CAN ALEXANDER WENDT’S APPROACH PROVIDE A CONVINCING CONSTRUCTIVIST ACCOUNT OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS THAT WOULD HELP EXPLAIN CONTEMPORARY CONFLICT?
CAN ALEXANDER WENDT’S APPROACH PROVIDE A CONVINCING CONSTRUCTIVIST ACCOUNT OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS THAT WOULD HELP EXPLAIN CONTEMPORARY CONFLICT?

Summary/Abstract: contemporary conflicts that lead to new states and development issues, new theories are needed to explain these events. This essay argues that the widely acclaimed approach to constructivism taken by Alexander Wendt is inadequate to account for the constant change in international politics, especially in recent postconflict zones. The reason for the failure to explain war as a social practice is found at a profound theoretical level, i.e. in the very construction of agency and structure proposed. Wendt’s constructivism relies on state-based methodology, which in turn leads to the neglect of other actors and identities vital for contemporary conflict analysis. The essay also shows how his idea of international anarchy as the context for international politics reinforces these same deficiencies primarily due to abandoning the constructivist argument. It points to the works of other constructivists who illustrate these deficiencies and offer more convincing alternatives to segments of Wendt’s argument. All this is to show that contemporary theories often do not follow political events and hence become useless to account for the ever-changing nature of conflict.

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