INR 3502 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: United Nations Trusteeship Council, Gulf War, South Carolina Highway 8
Document Summary
Article 1: anarchy is what states make of it by alexander wendt: main ideas. This paper is based upon a constructivist theory. Neorealism and neoliberalism see anarchy as absolute. i. there is always an assumption that anarchy is present. We(cid:374)dt thi(cid:374)ks a(cid:374)ar(cid:272)hy is (cid:374)ot gi(cid:448)e(cid:374) (cid:271)ut that it"s so(cid:272)ially (cid:272)o(cid:374)stru(cid:272)ted. The relationship between what actors do and what they are. Wendt believes along with realists that sovereign states will remain the dominant political actors in. Identities and interests are both socially constructed- change is possible anarchy may also change. We cannot derive a self-help structure of identity/ interest from the principle of anarchy alone b/c it: communitarian or individualistic assumptions are better foundation for systemic theory. Social theories do not determine the content of international theorizing but they do structured questions that we ask about world politics and our approaches to answering those questions: 3 main arguments.
