Building Your IR Theory Toolbox by Eric K. Leonard

Author:Eric K. Leonard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780742567443
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Published: 2018-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Actors

First, social constructivists share with liberals the view that there exist wide ranges of actors who are important players in world politics. They take IOs, nongovernmental organizations, MNCs, and social movements (among others) seriously in addition to states.

Second, social constructivists claim that the interests and identities of actors in world politics are malleable; their interests and identities depend on the context in which they find themselves. This is a significant contrast with neorealists and neoliberals who consider that actors have a more or less fixed nature; states always have been and will always be self-interested—security-conscious and power-hungry according to neorealists and rational and concerned with maximizing absolute gains for neoliberals. Constructivists argue that it is better to consider that actors in world politics are dynamic, that the identity and interests of states (and other actors) change across contexts and over time. Who the actors are and what actors want is determined by their interactions with other actors and by the larger social context in which they exist. At times, some states will be security-conscious and power-hungry, not because there is something inherent about states that makes them this way but rather because states learn to be this way by interacting with other states within a specific historical context. At other times and in other contexts, interactions can lead states to have different identities, interests, and behaviors.

Social constructivists argue that states can learn to want things other than power and economic efficiency—state interests can change. States today seem to have an interest in supporting human rights, where they did not have this interest one hundred years ago. States can learn to act in ways other than competitively—state behavior can change. In Europe, states that were fighting bloody wars during the early to mid-twentieth century have now joined in a cooperative union. States can even learn to be different—state identity can change. The United States today is very different from the United States one hundred years ago. According to constructivists, the social context in which actors exist and the interactions that they have with other actors shape many of these changes.

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