THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

College of Political Science and Public Administration
Department of Political Science

A Written Report on

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

Jeffrey T. Checkel

Presented by:
Francia, Richard F.
Magtibay, Angelika May S.

Presented to:
Prof. Nicetas Sison

August 2016

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

I.

INTRODUCTION

After the long reign of the neo-liberalist and neo-realist contentions in the field of
International Relations and world politics per se, how they shed light to the key issues of
world politics the conditions under which relative or absolute gains-seeking behavior
occurs for example, has gave way to the constructivist which focused not on what the
neo-liberals and realist could do but those that they cannot do or choose to ignore and
paved their way to expand theoretical disclosure and new disciplinary foundations of
sociology.
This essay by Jeffrey T. Checkel merely tackled the constructivism in lieu of world
politics and has explained three claims about constructivism:
First of which is that constructivism has succeeded in broadening the theoretical
contours of International Relations1 He argued that constructivists through delving into
issues of identity and interest which are in line with the neo-liberalism and neo-realism,
constructivist have revealed that their sociological approach leads to new and more
meaningful interpretations of international politics. Also, constructivist gave way to the
liberation of exploration of identities from the post-modernism.
Second of his arguments is that constructivism lacks a theory of agency that
resulted to over emphasis of the social structure roles and norms at the detriment of the
agents who helped in the creating and changing the said social structures.
1 Checkel, Jeffrey T. The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25054040. World Politics, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jan., 1998), pp. 324-348,
Retrieved 30/07/2010 12:16

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THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

Third and last is that Checkel argued that constructivism should be seen only as

a method and should remain that way, that in order to obtain theory development,

questions of when, how and why it occurs should be addressed, specifying actors and
mechanisms of change, bringing the scope conditions into clarity and explaining how

they vary across countries. He claimed that constructivists must incorporate their

assumptions and insights with middle-range theory or the empirical adhocism that
afflicts the current work will still remain.

i.

Definition of Constructivism

Constructivism was introduced to International Relations by Nicholas Onuf (1989)

who also coined the term.2 The original insight behind constructivism is that meaning is
socially constructed. This is also the source of the label constructivism. Wendt (1992,

3967) says a fundamental principle of constructivist social theory is that people act
toward objects, including other actors, on the basis of the meanings that the objects
have for them.3

The constructivist critique according to Checkel connects beyond the level-ofanalysis

between:

argument

2 Wendt, A.Social Theory of International Politics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, p 257
3 This insight appears also in the work of Hedley Bull and the English School as well as of
some classical realists

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

ii.

Assumptions with Constructivists

Constructivism as explained in this article is not only concerned with levels itself
but with underlying conceptions of how the social and political world works. He also
claimed that constructivism is not a theory but an approach to social inquiry based on
two assumptions: (1) Environment- where agents act as social inquiry. (2) Setting- can
provide agents with understanding of interests.

The first assumption explains that it is the environment, in which the agents or
the states take action is a social and a material inquiry as well. This reflects a view that
material structures, beyond biological necessities are defined only by social contexts
through which they are interpreted, meaning how the society looks or thinks into it.

The second assumption deals with the basic nature of human agents and their
relation to broader structural environment while they also give an emphasis on a
process of interaction between agents and structures. This is the reason behind the
black box of identity formation for most theorists that state interests emerge from and
are endogenous to interaction with structures.

Constructivists therefore question the methodological individualism that supports

both neo-liberalism and neo-realism. This asserts that all social phenomena are
understandable in ways that involve the individual agents only and their goals and

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

actions where the starting point of the analysis is actors (states) with given properties,
mainly because constructivism is an agent-centered view.

It is also embedded in many constructivist claims that there is a model of human

and state behavior where rule-governed actions and logics of appropriateness prevail.

Agents in this model which is the state are given emphasis on their interests.
Norms and social structures constrain the choices and behavior of self-interested
states, which operate according to logic of consequences by means-ends calculations.

iii.

II.

Difference of Constructivists to Other Schools

CONTRIBUTION OF CONSTRUCTIVISM
i.

The role of international institution and organizations (Finnemore)

ii.

International security (Katzenstein volume)

iii.

The effects of international norms (Klotz)

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

III.

ISSUES

FOR

CHALLENGE

CONSTRUCTIVIST
FOR

ITS

TO

ADDRESS

CO-COMPETITORS

IN

IN

MOUNTING

CONTEMPORARY

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The last part of this essay explored several issues that were presented by
Checkel that constructivists must be addressed to be able to sustain a challenge to their
competitors in the field of contemporary International Relations.

A. Agency, Theory-Building And Constructivist Enterprise

In this essay Checkel presented two questions that he claimed to be difficult

queries to be answered by constructivists: the role of agency and the need for
theory. The answer to the first question is that without more sustained attention to
agency, constructivists will have a hard time explaining where the powerful social
structures and norms came from, how are they equally important and also answers the
questions why and how they change over time. On the other hand, the need for theory
at the domestic level is because constructivists will not be able to explain how a certain
norm or social construction took into place with explaining it systematically.

i.

The three easy fixes

a. To pay greater attention to research design

Constructivists according to Checkel should focus first on their research design.

Provided that empirical designs only examine single country or issue, he suggested that
a cross-national or longitudinal design would be most likely relevant to use instead and

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

would also help reduce overdetermination which has been a problem that is palpable in
almost every constructivist analyses, where social structures and norms are usually
invoked as one of several causal variables with only a little or no insight at all on how
they came into the outcome.
b. To give equal attention to the bad things in world politics that was
socially constructed
Constructivists should give equal attention to the bad things in world politics that
are socially constructed. Present works only consider focusing those which are ethically
good and issues and problems should be also worked on and be addressed too. This
will make the scholars and their works direct their attention to important unexplored
issues such as social constructions role in ethnic conflict and war.
c. To take greater care of defining terms
Third of Checkels points in the three fixes is for constructivists to take a greater
care in defining key terms, given as an example is the word institutionalization which is
invoked in every analysis of norms but readers are given no explanation of what it
means or what and how the process entails. Constructivists should pay greater attention
to developing implicit cognitive models of analyses.

ii.

The challenges ahead

a. Bring agency back in

Constructivists central challenges for the longest time are theory building and
ontology. One way of addressing these problems is bringing agency back in which is
necessary if mutual constitution will be taken seriously as a way of thinking about the
social world. At present, the neglect of the agency as a corrective to extreme agent

THE CONSTRUCTIVIST TURN IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY by Checkel

A Written Report by FRANCIA, Richard; MAGTIBAY, Angelika May

orientation of most mainstream has proved the difficulty to apply mutual constitution in
empirical research. Constructivists should avoid reducing one unit of analysis to agents
(states) to the structures (norms). This has resulted to a failure to explore how norms
arise in the first place and how interactions with agents and norms changes over time.
Checkel exposed three reasons why constructivists normative structures are
being reshaped by activities of purposeful agents and why agency has fallen through
the problem of ontology. First is that most constructivists rely on the sights of
sociological institutionalism on thinking of the social world. Second, because of the
focus on intersubjective norms, many constructivists are less interested in the questions
of individual agency. Third is that individual agency should be a factor to be explained
by mutual constitution, since a key distinction is between the corporate and social
identity of states. As a result, social construction in individual agents level is neglected.
b. Social construction and theory-building
At present constructivism depicts rational choice, it is nothing more than a
method, but constructivists should engage in theory development in order to explore
connections. There is a missing substantive element and it is to engage in to middlerange theory which would provide constructivists with sets of better research questions
and hypotheses that could be tested in cross national and longitudinal studies.

IV.

CONCLUSION
Based on Checkels article, constructivists can move into a better direction for

building a more coherent research program.