Interaction between Collective Memory and Foreign Policy Making Process: A Social Constructivist Approach
Interaction between Collective Memory and Foreign Policy Making Process: A Social Constructivist Approach

Summary/Abstract: The Social Constructivist (SC) theory of the International Relations (IR) to a larger extent is related to the name of Alexander Wendt. In his 4 famous papers Wendt shows that such basic realistic phenomenon as power politics is social one that is not given from above and can be transformed through human agents’ activity, putting the theoretical basis of what he considers as a missing link between neo-realists and neo-liberalists. SC interprets the anarchic structure of the international system not as self-help or as a constant category but as one constructed by social practice, hence, considering the Anarchy as a process. Thus, if the structure of the system is dependent on the social practice, hence is shaped and being re-shaped by social practice. In the SC theory actors’ action within the international system is not predicted by its [system’s] anarchic structure but by the actors’ interests and identities. Wendt’s SC does not consider the factor of memory that is going to be the central object of this paper, as a direct variable determining the processes within the system of IR. Instead, it [memory] can be seen directly connected with identity which in turn does not only reflect the hard interests but also shapes and determines them.

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