Constructing the Role of a Great Power : China s Peripheral Relations, Territorial Disputes, and Role Change, 2002 2012

Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences

Abstract: A text that emphasizes the importance of case studies in social science scholarship and shows how to make case study practices more rigorous.

Social Theory of International Politics

Abstract: Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

La anarquía es lo que los estados hacen de ella: La construcción social de la política de poder

Abstract: Todas las teorias de relaciones internacionales se basan en teorias sociales de relaciones entre agentes, procesos y estructuras sociales. Las teorias sociales no determinan el contenido de nuestra teoria internacional, pero estructuran las preguntas que nos hacemos sobre la politica mundial y nuestros enfoques en las respuestas a esas cuestiones. El principal asunto que se cuestiona en los debates sobre teoria social es el tipo de fundamento que puede ofrecer el conjunto de preguntas y las estrategias de investigacion mas provechosas para poder explicar los cambios revolucionarios que parecen estar ocurriendo en el sistema internacional desde finales del siglo XX.

The agent-structure problem in international relations theory

Abstract: While neorealism and world-system theory both claim to be “structural” theories of international relations, they embody very different understandings of system structure and structural explanation. Neorealists conceptualize system structures in individualist terms as constraining the choices of preexisting state agents, whereas world-system theorists conceptualize system structures in structuralist terms as generating state agents themselves. These differences stem from what are, in some respects, fundamentally opposed solutions to the “agent-structure” or “micromacro” problem. This opposition, however, itself reflects a deeper failure of each theory to recognize the mutually constitutive nature of human agents and system structures—a failure which leads to deep-seated inadequacies in their respective explanations of state action. An alternative solution to the agent-structure problem, adapted from “structuration theory” in sociology, can overcome these inadequacies by avoiding both the reduction of system structures to state actors in neorealism and their reification in world-system theory. Structuration theory requires a philosophical basis in scientific realism, arguably the “new orthodoxy” in the philosophy of natural science, but as yet largely unrecognized by political scientists. The scientific realist/structuration approach generates an agenda for “structural-historical” research into the properties and dispositions of both state actors and the system structures in which they are embedded.