Social Constructivism

• Social constructivism is a school of thought in International Relations (IR) theory.
• Constructivism’s arrival in IR is often associated with the end of the Cold War, an event that the traditional theories such as realism and liberalism failed to account for.
• The term ‘Social constructivism’ was first coined by Nicholas Onuf in 1989 in his book “The World of our making”.
• In this book, he put forward that nation-states much like individuals lived in a reality primarily formed by themselves rather than outside material entities.
• We are not made but constructed by our social and cultural relations with others.
• Similarly, states by interstate interactions and associations form their identities and interests which in turn inform the structures and institutions they make among themselves.
• Structures are real, material, and relatively stable but it is only by assigning collective meanings to our structures that they will achieve their purpose.