constructive criticism

Alexander Wendt is a leading political scientist of the field of International Relations, and one who has been a big asset in the establishment and relevance of the branch of IR known as social contructivism. 

In the first chapter of his book 'Social theory and international relations', Wendt seeks to establish and reinforce one key aspect of international relations that he feels is the most relevant today; that the field of international politics is structures on social thought and processes.

In his work, Wendt chooses a particular branch of contructivism that he feels is the most relevant, and bases his discourse on it. He emphasizes on the concept of ideas being the main factor in shaping the political realm, rather than just material, measurable force. He takes this idea forward over a premise that advocates two approaches. The first being that the human associations are structured basically by by common, shared ideals and not material forces. The second being that purposive actors have their interests and ideals shaped by ideas and not by nature. The first approach is called the idealist approach, and the second is known as the structuralist approach. The ideas of Wendt make us understand how socially constructed actors are in the political realm. His theory impresses upon collective action, and builds this up to the state level by saying that states will also act collectively as opposed to acting in isolation. The ideas that shape the political realm, according to Wendt, stem from the opinions that states have about each other. He speaks against two well established approaches in IR theory; realism and liberalism, on the grounds that these theories study IR on a very materialistic level.

Social constructivism, then, advocates that state action is socially constructed and is not the product of an innate characteristic. It has introduced us to a new field in studying IR, one that breaks away from the widely accepted approaches that blame human nature and instinct as the main ingredient of global political conflict.