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All 11 Flashcards — Constructivism
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Question
What is constructivism?
Answer
The theory that ideas, identities and shared beliefs shape global politics, so states' interests and their friends and enemies are built, not fixed.
Question
What do constructivists say about interests?
Answer
That they are socially constructed by ideas and identity, so they are not fixed and can change over time.
Question
What are norms?
Answer
Shared expectations about how actors should behave — rules of 'right' conduct that guide states even without enforcement.
Question
What does 'anarchy is what states make of it' mean?
Answer
The same anarchic world can be friendly or hostile depending on the ideas and identities states hold.
Question
Why is the end of the Cold War a good example?
Answer
A rivalry realists called permanent ended peacefully when ideas and identities changed — the weapons stayed, but the enmity dissolved.
Question
Why don't the UK's many nukes scare the US, but North Korea's few do?
Answer
Because identity and relationship (friend vs enemy) — not the numbers — decide whether power feels threatening.
Question
How does constructivism differ from realism?
Answer
Realism takes interests and enemies as fixed by material power; constructivism asks where they come from and says they are built by ideas.
Question
What is the main strength of constructivism?
Answer
It explains change (like the end of the Cold War) that realism and liberalism struggle to account for.
Question
What is the main criticism of constructivism?
Answer
It can be vague and hard to test or predict, and it underrates raw material power and economics.
Question
Does constructivism ignore power?
Answer
No — it says power's meaning depends on ideas: the same weapons feel threatening or safe depending on identity.
Question
How is constructivism useful in an essay?
Answer
As a third voice explaining where interests and identities come from, and why global politics changes.
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Full study notes for Constructivism
Topic 1.7 hub
Theoretical perspectives
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