Session 18: Universal Norms

Studying about Constructivism, we have seen how ideas, norms and beliefs are the basic foundation to the philosophy. Last session we discussed how Constructivism emerged as a new idea attempting to explain the dynamics of the International area, giving us a break from the conventional theories of Liberalism and Realism. Martha FInnemore and Kathryn Sikkink in International Norm Dynamics talk about the importance of these norms to the society and how are these norms established. Rather than giving a summary of the categories presented by the author to explain the emergence of these norms in the society, I would like to focus more on the norms and whether they really help socially construct international relations

Different States have different Norms. Different Rulers have Different Norms. Different Societies have different norms. But who decides on these norms? How are these norms so embedded in one culture? What exactly are norms? Norms can be described as acceptable rules that are usually unintentionally followed by people. It’s the people who accept these rules and internalize it in their everyday lives. However, my main argument is that since the argument stands that everything is socially constructed through Interaction, doesn't it mean that there need to be Universal Norms for states to be on the same page for them to construct anything concrete.  Different cultures have different beliefs and tradition which might actually contradict with beliefs of other cultures. That is not a bad thing. That is the way it is supposed to be. However, that means for the interaction between states to be effective there need to be Universal Norms.  The fact that the author claims that norms play an important role in the state’s political decisions is worrying. Realism and Liberalism in no way just explain just one side of the story. The explanation of War leading from a situation of anarchy applies to all the states under consideration.  Not just to one of them. It is a universal situation. Not a specific one. Similarly, there should be Universal Norms. Not individual or personal ones. Unless there is a general acceptance of Universal Norms, it is hard to imagine that these individual norms will help in any way to socially construct something as complex as International relations.