Professional Documents
Culture Documents
V. Constructivism
1. According to rule-oriented constructivism the agents influence the social structure through
speech acts, which include any verbal or non-verbal communication. The agents are in turn
influenced by social arrangements – sets of rules (beliefs, norms and identities) that govern
actions.
2. Therefore determining the social arrangements of global security will help us understand how
states behave. These rules include beliefs about the nature of security, norms about the
appropriateness of use of force, identities about self and other (friend, rival, etc.). There are four
possible types of social arrangements:
Rules 1 through 3 are distinct for every arrangement. Rules 4-6, however, overlap. This creates
confusion among the actors as to which set of rules to follow. In other words, the reason why
collective security fails is the lack of adequate collective understanding of what this social
arrangement means.
3. The speech acts that states use in the Security Council constitute a legal discourse, in which
agents try to interpret international law. Due to the public and binding nature of the discourse
states worry about their reputation and about setting precedents.
• In both Kosovo and Iraq (2003) these tensions arose from a disagreement on whether UN
rules should be enforced regardless of the presence of a Security Council resolution. This
made Russia and China interpreted NATO’s behavior as one under the rivalry social
arrangement instead of an act of collective security
• In Iraq (1991) this was not an issue for two main reasons:
1. Saddam was seen as similar to Hitler, which helped solidify Iraq’s identity as an
aggressor who would not listen to reason.
2. Saddam was engaging in a conventional inter-state war and was therefore
violating numerous international laws
3. Saddam’s violations were not stretching the boundaries of these laws and
creating precedents
4. In short, a constructivist explanation shows that the problem of collective security is the
problem of when and under what conditions states should enforce the rules of the international
community.
5. Can this problem be solved? It is difficult to find a solution because the shared values and
expectations of the participants in the Security Council are very diverse. The UN was formed as
a society created by a contractual act of volition. It cannot compete with region security
communities which have emerged largely due to their shared values. Since these communities
will try to enforce their own rules, the Security Council members are likely to go back to rivalry
relations between them in the future.
Bibliography
1. Adler, Emanuel. 1997. Imagined (Security) Communities. Millennium: Journal of
International Studies, 26(2): 249-277.
2. Johnstone, Ian. 2003. Security Council Deliberations: The Power of the Better Argument.
European Journal of International Law, 14(3): 437-480.
3. Frederking, Brian. 2003. Constructing Post-Cold War Collective Security. The American
Political Science Review, 97(3):363-378.
4. Halliday, Fred. 1991. The Gulf War and Its Aftermath: First Reflections. International Affairs
(Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 67(2): 223-234
5. Knopf, Jeffrey W. 2003. The Importance of International Learning. Review of International
Studies, 29(2): 185-207.
6. Salinger, Pierre. 1995. The United States, the United Nations, and the Gulf War. Middle East
Journal, 49(4): 595-613.