Session 17: The Power of Ideas

Dom Cobb: What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intenstinal worm? An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood. That sticks, right in there somewhere. [he points to his head] – Inception (2010)

I am a firm believer in the power of ideas. Ideas have the great capacity to change the world. Perhaps that is why neo utilitarian theories bug me. They partially or even completely sideline ideational strength and capacity of human beings. Thus reading about constructivism was a breath of fresh air.

“What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge” by Gerard Ruggie is a great introduction to the theory of constructivism in International Relations. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it because the way the piece was structurally constructed; it took me through the entire journey of constructivist thought in IR, its origins in the sociological works of Weber and Durkeim, its main views on concepts such as ideational causation, identities and interests, collective intentionality, constitutive rules, agency in contrast with the challenging neo utilitarian theories, its core features, variants and future prospects all within 30 pages. Being able to do that for a reader like me is no small feat and is wholly exceptional. It has perhaps even been my favorite reading in the course so far.

The most interesting part of constructivism for me was its challenge of assumptions and how it attempts to break them down to understands them rather than just taking them as given. Every theory starts off with assumptions and builds on them. But what about when those assumptions are not accurate or not applicable? Then that theory can fall apart like a house of cards *cough* micro-economics *cough*. Best way to go about things is not to assume these assumptions or to figure out the very basis of those assumptions. That is what constructivism does and it is probably one of its biggest strengths.

Ruggie also does not attempt to elevate constructivism to the highest level by disregarding other theories, instead he attempts to fill up the gaps left by them and advocates for the existence of all these opponent theories for the enrichment of the IR field. That makes this entire piece a very well balanced one.

Another aspect that caught my attention was the belief in the social construction of knowledge. By assuming that knowledge is socially constructed, constructivism gives space for the agency of human beings to be recognized. How structure and agency are mutually constitutive to varying degrees in different circumstances. That in IR, it is not all about the structure of the international system, but also about how ideas and human actions have the capacity to influence it. What else can best explain the peaceful end of the Cold war? The emphasis on agency that actors in the international system have the capacity to exercise will, they are not completely constrained by the anarchic structure or even the same ideas felt extremely empowering and a great optimistic break from the pessimism and cynicism of other theories.