Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alexander Wendt
Alexander Wendt (born 1958 in Mainz, West Germany) is a political scientist who is one of the core social constructivist scholars in the field of international relations. Wendt and scholars such as Nicholas Onuf, Peter J. Katzenstein, Emanuel Adler, Michael Barnett, Kathryn Sikkink, John Ruggie, Martha Finnemore, and others have, within a relatively short period, established constructivism as one of the major schools of thought in the field. A 2006 survey of American and Canadian International Relations scholars ranks Wendt as first among scholars who have "been doing the most interesting work in international relations in recent years." [1]
Biography
Alexander Wendt was born in 1958 in Mainz in West Germany, and read political science and philosophy at Macalester College before receiving his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1989, studying under Raymond "Bud" Duvall. Wendt taught at Yale University from 1989 to 1997, at Dartmouth College from 1997 to 1999, at the University of Chicago from 1999 to 2004, and is currently the Ralph D. Mershon Professor of International Security at the Ohio State University. He is married to Jennifer Mitzen, also a member of the Ohio State political science faculty. He is currently working on two projects: arguing for the inevitability of a world state, and investigating the possible implications of quantum mechanics for social science.
Works by Wendt
Books
Social Theory of International Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-521-46960-0
Articles
"The agent-structure problem in international relations theory" in International Organization, vol. 41, no. 3, 1987. "Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics" in International Organization, vol. 46, no. 2, 1992. "The Difference that Realism Makes: Social Science and the Politics of Consent." (with Ian Shapiro) in 'Politics and Society 20:197-223, 1992 Dependent State Formation and Third World Militarization (with Michael Barnett) in 'Review of International Studies, 19, 321-347., 1993 "Collective identity formation and the international state" in American Political Science Review, vol. 88, no. 2, 1994. Hierarchy Under Anarchy: Informal Empire and the East German State (with Daniel Friedheim), International Organization, 49, 689-721, 1995 "Constructing international politics" in International Security, vol. 20, no. 1, 1995. On Constitution and Causation in International Relations, 'Review of International Studies, 24 (special issue), 101-118, 1998
Alexander Wendt "Driving with the rearview mirror: on the rational science of institutional design", International Organization, vol. 55, no. 4, 2001. "Why a world state is inevitable" in European Journal of International Relations, vol. 9, no. 4, 2003. "The state as person in international theory" in Review of International Studies, vol. 30, no. 2, 2004. "Sovereignty and the UFO" with Raymond Duvall in Political Theory, vol. 36, no. 4, 2008
Editor
Wendt is coeditor of the new journal, International Theory.
References
[1] Susan Peterson et al. " (http:/ / web. wm. edu/ irtheoryandpractice/ trip/ surveyreport06-07. pdf?svr=www)." College of William and Mary, Williamsburg. February 2007.
Bibliography
Dale C. Copeland, "The Constructivist Challenge to Structural Realism: A Review Essay" International Security Vol. 25, No. 2 (Autumn, 2000), pp.187212 Gillian Wylie, "International Relations' via Media: Still under Construction" International Studies Review Vol. 2, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp.123126
External links
Official site (http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/wendt/) Interview with Alexander Wendt by Theory Talks (April 2008) (http://www.theory-talks.org/2008/04/ theory-talk-3.html)
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/