilities

      • Incentives

      • The Nature of the Actors

  • The Democratic Peace (pg. 84)

    • "for liberals the likelihood of war is reduced not only through the expansion of free trade, but also democracy" (pg. 84)

    • "republicanism as we now understand it is representative democracy supported by the rule of law and respect for basic freedoms or rights in civil society. It is not direct democracy in which the popular will necessarily prevails" (pg. 86)

  • Decision-Making (pg. 87)

    • "instead of viewing the state as a rational, unified actor, the state is composed of diverse societal actors. Ideas, group interests, institutions, and individuals shape state preferences; they are not given" (pg. 87)

    • "the state-as-actor has meaning only when we look within the state to the decision makers themselves and examine how they are influenced by domestic factors and how they relate to their decision-making counterparts in other states. Material and ideational factors intersect not at the abstract level of the state, but rather at the decision-making level. Real people make decisions. Both situational and biographical factors influence foreign policy choices" (pg. 87)

      • "agency is important in this classic understanding. The state-as-actor has meaning only when we look within the state to the decision makers themselves and examine how they are influenced by domestic factors and how they relate to their decision-making" (pg. 88)

  • Change and Globalization (pg. 90)

    • "of all the images discussed in this book, liberalism is most open to change" (pg. 90)

  • Liberals and Their Critics (pg. 91)

    • Anarchy (pg. 91)

      • "liberals argue that the role of anarchy and the security dilemma are overemphasized in explaining international relations" (pg. 91)

        • "[liberals] argue that its worst aspects can overcome through purposeful collaborative behavior to include international organizations, institutions, and regimes" (pg. 91)

    • Voluntarism (pg. 93)

      • "liberals can be criticized for their heavy reliance on the assumption of voluntarism, or effective free will" (pg. 94)

• Chapter 4 - Economic Structuralism: Global Capitalism and Postcolonialism (pg. 95)

  • Major Actors and Assumptions (pg. 95)

    • "economic structuralism concentrates on the broad question of why so many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have been unable to develop or have suffered from economic booms, busts, and financial instability" (pg. 95)

    • "economic structuralists are guided by four key assumptions:" (pg. 96)

      • "first, it is necessary to understand the global context within which states and other entities interact" (pg. 96)

        • "economic structuralists argue that to explain behavior at any and all levels of analysis one must first understand the overall structure of the global system within which such behavior takes place" (pg. 96)

      • "second, economic structuralists stress the importance of historical analysis in comprehending the international system" (pg. 96)

        • "only by tracing the historical evolution of the system is it possible to understand its current structure" (pg. 96)

      • "third, economic structuralists assume that particular mechanisms of domination exist that keep Third World states from developing, contributing to worldwide uneven development" (pg. 96-97)

      • "finally…economic structuralists assume that economic factors are absolutely critical in explaining the evolution and functioning of the international or capitalist world-system" (pg. 97)

    • "there is decidedly more voluntarism in liberal understandings, more determinism in economic-structuralist theorizing" (pg. 98)

  • Intellectual Precursors and Influences (pg. 99)

    • "Marx focused attention on unequal and exploitative relations and thus set an important backdrop or context for scholarship by economic structuralists" (pg. 99)

      • "first, Marx was concerned with exploitation of the many by the few" (pg. 99)

      • "second, according to Marx, capitalism exhibits certain lawlike qualities in terms of its development and expansions. He views capitalism as part of a world historical process unfolding dialectically, an economic system riddled with clashing contradictions or internal tensions that could be resolved only by a revolutionary transformation into a socialist mode of production" (pg. 99-100)

      • "finally, Marx insists that a society must be studied in its totality, not piecemeal" (pg. 100)

    • "Marx is an intellectual precursor of present-day critical theorists" (pg. 100)

    • "[John] Hobson notes that capitalist societies are faced with three basic problems: overproduction of goods, underconsumption of these goods by workers and other classes, and oversavings on the part of capitalists" (pg. 101)

      • "he states that it is 'not inherent in the nature of things that we should spend our natural resources on militarism, war, and risky, unscrupulous diplomacy, in order to find markets for our goods and surplus capital'" (pg. 101)

      • "from Hobson, Lenin accepts the key argument that underconsumption and overproduction caused capitalists to scramble for foreign markets beyond Europe and to engage in colonialism" (pg. 101)

  • The Capitalist World-System (pg. 106)

    • "first, advocates of the capitalist world-system perspective not only are concerned with the lack of Third World development, but also wish to understand the economic, political, and social development of regions throughout the entire world" (pg. 106)

    • "second, the goal is to understand the fate of various parts of the world at various times in history within the larger context of a developing world political economy" (pg. 107)

      • "the first priority, therefore, is to understand this global system in historical perspective" (pg. 107)

    • System (pg. 108)

      • "Wallerstein and other economic structuralists insist that in order to understand the development of global economic, political, and social processes, we must keep our eyes on the development of capitalism" (pg. 108)

        • "we should examine capitalism as an integrated, historically expanding system that transcends any particular political or geographic boundaries. By first understanding capitalism as a truly integrated world-system, we then can better understand the fate of particular countries" (pg. 108)

      • "for realists, anarchy leads one to examine international political stability, war, and balance-of-power politics involving major states. For the economic structuralist…political anarchy of the interstate system facilitates the development and expansion of world capitalism because no single state can control the entire world-economy. The result is an economic division of labor involving a core, a periphery, and a semi-periphery that is the focal point of economic-structuralist analysis. Political anarchy becomes a backdrop for an extensive analysis of capitalist dynamics" (pg. 108)

      • "what is critical for the Wallerstein economic structuralist is the fact that the key aspects of the system are its capitalist nature, the existence of global class relations, and the various functions states and societies perform in the world-economy" (pg. 109)

        • "differential power alone is not the defining characteristic of the system" (pg. 109)

        • "it is capitalism that provides the critical environment in which states and classes operate by constraining, shaping, and channeling behavior" (pg. 109)

    • Political, Economic, and Social Factors (pg. 110)

      • "all economic structuralists emphasize economic factors in their conceptions of the world-system" (pg. 110)

  • Gramsci and Hegemony (pg. 111)

    • "a key concept in [Gramsci's] work…is the historical and ideological bloc, which may well be a 'block' or obstacle to social change, thus maintaining a pattern of dominance in society or even on a global scale" (pg. 111)

      • "such blocks are social constructions that serve dominant class interests. The historic bloc is an instrument of hegemony" (pg. 111)

    • "of particular importance is his argument that this hegemonic positions relies mainly on consent rather than mere coercion. Dominant classes provide a social vision that supposedly is in the interests of all…[which] can be articulated and reflected in popular culture, education, literature, and political parties. If subordinates social groups buy into this vision, then the ruling classes will not have to rely on coercion to stay in power" (pg. 111)

    • "in Robert Cox's work on social forces and hegemony…world hegemony, therefore, is a combination of social structure, economic structure, and political structure…[which] is expressed in universal norms, institutions, and other mechanisms that constitute general rules of behavior for states as well as transnational, civil society actors" (pg. 111-112)

  • Change and Globalization (pg. 112)

    • "a common distinction is between changes of the system and lesser changes within an existing system that retains its basic characteristics" (pg. 112)

    • "neostructuralism is interested in understanding how global processes interact with other processes of state and social transformation occurring at many other levels of analysis of the world-system. The study of international relations, therefore, is not limited to foreign policy or patterns of distribution of capabilities, nor confined to reducing international relations to economic variables" (pg. 114-115)

  • Postcolonialism (pg. 115)

    • "postcolonialism emphasizes an interdisciplinary perspective that encompasses economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of decolonization and highlights the importance of race, gender, and ethnicity in understanding anticolonial struggles" (pg. 115)

      • "in terms of historical background, Third World countries at the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in 1958 established the nonaligned movement" (pg. 115)

    • "while formal empires may have disintegrated, strategies were developed to retain Western power and influence before and during the decolonization process and are still in existence today" (pg. 116)

• Chapter 5 - The English School: International Society and Grotian Rationalism (pg. 125)

  • "the primary task of the English School has been to trace the history and development of international society and to uncover its nature and functioning. The English School is an interesting blend of realist understandings of power and balance of power and the liberal perspective on the ways international law, rules, and norms, and institutions operate internationally" (pg. 125)

  • Major Actors and Assumptions (pg. 125)

    • "the first assumption underlying the English School image is that the world can be understood as an international or anarchical society in which both states and non-state actors operate" (pg. 125)

      • "an international society is '[a] group of states which not merely form a system, in the sense that the behavior of each is a necessary factor in the calculations of the others, but also have established by dialogue and consent common rules and institutions for the conduct of their relations, and recognize their common interest in maintaining these arrangements'" (pg. 126)

    • "second, for the English School the concept of order in the anarchical society plays an important theoretical role" (pg. 126)

      • "order, however, results not simply from power and the balance of power, but also from the acceptance of rules and institutional arrangements that are in the enlightened, rational self-interest of states and other actors" (pg. 126)

    • "finally, the English School recognizes the importance of Immanuel Kant's ethical and moral understandings, but this is balanced by a pragmatic view of the anarchical society as one in which considerations of power and interest remain important" (pg. 126)

      • "Martin Wright, who was the founder of the English School, [noted] all three perspectives - realist (international system), rationalist (international society), and revolutionist (world society) - are important to understanding world politics" (pg. 127)

  • Intellectual Precursors and Influences (pg. 127)

    • "notwithstanding the independence of sovereign states, it is in their (rational) interest to follow rules that set the parameters of international relations in peacetime and even provided criteria for resort to war. The result, [Grotius] hopes, is perhaps to make the use of force somewhat less barbarous than it otherwise would be" (pg. 127)

    • "natural law is a philosophical view that claims there are laws inherent in nature that transcend any laws made by mere mortals" (pg. 128)

    • "[E. H.] Carr rejects as utopian the pure idealism of focusing only on moral values and trying to exclude power and interest" (pg. 129)

  • Change (pg. 133)

    • From System to International Society (pg. 133)

      • "the English School's interest in continuity and change in international relations can also be stated as an interest in the relation between international order and the aspiration for human justice" (pg. 134)

    • From International Society to World Society (pg. 134)

      • "the English School actually consists of several complementary elements that are not always made explicit" (pg. 135)

        • "the School as a set of ideas to be found in the minds of statemen, a set of ideas in the minds of political theorists, and a set of externally imposed concepts that define material and social structures of the international system" (pg. 135)

      • "the pluralist view finds that states have relatively little in common other than the calculations of interest. This is a thin morality in which states can agree to a framework of international order that allows for mutually advantageous cooperation. At best, it is a world of enlightened self-interest in which states are most concerned with security and maintaining order under anarchy. Practical policies emphasize mutual recognition of sovereignty, diplomacy, and maintaining the nonintervention principle in terms of the domestic affairs of states" (pg. 135)

      • "the opposing solidarist view sees the world in cosmopolitan terms, arguing international society has a relatively high degree of shared norms, rules, and institutions among states. This is a thick morality with the capacity even to enforce universalist ethics…this reflects a Kantian influence" (pg. 135)

• Chapter 6 - Constructivist Understandings (pg. 143)

  • "constructivism does not claim to offer a global or worldwide vision of international relations…[but] instead is an approach to interpretive understandings" (pg. 143)

  • "social constructivism…relates to the irreducibly intersubjective dimension of human action to include what we consider to be knowledge and reality, with the assumption that the objects of our knowledge are not independent of our interpretations" (pg. 144)

    • "constructivists are particularly interested in the key concepts of norms, rules, and identities and how they affect the conception of ourselves and how we relate to the world" (pg. 144)

  • Major Actors and Assumptions (pg. 144)

    • "first, constructivism seeks to problematize the identities and interests of states…constructivists are not only interested in the state as agent or actor, but also transnational organizations and international organizations" (pg. 144)

    • "second, constructivists view international structure in terms of a social structure infused with ideational factors to include norms, rules, and law. This structure can influence the identities and interests of agents, as well as international outcomes" (pg. 145)

    • "third, constructivism…views the world as a project always under construction" (pg. 145)

    • "finally, constructivists have done hard thinking on ontological and epistemological issues" (pg. 145)

      • "constructivists do not reject the scientific method nor deny that explanation in international relation is possible. But…instead of adopting only the causal-explanation approach that tends to be dominated by covering law accounts grounded in theories that presume instrumentally rational behavior on the part of actors, many constructivists also look to models of value-rational behavior. This involves focusing on the ontological orientations and epistemological preferences they bring to their research as well as the normative concerns and principled beliefs of actors or agents" (pg. 145)

  • Intellectual Precursors and Influences (pg. 145)

    • "here…we note [Immanuel Kant's] impact on the development of phenomenology - how human consciousness affects our understandings of what we observe or appear to us. The objects we observe are phenomena, which Kant distinguishes from what he calls noumena - the unknowable essence of objects as things in themselves, quite apart from how we may see them or how they may appear" (pg. 145)

    • "our knowledge - or what we think we 'know' - flows from our subjectivity, imposing our mental framework not just on nature, but also on the social world" (pg. 146)

      • "knowing is indeed a highly subjective endeavor" (pg. 146)

    • "constructivists see individuals (and states) as essentially social beings enmeshed in an interactive normative context, which influences who they are and how they see others" (pg. 146)

    • "to constructivists the realist view of anarchy is not the only way to conceptualize a world without legitimate centralized authority; there can be multiple types of anarchy. It is not [necessarily] a state of nature without rules" (pg. 146)

      • "the concept of sovereignty, for example, involves a shared expectation concerning the rules of the game in the relations among states. These shared expectations are the result of interactions, a socialization and internalization of norms or agreed rules that mitigate the danger of international relations" (pg. 146-147)

    • "the important point in terms of constructivism is that forms of sociality - the nature of relations and interactions among actors - have causal impact" (pg. 147)

      • "[Emile] Durkheim believed that these relations cannot be reduced just to material factors" (pg. 147)

  • Intersubjectivity (pg. 148)

    • "central to constructivism is the understanding that international politics is guided by intersubjectively shared and institutionalized norms, rules, ideas, beliefs, and values held by actors (or agents)" (pg. 148)

      • "intersubjective by definition means shared by people - defined by their person-to-person, self-other exchanges - the ideational component of international relations not simply being the sum total of the beliefs of individuals" (pg. 148)

      • "institutionalized means these collective ideas are established or constituted in the social world as structures or institutions, practices, and identities" (pg. 148)

    • "constructivists at a minimum hold that normative or ideational factors or structures are at least as (and likely more) important than material structures composed of such elements as population size, weapons systems, manufacturing output, and geographic factors" (pg. 148)

      • "constructivists would claim that commitment to materially based understandings…does not grant ideas the important standing they warrant as an independent variable or factor that shapes IR patterns and outcomes" (pg. 148)

    • "[here,] we take up the social construction of the concept of sovereignty, which consists of a set of rules or standards of behavior providing guidance for states interacting with one another" (pg. 148) [Sovereignty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]

      • "sovereign states come to claim under international law a right to complete jurisdiction over their own territories (the internal or domestic dimension), hence, the development of the international norm prescribing noninterference in the internal affairs of other states" (pg. 148)

      • "states claim a right to be independent or autonomous in the conduct of their foreign relations (the external dimension)." (pg. 148-149)

        • "sovereignty…can be viewed as an intersubjectively shared and socially constructed institution or normative structure among states" (pg. 149)

  • Structure, Rules, and Norms (pg. 151)

    • "constructivists define 'structure' in terms of social relationships and shared meanings, differing on the component elements and their relative importance" (pg. 151)

      • "these elements may include clusters of rules, norms, principled beliefs, shared knowledge, practices, and even material elements." (pg. 151)

    • "when such ideational structures persist and become institutionalized or routinized over time, they gain causal and normative force, leading to patterns of behaviors that can be empirically analyzed" (pg. 151)

    • Rules (pg. 152)

      • "constructivists make a distinction between constitutive and regulative rules and in so doing contrast their approach to international relations with that of neorealists and neoliberals" (pg. 152)

    • Norms (pg. 153)

      • "norms are generally accepted values that define standards of appropriate behavior for agents (actors) with a given identity" (pg. 153)

        • "norms, therefore, either define (constitute) identities or prescribe (regulate) behavior, or they do both" (pg. 153)

  • Agents (pg. 153)

    • "structure (social relations and shared meanings) can have a constitutive not just a regulative - effect on actors. Structure can encourage actors or agents to redefine their interests and identities in an ongoing socialization process" (pg. 154)

    • "constructivism is interested in how ideational structures actually shape the way actors define themselves and relate to others" (pg. 154)

    • "agents and structures mutually constitute one another" (pg. 154)

  • Identity (pg. 154)

    • "identities are relatively stable, role-specific understandings and expectations about one's self. They are acquired by interacting with or defining the self in relations to a structure composed of social relationships, shared meanings, rules, norms, and practices" (pg. 154)

    • "identities are produced and are not givens, any more than a state's interests are" (pg. 155)

    • "the empirical research task for constructivists, therefore, is to explore how interaction and context influence the development of the meaning of self" (pg. 155)

  • Logic of Appropriateness (pg. 156)

    • "identities, rules, and norms come together in the constructivist concept of the logic of appropriateness" (pg. 156)

      • "a distinction is made between consequence-based and rule-based actions" (pg. 156)

    • "the logic of appropriateness assumes human actors follow norms and rules that associate particular identities to particular situations" (pg. 156)

  • Interests (pg. 157)

    • "constructivists claim that the interests of actors are constructed and subject to change by the actors themselves as they interact with others" (pg. 157)

  • The Diversity of Social Constructivist Thought (pg. 158)

    • Schools of Thought (pg. 158)

      • Neoclassical

      • Postmodernist

      • Naturalistic

    • Levels of Analysis (pg. 160)

      • Systemic - "the systemic focus is on the interaction of unitary state actors with domestic politics being ignored" (pg. 160)

      • Unit-Level - "unit level constructivism takes the opposite approach, emphasizing the relation between domestic legal and social norms on the one hand and the identities and interests of states on the other" (pg. 160)

      • Holistic - "holistic constructivists aim to bridge the classic international-domestic divide" (pg. 160)

  • Wendt's 'Naturalist' Constructivism (pg. 160)

    • "for [Alexander Wendt], the challenge we have as subjective creatures is finding a correct understanding of the world around us" (pg. 161)

    • "for Wendt the two basic tenets of constructivism are:" (pg. 161)

      • "1) that the structures of human association are determined primarily by shared ideas rather than material forces, and 2) that the identities and interests of purposive actors are constructed by these shared ideas rather than given by nature" - Alexander Wendt (pg. 161)

    • "the amount of war and conflict is conditioned by the type of anarchy in existence. All these social structures have three elements: material resources and, more importantly, shared knowledge (ideas), and human practices" (pg. 162)

    • "consciousness - to Wendt [is the] 'basis of social life' - is the core concept in much theorizing about interpretive understanding" (pg. 162)

      • "what is consciousness is instead viewed as a quantum mechanical phenomenon, the domain of the subatomic physics of particles and waves?" (pg. 162)

• Chapter 7 - Positivism, Critical Theory and Postmodern Understanding (pg. 169)

  • "what we observe in international relations and the other social sciences is heavily influenced by the interpretive understandings we have of the concepts we employ. Many of these critiques or interpretive understandings are informed by phenomenology - a subjective or interpretive understanding in human consciousness of what we observe or think we see in the world around us" (pg. 169)

  • Positivism (pg. 169)

    • "positivists believe that objective knowledge of the world is possible" (pg. 170)

    • "rationalists like Descartes…emphasized the logic to be found in the canons of deduction [where] empiricists…made inductive inferences from what they observed" (pg. 170)

      • "a skeptic at heart, Hume recognized that causality is itself not directly observable but merely a construct used by human beings to make what they observe around them understandable" (pg. 170)

  • Mill's Canons of Causality (pg. 170)

    • The Method of Agreement

    • The Method of Difference

    • The Joint Method of Agreement and Difference

    • The Method of Concomitant Variation

    • The Method of Residues

  • Cause-Effect Relations (pg. 172)

    • "logical positivism [is] the pursuit of a pure science that was supposed to separate fact from value and achieve the precision of mathematics" (pg. 173) [Vienna Circle (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]

  • Intellectual Precursors: Phenomenology and Hermeneutics (pg. 176)

    • "contemporary critiques of mainstream theorizing in international relations…reflect to a greater or lesser degree the influence of phenomenology" (pg. 176)

      • "it is…a philosophical understanding that leads one to reject claims to knowing any 'objective' reality independent of the human consciousness that, after all, gives meaning to the world around us. Interpretation is central to what we see - a reflective, intuitive process by which we gain understanding" (pg. 176)

    • "there is a unity to be found in knowledge between an object we observe and its underlying essence or form. Something may appear to be beautiful…but it is the underlying idea or 'essential form of beauty' that makes it appear to us as such" (pg. 176)

    • "in our reflections about what we observe, we try to identify the meanings or essence of what we experience. For his part, [Martin] Heidegger focuses not only on the objects we experience, but also on the sense of our own being and what we understand to be the essence of things in general" (pg. 177)

    • "phenomenology leads on not to take things as they may first appear" (pg. 177)

    • "postmodernists are the more skeptical of 'scientific' truth claims that are so dependent of the meanings we assign to the concepts we employ…critical theorists, by contrast, tend not to abandon science, but try merely to expose ideological claims often masquerading as theories with scientific bases of support - false pretenses used to legitimate self-serving practices" (pg. 178)

  • Critical Theory: Major Assumptions (pg. 178)

    • "whatever knowledge critical theory may generate, it is geared toward social and political transformation. To achieve this transformation, the first step is the critical scrutiny of the current understanding of international politics in order to understand and explain the existing realities of international relations and how they develop over time. To avoid mere idealism - 'this is what the world should be' - IR scholars must explain and criticize political order in terms of the principles embedded in political institutions and cultural practices." (pg. 178-179)

      • "emancipation consists of an essentially negative conception of freedom that emphasizes removing repressive constraints or relations of domination" (pg. 179)

      • "the theme of emancipation is a primary concern among those who identify with the Frankfurt School" (pg. 179)

        • "the Frankfurt School turned a Marxist critique of political economy into a critique of ideology" (pg. 179)

    • "simply put, critical theorists are interested in the relation between power and freedom" (pg. 179)

    • "critical theorists are on the voluntarist extreme end of the voluntarism-determinism continuum, seeing great transformative potential residing in those able to see through ideological and other ideational masks that disguise or obscure unjust, exploitative realities" (pg. 180)

    • "second, critical theorists have investigated the relation between knowledge and interest" (pg. 180)

    • "third…critical IR theorists have scrutinized the work of realists and liberals in particular" (pg. 180)

      • "transforming international relations for the betterment of the vast majority of humanity is supposedly not the goal of these realist and liberal rationalists" (pg. 181)

  • Postmodernism: Major Assumptions (pg. 182)

    • "for postmodernists, what we see, what we choose to see or measure, and the mechanisms or methods we employ are all of human construction that essentially rely on perception and cognitive processes influenced particularly by prior understandings and meanings" (pg. 182)

    • "postmodernists assume an intimate connection between power and knowledge in the analysis of international relations" (pg. 182)

    • "Foucault explored how concepts we use commonly developed or were socially constructed over time, challenging the generally accepted meanings these concepts purport to convey and the power-based human relations they sustain" (pg. 183)

    • "following Nietzsche, there is no single historical truth, but rather multiple ones - there being no standard to judge them as no objective standard for truth exists" (pg. 183)

    • "many postmodernists have a normative commitment to the idea that the sovereign state is not the only means by which to organize political and social life. The language of international relations that emphasizes states in a condition of anarchy reinforces the current exclusionary paradigm that effectively precludes alternative forms of political and social organization" (pg. 184)

      • "postmodernists take issue with the ontological perspective of realists and liberals that privileges the state as the unit of analysis and makes it an ontological given for IR theorizing" (pg. 184)