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Constructivist aproach about the social construction of identities and interests to an anarchic
international system. His main goal was to ``argue against the neorealist claim that self-help is given
by anarhic structure exogenously to process``. (Wendt, 1992, 394)
Taking in consideration this approach, neorealists cannot assume that the international
system will be based on self-help, which strengthens the liberal perspective of the ability of
institutions to change the states behavior.
Furthermore he ilustrates how entities define themself with regard to other entities, suggesting
that it is upon the cognitive variation that the meaning of anarchy and the distribution of power
depends (Wendt, 1992, 400).
He`s doing so by presenting the behavior of the entities in relation to other entities in different
security systems such as competitive, in which they identify negatively under anarchy leading to a lack
of trust, collective action becoming impossible in such systems due to the fear of being atacked by the
other.
Another type of security system presented by Wendt is the individualistic one, a sistem in
which the entities follow to maximaise their absolute gains, and not the relative gains. They are
passive about the connection between their own security and others. Although we must take in
consideration Wendt`s statement that states are ``egoist``(Wendt, 1992, 400).
Both competitive and idividualistic systems are ``self-help`` forms of anarchy in Wendt`s
perspective, system in which entities have to treat security as individual responsability of each of the
members of the system, taking in consideration that they do not positively identify the security of self
with that of others.
This is in oposition to the ``cooperative`` security system, in which entities identify positively
with another so that the security of each is perceived as the responsibility of all. This is not self-help in
any interesting sense, since the ``self`` in terms of which interests are defined is the community;
national interests are international interests (Wendt, 1992, 400).
Taking in consideration thoese asumption, we can conclude that institutionalization is a
process of internalizing new identities and interests, not something occuring outside them and
affecting only behavior,seeing the socialization process as a a cognitive one, and not a behavioural
one.
Both of the arguments are necessary for his overall purpose of demonstratinc contrary to the
neorealist apropach of Waltz that self-help is a function of anarchy, given the fact that he tries to
explain that institution are the result and not a function of anarchy. He is doing so by emphasizing the
important of a stable set of identities and interests that form an institution, implying that all the
constitutive parts of international relations are socially constructed, and how this institution can be
change, emphasizing the importance and consequences of how states conceive themselves or
compared with other.
References
Farr.R, Moscovici.S, The Phenomenon of Social Representations. Cambridge University Press (1984):
Print.
Czempiel.E.O, Roseneau.J, Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges. Lexington, Mass. Lexington
Books (1989): Print.
Wendt.A, Anarchy is what States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics. International
Organization,vol. 46, no. 2, The MIT Press (1992): Print.