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Constructivism and Feminism Approaches
Introduction
Political and social sciences have been widely studied but the issue of interfering with personal
values has always been a concern (Havercroft & Duvall, 2017). Through this same ideology,
exploring the subject of international relation has also been challenged by different world
approached and views. This is especially so when considering that there are many ways of
understanding international relations. Conflict and cooperation seem to be part and parcel of the
process of multilevel and interdisciplinary analysis when seeking to explain international
relations. It was until the mid of the World War I and World War II that the subject of
international relations gained traction. Since then several theories and approaches have sprung up
in a quest to explain the phenomena of international relations (Prügl & Tickner, 2018; Havercroft
& Duvall, 2017). The various approaches and theories borrow assumptions from previous one as
way of feedback and reconstruction through critiques. This paper compares the constructivism
and feminism approaches and evaluates their worth in the political world of international
relations.
Constructivism
The advent of the constructivism theory was after the end of the Cold war which makes
its perspective different from earlier theories like liberalism and realism. The difference can be
identified in some key tenets from the other mentioned theories that nations act as entities
interested in unequal power distribution and power among nations which determined the balance
of power between them. Due such a perspective, the traditional theories made little effort in
studying the agency of people. This is particularly important considering that the end of cold war

was as a result of actions by single individuals rather than states or corporations. The
constructivism approach encompasses this through the tenet that the social world is a making of
individual actors. The nature of international relations is dictated by powerful actors in a good
position to lead or influence others (Kratochwil, 2017).
Constructivism basics
Constructivism approach puts emphasis on significance of material structures and normative. It
focuses on the role of identity in the political setting and on the mutual relationship between
structures and agents. This approach takes the world as socially fabricated by what people see
and what those people know. In the context of research, what people see and know is expresses
in terms like ontology and epistemology. A good example illustrating this approach in the
current modern world was offered by Da Cruz (2020), who suggested that a few nuclear weapons
in the possession of the North Korean state are more threatening to the Unites States of America
than hundreds of these weapons in the hands of the British. As seen, the idea structure carries
more weight than the material structures. The relationship between states is therefore based on
the common understanding of the relationship between North Korea with United States and the
relationship between the United States to the British. As such, the power of the nuclear weapons
seems to have no significance as compared to the social context attached to the subjects. The
constructivism approach shows that ideas and beliefs have more effects than physical materials
(Havercroft & Duvall, 2017). This also creates the notion than reality is always a changing
subject which can be altered anytime depending on the underlying beliefs and ideas. Agency and
structure as two things that the theory sees as having a mutual relationship. Agency entails a
person’s capability to take actions while structure entails the ideational and material elements
forming the international system. The enmity or friendship between nations or states is a result

of the beliefs and ideas that each of them have about the other. For instance, the enmity between
the United States and North Korea can be changed if the the main actors in the two nations
changed their beliefs and ideas about each other. This perspective is however taken differently
by the realism theorist who argues that anarchy of the international political system is
responsible for the social relationship between states (Steele, Gould & Kessler, 2019).
Interests and identities is another salient concept under the constructivism approach to
international politics. Nations might harbor several identities that are constructed by actor’s
social interactions with each other.

Constructivist actions and interest are the creators of the

different identities of a state. Therefore, the identity of a smaller nation is created by the set of
interests which are not the same as not inferred by a larger nation. For a larger nation like the
United States, its interests are mostly in the lines of maintaining its global military, economic
and political dominance. Whereas for the interests of a smaller nation or state, the interest are
mostly in the lines of survival. The identity formed by the interests of a nation will also greatly
be determining the nations actions. The actions undertaken by a nation should go hand in hand
with its created identify, otherwise, the identity validity will be compromised. A good example is
the scenario of Germany which even through it had great power and booming economy, was not
considered a powerful military nation in the last half of the twentieth century. The historical
events of the atrocities of the Nazi shifted the nation militarily identity to pacifism.
The theory of constructivism also considers that social norms are an important factor when it
comes to international relations. As was lightly alluded to earlier, states are naturally expected to
act and behave in line with the identity that they have created. As such, the norms of these states
should also coincide with the same identity. The judgement of the actions and behaviors
expected is multivariate but are mostly judged as per the given situation. The actor should do

actions or chose behaviors through what is called the logic of appropriateness. The norms
identified under the constructivism approach can be subdivided into three sections namely
prescriptive, constitutive and regulative behaviors. Prescriptive norms prescribes to those norms
that the actors deems appropriate; constitutive norms refers to those norms that come up with
new actors and categories of deeds; regulative norms are those norms that constrain and order
behavior of the actors (Mingst, McKibben & Arreguin-Toft, 2018).
Before the norms are accepted, they sort of go through a cycle. An expected behavior can be
accepted as a norm when all the actors have had time to internalize and accept it as part of their
practices. Following this concept, constructivists will argue that a number of states can come
together to develop behavior and policies that conserve the environment or cater for climate
change. This can be done in unity because most state recognizes that such actions are important
for the survival of the human race. But the liberals might reject this type of behavior and instead
advocate for co...