PSC 700 Syllabus

PSC 700
Constructing the World Polity
Fall 2005


Syllabus
Instructor: Gavan Duffy
Office: 100E Eggers Hall
Phone: 443-5764
Home Page: http://web.syr.edu/~gavan/
Office Hours: TTh 2:00-4:00 and by appointment
Email: gduffy@syr.edu

Course Description

The end of the Cold War signalled a fundamental shift or realignment of the social forces that then characterized the world order. As much as anyone, this signal event in world politics shocked the community of international studies scholars. Many, particularly younger, scholars began to ask why those who labor in the dominant theoretical research programs of the day -- neo-realism and neo-liberal institutionalism -- did not predict the Cold War's end. They discovered that these research programs cannot predict change because they literally cannot conceptualize it. Because they treat agents' preferences as fixed and given, they cannot in their models and their explanations allow for innovations born of actors' reconsiderations of their preferences with respect to policies and political outcomes.

This anomaly -- the failure to predict (and now to explain adequately) the end of the Cold War -- motivates the constructivist turn in international studies. We shall see that there are multiple conceptions of constructivism, not all of them mutually compatible. But, at the broadest level, constructivists of all stripe share certain fundamental beliefs. They believe, for instance, that agents and structures are "mutually co-constitutive" -- agents construct the world and the world, in turn, constructs agents. They believe that rules both regulate and constitute political structures. They reject practices whereby neo-realists and neo-liberals brusquely dismiss as naively "idealist" any consideration of the ideas, values, and norms of human agents in explanations of world politics. They believe further that, although political history is "path-dependent," humans enjoy the capacity to transcend, modify, and even destroy their constructions when they find them pathological.

This course is a collaborative exploration of representative literature in the constructivist tradition. As the task we set before ourselves, we will enter this nascent tradition to see whether we each can find a comfortable spot within it. We will assess various approaches, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, find areas of convergence and divergence, etc. We may even find, emerging from this literature, conceptions of world politics more conducive to human flourishing than the conceptions that dominated previous generations.

Texts

The texts below should be available for purchase at Follett's Orange Student Bookstore in Marshall Square Mall. Additional readings will be distributed in seminar, posted on the internet, or placed on digital or physical reserve at Bird Library.

Grading Criteria

All students will be tasked to lead discussions of particular works throughout the semester, probably every second class session. These should begin with a brief (5-10 minute) precis of the argument, after which other students (who will have also read the work) will join in discussion. These need not be formal papers, although handouts of main points or graphical aids may facilitate the presentation.

For their final projects, students may opt for (a) one journal-length research essay or (b) an in-class examination. Students who opt for the examination need not produce an essay and students who opt for the essay need not take the examination.

The examination or paper will comprise 40% and the presentations will comprise 50% of final grades. The remaining 10% will be awarded on the basis of the quantity and quality of students' participation in seminar.

Please submit all written work in hardcopy. Email submissions of written work are not accepted unless prior arrangement has been made. Also, please ask substantive questions about the readings in class and not in email to the instructor. Other students will get more out of the course if you raise questions and comments in seminar.

Course Schedule

This course schedule is not set in stone. Additions and deletions are certainly possible. You are encouraged to suggest readings that do not appear on this list. Any changes will be announced in seminar and/or email.

August 31: Course Introduction

September 7: Introduction to Constructivism
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "Introduction." Constructivism in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 1-37.
  • Ruggie, John G. "Introduction: What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge." Constructing the World Polity. London: Routledge, 1998, pp. 1-39.
  • Kubalkova, Vendulka, Nicholas Onuf, and Paul Kowert, "Constructing Constructivism." Chapter 1 in Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert, pp. 3-21.
  • Nicholas G. Onuf. "Constructivism: A User's Manual." Chapter 3 in Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert, pp. 58-78.
  • Kubalkova, Vendulka. "A Constructivist Primer." Chapter 3 in Foreign Policy in a Constructed World. Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe, 2001, pp. 56-76.
Recommended
  • Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Doubleday, 1966.
Note: The instructor will be returning from a research trip to Texas on this date. His flight is scheduled to arrive at 2:55pm. Hopefully, he will arrive on time, but much depends on American Airlines and the weather.
September 14: General Perspectives
  • Checkel, Jeffrey. "The Constructivist Turn in International Relations Theory." World Politics. 50 (1998): 324-348.
  • Hopf, Ted. "The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory." International Security. 23 (1998): 171-200.
  • Guzzini, Stefano. "A Reconstruction of Constructivism in International Relations." European Journal of International Relations. 6 (2000): 147-182.
  • Price, Richard and Christian Reus-Smit. "Dangerous Liaisons? Critical International Theory and Constructivism." European Journal of International Relations. 4 (1998): 259-294.
  • Adler, Emanuel. "Seizing the Middle Ground." European Journal of International Relations. 3 (1997): 319-363.
September 21: Naturalistic Approaches
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "Identity Change? Wendt’s Constructivism and German Military Involvement Abroad." Chapter 2 in the Zehfuss text.
  • Wendt, Alexander E. "The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory." International Organization. 41 (1987): 335-370.
  • Dessler, David. "Constructivism Within a Positivist Social Science." Review of International Studies. 25 (1999): 123-137.
  • Checkel, Jeffrey. "International Norms and Domestic Politics: Bridging the Rationalist-Constructivist Divide." European Journal of International Relations. 3 (1997): 473-495.
Recommended
  • Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
September 28: Neo-classical Constructivism I
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "Intersubjectivity and the Normative: Kratochwil’s Constructivism and the German Military Involvement Abroad." Chapter 3 in the Zehfuss text.
  • Sterling-Folker, Jennifer. "Competing Paradigms or Birds of a Feather? Constructivism and Neoliberal Institutionalism Compared." International Studies Quarterly. 44 (2000): 97-120.
  • Kratochwil, Fredrich. "Constructivism as an Approach to Interdisciplinary Study." Chapter 1 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Kratochwil, Friedrich, and John G. Ruggie. "International Organization: A State of the Art on an Art of the State." International Organization 40 (1986): 753-775.
October 5: Neo-classical Constructivism II
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "Words and World: Onuf’s Constructivism and German Military Involvement Abroad." Chapter 4 in the Zehfuss text.
  • Fierke, Karin M. "Critical Methodology and Constructivism" Chapter 6 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Duffy, Gavan, Brian K. Frederking, and Seth A. Tucker. "Language Games: Dialogical Analysis of INF Negotiations." International Studies Quarterly. 42 (1998): 271-294.
  • Frederking, Brian. "Constructing Post-Cold War Collective Security." American Political Science Review. 97 (2003): 363-378.
  • Fierke, Karin M. "Describing the Transformation." Chapter 5 in Changing Games, Changing Strategies: Critical Investigations in Security. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 65-92.
Recommended
  • Onuf, Nicholas G. World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
October 12: Post-modern Constructivism
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "The Politics of 'Reality’: Derrida’s Subversions, Constructivism and German Military Involvement Abroad." Chapter 5 in the Zehfuss text.
  • Milliken, Jennifer. "Discourse Study: Bringing Rigor to Critical Theory" Chapter 7 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Doty, Roxanne. "Desire All the Way Down." Review of International Studies. 26 (2000): 137-139.
  • George, Jim, and David Campbell. "Patterns of Dissent and the Celebration of Difference." International Studies Quarterly. 24 (1990): 269-293.
  • Ashley, Richard. "The Achievements of Post-Structuralism." in Steve Smith, Ken Booth, and Marysia Zalewski, eds. International Theory: Positivism and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 240-253.
Recommended
  • Pettman, Ralph. Commonsense Constructivism, or the Making of World Affairs. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2000.
October 19: Critical Constructivism
  • Locher, Birgit, and Elisabeth Prügl. "Feminism: Constructivism’s Other Pedigree" Chapter 4 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Muller, Harald. "International Relations as Communicative Action." Chapter 8 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Hoffman, Mark. "Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate." Millennium. 16 (1987): 231-249.
  • Ling, L.H.M. "Postcolonial IR." Chapter 3 in Postcolonial International Relations: Conquest and Desire Between Asia and the West. London: Palgrave, 2002, pp. 61-78.
  • Lose, Lars G. "Communicative Action and the World of Diplomacy" Chapter 9 in the Fierke and Jorgensen text.
  • Risse, Thomas. "Let’s Argue! Communicative Action in World Politics." International Organization 54 (2000): pp 1-40.
October 26: Identity and Norms
  • Klotz, Audie. "Norms Reconstituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and U.S. Sanctions against South Africa." International Organization 53 (1995): pp 451-478.
  • Kowert, Paul, and Jeffrey Legro. "Norms, Identity and their Limits: A Theoretical Reprise." in Peter Katzenstein, ed. The Culture of National Security. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, pp. 451-497.
  • Florini, Ann. "The Evolution of International Norms." International Studies Quarterly. 40 (1996): 363-389.
  • Cortell, Andrew P. and James W. Davis. "Understanding the Domestic Impact of International Norms: A Research Agenda." International Studies Review. 2 (2000): 65-87.
  • Kowert, Paul. "Agent Verses Structure in the Construction of National Identity." Chapter 5 in Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert, pp. 101-122.
November 2: Europe
  • Marcussen, Martin, et al. "Constructing Europe? The Evolution of French, British, and German Nation State Identities." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 614-633.
  • Koslowski, Rey. "A Constructivist Approach to Understanding the European Union as a Federal Polity." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 561-578.
  • Checkel, Jeffrey. "Social Construction and European Integration." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 545-560.
  • Elbe, Stefan. "Eurosomnia: Europe's 'Spiritual Vitality' and the Debate on the European Idea." In Peter Mandaville and Andrew Williams, eds. Meaning and International Relations. London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 65-85.
November 9: Epistemic Communities
  • Haas, Peter. "Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination." International Organization 46 (1992): 1-35.
  • Adler, Emanuel, and Peter Haas. "Conclusion: Epistemic Communities, World Order, and the Creation of a Reflective Research Program." International Organization 46 (1992): p 367-390.
  • Adler, Emanuel. "The Emergence of Cooperation: National Epistemic Communities and the International Evolution of the Idea of Nuclear Arms Control." International Organization 46 (1992): 101-145.
  • Finnemore, Martha. National Interests in International Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chapters 1 and 2
November 16: Debates
  • Moravcsik, Andrew. "Is Something Rotten in the State of Denmark? Constructivism and European Integration." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 669-681.
  • Smith, Steve. "Social Constructivisms and European Studies: A Reflectivist Critique." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 682-691.
  • Risse, Thomas and Antje Wiener. "'Something Rotten' and the Social Construction of Social Constructivism: A Comment on Comments." Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 775-782.
  • Duffy, Gavan. "Give Structure Its Due: Political Agency and the Vietnam Commitment Decisions." Japanese Journal of Political Science. 2 (2001): 161-175.
  • Khong, Yuen Foong. "The Agent-Structure Debate and America's Vietnam Options: A Reply to Professor Gavan Duffy." Japanese Journal of Political Science. 3 (2002): 1-23.
  • Duffy, Gavan. "The Agent-Structure Co-Constitution and the Vietnam Commitment Decisions: A Rejoinder to Yuen Foong Khong." Japanese Journal of Political Science. 4 (2003): 103-111.
November 23: Thanksgiving Break
No class.
November 30: Considerations
  • Zehfuss, Maja. "The Politics of Constructivism." Chapter 6 in the Zehfuss text.
  • Palan, Ronen. "A World of Their Making: An Evaluation of the Constructivist Critique in International Relations." Review of International Studies 26 (2000): 575-598.
  • Fierke, Karin M. "Links Across the Abyss: Language and Logic in International Relations." International Studies Quarterly. 46 (2002): 331-354.
  • Hamman, Henry L. "Remodeling International Relations: New Tools from New Science?" Chapter 8 in Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert, pp. 173-192.
  • Kubalkova, Vendulka. "Reconstructing the Discipline: Scholars as Agents." Chapter 9 in Kubalkova, Onuf, and Kowert, pp. 193-201.
December 6: Optional Examination

This document is available at http://web.syr.edu/~gavan/psc700f05.html