Constructivism All the Way Down
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REVIEW ESSAY Constructivism
All the Way Down
TED HOPF The Ohio
State Universiry,
Columbus,
Ohio,
USA
Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 432, $59.95 Hardcover, $24.95 Softcover; Rodney Bruce Hall, National Collective Identity: Social Constructs and International Systems (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), pp. 392, $50.00 Hardcover, $20.50 Softcover; David D. Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), pp. 448, $57.50 Hardcover, $24.95 Softcover.
These three volumes constitute a good part of the theoretical terrain in the constructivist study of world politics today. Alexander Wendt lays the groundwork for such an understanding. Rodney Bruce Hall shows how 600 years of Western history can be re-read from that perspective. And, David Laitin, although neither a constructivist nor an international relations specialist, demonstrates how identities and interests, the theoretical work-horses of constructivist accounts of global politics, might be theorized and studied at the most local level. The overarching contribution of these three works is that a constructivist account of international politics permits, if not demands, a reconnection of the international, domestic, and local in ways that enable a more satisfying understanding of each. On many different fronts, Alexander Wendt has provided a rich and satisfying understanding of a “Structural Idealist” theory of international politics. He has situated it convincingly between mainstream neorealism and neoliberalism, on the one hand, and postmodern critical theory, on the other. He has demonstrated the need to entertain both causal and constitutive explanations for outcomes in world politics; to expect both agents and structures to be part of any comprehensive theoretical approach; and, to acknowledge the merits of both individualism and holism. Wendt roots his insights in an exceptional array of philosophical, sociological, and psychological literatures. Although impossible to summarize, let me still try to provide a short course in Wendtian structural idealism, before turning to some amiable criticisms. Wendt argues that the international system is a social construction the structure of which is primarily cultural, rather than material. These structures, contra rationalism, not only regulate behavior, but also constitute agents and their identities and interests. While material forces still matter, the meaning of these material forces depends large-
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ly on the shared ideas in which they are embedded. Therefore, any analysis of international politics should begin with culture, and only, then move to power and interest. This is, of course, precisely the opposite order of inquiry supported by both neorealism and neoliberalism (p. 193). While neorealists are uninterested in the construction of actors, this is one of the most important things a structure can explain (p. 16). To say that
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